Egypt’s Sinai Bedouins fear Israel’s mass displacement of Gaza Palestinians
Bedouin mountain guides make their way down from the summit of Mount Moses, near the city of Saint Catherine, in the Sinai Peninsula, 9 December 2015
Al Jazeera reports:
As Israel’s war on Gaza nears the end of a second month, Rehab Eldalil worries about reports of efforts by Israel to push the 2.3 million people of the besieged Gaza Strip into the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula – her ancestors’ home.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has publicly stated that Egypt will not allow a displacement of Palestinians, as it would mean “the end of the Palestinian cause” and a potential threat to Egypt’s national security. But news reports have suggested that Israel might offer to pay off some of Egypt’s vast public debt in exchange for allowing the forced displacement of people from Gaza into Sinai.
Eldalil, an Egyptian photographer and storyteller of Bedouin descent, worries that that kind of narrative “takes away the right of Palestinians to stay on their land, while promoting that Sinai is an empty desert for Palestinians to go to”.
It is not, and hasn’t been for centuries.
The 61,000sq km (23,500sq mile) triangle of land that bridges Africa and Asia is a popular tourist destination, a significant religious and historical site, and an important economic centre for Egypt. It is home to several oil and natural gas fields, as well as the Suez Canal, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, which generates up to $9bn annually.
The peninsula, its northern two-thirds taken up by the Sinai Desert and the mountainous south boasting St Catherine, Egypt’s highest peak, has also long been home to myriad Bedouin tribes, who lived according to their traditions for centuries, some eventually settling into towns.
These communities have often been neglected by the authorities, and have been collateral damage in national or regional geopolitical conflicts. Now, the war on Gaza is raising fears for Bedouins.
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Protecting their land’
“The government could easily cooperate with the communities, understand more about the land, about the landscape and how to manage it,” says Eldalil. “After all, protecting their land is one of the biggest sources of pride for Indigenous peoples.” This is a sentiment shared by Palestinians who already live in Sinai.
Mohammed* is one of the thousands of Palestinians who were born and raised in the Sinai after the mass expulsion of Palestinians during the creation of Israel in 1948, or the Nakba, Arabic for catastrophe.
“Palestinians in North Sinai make up more than one-third of the population, and even if some of us are still unable to get our Egyptian citizenship because of strict laws, we are treated as Egyptians,” Mohammed says. “Us and Bedouins are the same people, have the same blood.”
Bedouins in Sinai, he says, have been helping Palestinians who were stuck in the desert when the current war started, and have been volunteering to provide relief to injured Palestinians coming from Gaza since the partial opening of the Rafah crossing in early November.