ce, although many [people] in Egypt oppose normalization. Could you explain your views?”
Hassanein: “Egypt’s rulers are afraid of peace, since peace pushes us towards democracy, and they are not interested in that. Nor are they interested in our becoming acquainted with the cultural reality which Israel has created or with the democracy that the Israelis, together with the Jews, have implemented.”
You need courage to say these things in Egypt. The leader of the liberal opposition party al-Ghad, Ayman Nour, was recently arrested on trumped up charges of forgery. This response to Hassanein’s remarks from Mustafa Bakri, editor of the independent Egyptian nationalist weekly Al-Usbu’, is chilling:
“This man is not normal. It is saddening that such a man used to be a member of parliament. He is a man full of contradictions. Once he was affiliated with the Wafd party, then he changed and became a Nasserist, and now he stands alongside Israel in the same trench…
“His words reflect only his personal opinion. The Egyptian people are opposed to normalization with the Zionist enemy, and stand alongside the Palestinian people. The intention of such claims [like Hassanein’s] is to incite the entire world against Egypt, his birthplace. To our deep regret, he is now selling it [Egypt] to Shimon Peres and to Ariel Sharon. It seems that he has been blinded by Israeli democracy, and he should be brought to court in Egypt for his dangerous words, which are damaging to Egypt’s national security. We can’t rule out [the possibility] that this man speaks for Israel.
“This man can find no way to get publicity other than announcing he would like to present his candidacy for Egypt’s presidency… I am willing to bet that if he were to say these things in the streets, he wouldn’t get out of it unscathed…”
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