Not so long ago, the following headline would have seemed unthinkable: “Egyptian helicopters fire on Sinai villages.” But that is no longer the case. The war in Sinai has become part and parcel of Egypt’s strategy in that massive and poor Egyptian desert, whose population has always been a victim of neglect and destitution. Now, those people face prospects of a real war.
The most recent military campaign in Sinai was reportedly a response to well-coordinated attacks that killed scores of security personnel in northeast Sinai on October 24. But almost instantly, the conventional wisdom of Egypt pointed a finger to outsiders. This was done even before any investigation — thorough or otherwise — was conducted into the matter. President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi addressed Egyptians in a televised speech as he was surrounded by a throng of men in military fatigues. He decisively denounced the “foreign hands” behind the attacks.
These “foreign powers”, he said, are “trying to break Egypt’s back,” vowing to fight extremism in a long-term campaign. Washington quickly offered its support for the proposed campaign. Even Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared his support.
Israeli media were particularly interested in the proposed Egyptian security measures. Radio Israel and the Jerusalem Post cited Egyptian media reports on October 25, saying that “the government plans to establish a buffer zone along the Sinai frontier with the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip”.
But that conclusion seemed quite hasty, considering that Hamas is struggling to cope with the aftermath of Israel’s massive 51-day war on the Strip and is working to end the siege. They should have no interest in carrying out bloody attacks on Egyptian soldiers that will prolong the suffering of Gazans and further alienate the movement. The immediate support offered by Washington, Ramallah, and of course, Tel Aviv, suggests that something might have already been decided long before the Sinai attacks took place. The action near the Gaza border appears to be another convenient attempt at blaming, punishing and further isolating Gaza.
Despite a media blackout in Sinai, the scene of devastation created by the military campaign is becoming clearer by the day. “Using bulldozers and dynamite”, the army has demolished as many as 800 houses and displaced up to 10,000 people, the New York Times reported. Al Sissi’s spokesman referred to the demolished neighbourhoods as terrorist “hotbeds”. Whatever that means, the long discussed plan for a “buffer zone” between Egypt and Gaza is now being actively carried out.
There is yet to be one logical explanation, needless to say independently verified piece of evidence, which could explain or link Gaza to the killing of Egyptians. Aside from the emotional rapport between Palestinians and Egypt, carrying out such a massive attack would make absolutely no sense from any military, political or strategic point of view.
These are difficult times for Sinai. Economic hardship and violence in the Sinai Peninsula go hand in hand, and both have long preceded Hamas’s election victory in 2005, or the hermetic siege that followed.
Yet, there was once a time when Sinai thrived in hope; that’s when it was being reclaimed by Egypt, one piece at a time. Israel bargained every step of the way before it finally left Taba, but not before having gained many concessions. It even placed limits on the number of Egyptian soldiers that could be simultaneously stationed in Sinai at a given time. Since then, the desert the size of 60,000 sq km has been impossible to control.
Not that Sinai — perceived as unruly and ungovernable land, rife with drug dealers, kidnappers, and, as of late of “jihadist” and “terrorists” — needs more military force. Violence in Sinai often goes unreported. The area is almost vacant of any independent journalists. News of killings, arrests, torture and a whole host of human rights violations arrive in bits and pieces, hardly ever followed by informed investigations. Few, if any, are ever held accountable.
But violence emerging from Sinai itself, however predicable, considering the level of misery, destitution and poverty, is often extenuated by the media and exploited by Cairo to the maximum.
But the overall nature of violence in Sinai remains a mystery, and not by accident. The explanation is almost always politically motivated, followed by pre-calculated moves to blame and punish certain parties.
The Jerusalem Post quoted Egypt’s Al Yom Al Sab’a as reporting that “The Egyptian buffer will extend between 1.5 and 3 kilometres. The security forces will work to clear the area of underground tunnels leading to Gaza and it will also level any buildings and structures that could be used to conceal smuggling activity.”
If the intentions are to truly curb attacks in Sinai, knee-jerk military solutions will backfire. Past violent government campaigns only frustrated a difficult situation in Sinai, where poverty stands at 45 per cent.
In his speech, Al Sissi called on Egyptians to “be aware of what is being hatched against us”. “All that is happening to us is known to us and we expected it and talked about it before July 3,” he said, referring to the day former president Mohammad Mursi was ousted.
But Sinai turmoil also preceded the revolution, the election of Mursi and all the rest. The security vacuum that followed Egypt’s recent turmoil has indeed spurred violence in the Sinai Peninsula, but that violence was rooted in a largely different political reality.
The deadly Sinai bombings of October 2004, and attack on tourists in April 2005, on Sharm Al Shaikh resort in the same year, and on Dahab in 2006, were all indicative of a different kind of war launched by militants and tribesmen. Sinai has been exploited by large multinationals who created perfectly serene communities for wealthy European and rich Arab tourists, but excluded the Bedouins, who had been promised major economic rewards. However, they got none.
The National Project for the Development of the Sinai was supposed to inject $20.5 billion (Dh75.2 billion) into Sinai infrastructure between 1995 to 2017. That proved to be just hype: A mixture of unfinished projects and robust speeches. Sinai is only remembered in national celebrations to merely further highlight the might of the military that liberated it. And now, it’s demonised as a terrorist hub for the same reason.
When Sinai was finally freed 22 years ago, there was much hope. But poverty and neglect turned hope into disillusionment, resentment, and eventually violence. The people of Sinai are angry, and they have every right to feel that way. And now, the sad irony is that Sinai could very much become a southern Sudan, against which Al Sissi had himself once warned.
Ramzy Baroud is a PhD scholar in People’s History at the University of Exeter. He is the Managing Editor of Middle East Eye. Baroud is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a media consultant, an author and the founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story (Pluto Press, London).
