Jews of Egypt : A forgotten History

Here is an interesting trailer for an interesting documentary discussing an interesting topic in Egypt : The exodus of Egyptian Jews in the 20th century.

Jews of Egypt

It is the first time to know that an Egyptian Jew had informed Nasser with the Plan of the 1956 trio-invasion against Egypt in advance. I am speechless about that. “As usual Nasser did nothing , just like in 1967”
The big surprise is that that Egyptian Jew was famous leftist anti Zionist activist Henri Curiel who founded the famous HAMETU communist movement that was arrested several times for their activities against the King.
As expected the documentary is being covered in English more than in Arabic , I know we got overwhelming issues but this documentary needs to be highlighted in Egyptian media.
Jews of Egypt is directed by Amir Ramsis and produced by Haitham El-Khamissi
The Egyptian Jews who are living in Egypt are expected about 100 , mostly old Egyptians.

Adly Synagogue in Egypt 

Technorati Tags: Citizen journalism,Culture,Egypt,Egyptians,Jews of Egypt,Politics,Video,Society,Religion,Amir Ramsis,Haitham El-Khamisi,1950s,Egyptian life,Documentary

RIP Zakaria Mohy El Din : The Silent Free officer

The one of the two last surviving members of the original Revolution commanding council of 1952 and the founder of Egyptian intelligence Zakaria Mohy El Din “1918-2012” has passed away today after very busy and interesting political career and even longer time in silence away from public political life after retirement in 1968.

You can read his biography in Wikipedia , still I can tell you that since meeting Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1940 his role in shaping the political history of Egypt began to take place. Among the positions he occupied in his considerable short yet crowded political life were : Head of military intelligence , minister of interior , head of high dam committee , prime minister of Egypt and the vice president of Gamal Abdel Nasser.

OF course for those who know the history of Zakaria Mohi El Din very well , the first thing comes to their mind wen they hear their name is that who founded the Egyptian intelligence “GIS” in 1954. {He was 36 years old then}

In 1967 after the humiliating defeat of the six days war Nasser announced that he was going to step down leaving presidency to his first vice-president Zakaria Mohi El Din but millions of Egyptians refused that step down and in 1968 Mohi El Din suddenly resigned and decided to quit politics altogether. In the same year he had sent a letter to Gamal Abdel Nasser asking him to adopt democratic policies in the country.

#Palhunger : The biggest hunger strike in the Arab world

There is something big happening on today in the Middle East as 3500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons including Egyptian and Arab prisoners are on their 29th day of their hunger strike that led by prisoners Bilal Thayb and Thaer Halahleh who entered their 79th day of their open hunger strike today.

Thaer Halahleh and Bilal Thayb

The movement of Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike started with Khader Adnan who started a new phase of Palestinian resistance regardless of what you think.
The hunger strike of Palestinian Prisoners have taken the Egyptian and Arab social media by storm since early morning when users on Facebook and Twitter changed their avatars and profile photos to that iconic brown avatar made by Hafez Omar.

The famous original avatar 

Officially from several hours ago Egyptian , Palestinian and Israeli governments announced that the Egyptian intelligence managed to find a reach for a deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians according to news agencies and official spokespersons from Palestine and Israel.

Regarding the brotherhood and #FGM

Youm 7 published a report in its issue on Sunday claiming that the Freedom and Justice Party is organizing medical convoys in Mania to organize”Female genital mutilation” FGM operations for free on girls there and that FJP wanted to pass a law to lift the FGM ban in Egypt.
Unfortunately there is no single media outlet that confirmed what Youm 7 claimed still it created uproar to the level that the ministry of health “MOH” is going to investigate the allegations and human rights activists reported the matter to the public prosecutor.
From there Ikhwan Web denied officially these allegations on their official account on twitter accusing rivals in presidential elections of standing behind these rumors.

@joujouihab @bothainakamel1 fabricated story, we've addressed b4. Resurfacing to smear our party as elex approaching. Both FJP n MOH denied

— Ikhwanweb (@Ikhwanweb) May 13, 2012

@nancymorrison @nadawassefdiscussing #FGM laws is not legislative priority for our party,Egyptian ppl have more pressing essential issues

— Ikhwanweb (@Ikhwanweb) May 13, 2012

@Nadawassef @nancymorrison MB/FJP stance is clear, we oppose #FGM, will not lift ban & will work in multidisciplinary approach to end it

— Ikhwanweb (@Ikhwanweb) May 13, 2012

I do not know where the truth is but I hope MOH tells the truth.
FGM is banned according to law in Egypt. As debatable matter among Muslim scholars in Egypt , FGM is an old African practice that is not found in others parts of Muslim world.

Technorati Tags: Citizen journalism,Egypt,Health,Society,Media,politics,Parties,Freedom and Justice party,FGM,Female Genital mutilation,Women,Human rights,MENA,Africa

Abu El Fotoh and the Brotherhood : The defector !!

The problem of Abdel Moneim Abu El Fotoh is that he is trying to win everybody’s vote in a very polarized society , he is trying to win the liberal vote but many of them believe that he is an Islamist candidate claiming to be liberal friendly yet he got this secret Muslim brotherhood agenda. For Islamists and Salafists he is just a man who is ready to sell his principles to get the liberal vote and for the revolutionaries , he is seemed to be soft when it comes to the army and SCAF where as for the army and their supporters he is a Pro-revolutionary anarchist who wants to destroy the army and used to be supportive of militant Islamist terrorist groups in the past.
It is hard to please everybody indeed despite his attempt to appear as the moderate candidate who units all Egyptians with all their political, social and religious differences behind him and his team. His attempts unfortunately is making him appear as if he were contradicting himself in many instances with different statements in interviews and public meeting.
The major problem facing the popular presidential candidate is many liberals as many non politicalized Egyptians believe that he is the secret candidate of the Muslim brotherhood despite he left it in 2011 officially after years of not only being a leading member in the famous Islamist political group but also a part of the reformist branch in the group. In this post I will try to shade some light about the relation between the Muslim brotherhood.

Poll : Who Are you going to vote for in the Egyptian 2012 presidential elections ?

And Egyptian chronicles polls are back as you see in the past few days , there are several polls I have posted already yet the main poll I am asking all Egyptians “Only Egyptians” to participate in from all over the world.

The Main poll is asking a simple question : Who are you going to vote for in the Egyptian 2012 Presidential elections ?

The answers include all the 13 presidential candidates as two answers for boycotters and those who got another name that should be included in the list like for instance Belly dancer Hiatem !!

You can find the main poll in its page which I ask you to share among your Egyptian friends and family. The main poll in its page will continue till May 24th , 2012.

There will be another poll insh Allah based on the results of the first round of the presidential elections.

There are other polls I post in the past few days in several posts I think you will find it interesting like :

• Who won in the 1st TV Presidential debate in Egypt ?
• Which presidential Platform you prefer ?
• Which Presidential candidate ad you prefer ?  

#Monazarat : The Day after the Presidential Debate

These are my comments and thoughts about Egypt’s presidential candidates TV debate on air that was aired yesterday in joint broadcast on ONTV and DreamTV for 90 minutes. Just like the debate I divided them on to two parts.
Now here is the complete debate itself for those interested in watching the whole thing again.

Here is my live coverage for the debate in English.It is full of grammatical and spelling mistakes. Here are also the transcript of the debate’s rounds 1 and 2 in English by follow blogger Mostafa Hussein.

The Real winner is the People

There is something different in the air without doubt , there is something different indeed because from two years ago nobody has ever imagined that millions of Egyptians would stay up late to watch for 90 minutes a long presidential elections debate between two popular presidential candidates Abdel Moneim Abu El Fotoh and Amr Moussa for the first time in their Republic political history.
Today the first question you ask your friends and relatives on the phone is “What do you think about the debate ?” , “which candidate was better ?”. Today men in mosques discussed the debate and despite some of them were already lobbying for his favorite candidate , yet there are discussion and huge interest in knowing and choosing the next president of Egypt.