Two Egyptian editors punished for dealing with Israel

Cairo: Two senior Egyptian editors - one a member of the country's ruling party and the other an expert on Jewish affairs - have been punished by Egypt's Journalists Union for violating its ban on contacts with Israel, in a case that underlines the country's ambivalent policies toward its neighbour.

Egypt in 1979 became the first Arab nation to sign a peace treaty with Israel, but relations have remained cool since, with government-to-government contacts dominating links between the two nations.

Cultural exchanges and travel to Israel are officially discouraged by the government, while popular sentiments remain mostly hostile toward Israel because of its perceived oppression of the Palestinians.

Egypt's Journalists Union issued the ban on contacts with Israel in 1985. Yet, many Egyptian journalists have traveled to Israel since and escaped punishment.

On Tuesday, however, the union reprimanded Hala Mustafa, editor in chief of the state-run weekly Democratiya, or Democracy, for meeting with Israel's ambassador in Egypt. Hussain Serag, the expert on Jewish affairs and deputy editor of the weekly magazine October, was suspended from writing for three months.

It was not clear why the union decided to take action against Mustafa and Serag. However, a reprimand is symbolic and almost entirely inconsequential, while Serag's suspension from writing for October for three months is a relatively light punishment.

Mustafa is a senior member of President Hosni Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party. She is also an expert on Islamic militancy and a reform advocate.

She had in the past called the ban "obsolete" and out of sync with political developments in the region.

Speaking to The Associated Press on Wednesday, she said her reprimand reflected what she called the heavy-handedness and the meddling in politics of security agencies, as well as the country's "ambiguous" policy toward Israel.

"This is a political issue that is beyond the union," she said. "I am liberal, and I was targeted for my liberal views concerning political reform and even foreign policy."

Mustafa said the problem has its roots in how the country's powerful security agencies view the issue of contacts with Israel.

"I am blaming the political atmosphere, the selective method which is targeting individuals for other political reasons ... The security establishment interferes in political affairs, overpowering political institutions, including the ruling party."

Serag's punishment was for visiting Israel 25 times. He has translated books from Hebrew to Arabic, the latest was "Between Tel Aviv and Cairo," a memoir by Israel's former ambassador to Egypt David Sultan.

He said all his visits to Israel were approved by the editor of October magazine and security officials.

"My field of specialty is Israel and Hebrew. If I don't visit Israel how can I understand these people?" Serag said. "This is hypocrisy, pure and simple."

The union said the decision can be appealed before courts, but Mustafa said she had no intention of challenging the union's decision.

The ban on contacts with Israel, she said, should be put to a debate with a view to annulling it because the role of the Journalists Union should be to protect freedoms and not to enforce political views.

Abdul Mohsin Salama, a member of the disciplinary committee which punished the two, had nothing to say except that Mustafa and Serag violated a standing decision and had to be punished for that.

He said the union was currently looking into the ban on contacts with Israel, but said the ultimate aim was to empower the union's disciplinary committee to keep journalists out of the court system and have violations dealt with within the union.

Journalists in Egypt are punished by prison sentences for libel and other publishing offences.