Egyptian "Feast of Freedom" has timely message (News Feature)

By Elijah Zarwan and Rasha Saad Mar 19, 2009, 17:02 GMT

Cairo - Egyptians have celebrated Israel's 1989 return of the northern Sinai resort town of Taba to Egyptian jurisdiction for years, albeit unofficially.

Over the years, children sang nationalist songs in school to mark the date. The renowned Egyptian singer Fatima Ahmad Kamal, better known by her stage name, Shadia, memorialized the occasion in her song, 'Egypt is celebrating today,' and performed it for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. State-owned television stations usually ran wall-to-wall coverage on the anniversary.

So why is Egypt celebrating it as a national holiday for the first time this year?

On Thursday, by order of Mubarak, Egyptians celebrated the 'Feast of Freedom,' the newest of 16 public holidays, for the first time.

The holiday commemorates the return of Taba, which Israel had held for seven years after returning the rest of Sinai to Egypt in 1982. The return came only after protracted negotiations between an Israeli delegate, an Egyptian delegate, and three international arbitrators.

Some greeted the holiday, which applies only to students and teachers, with bemusement.

'This may pique our appetite for still more holidays,' Bilal Fadl quipped in Cairo's leading independent daily al-Masri al-Youm on Thursday. 'Let us also have a holiday for all of the president's historical achievements, as a token of our appreciation for him for making most of our days holidays.'

Quips aside, the holiday has an important and a timely message, Abdel-Moneim Said, director of Cairo's government-funded al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa on Thursday.

'The holiday is a promotion of peace for the Egyptian people, particularly after emotions ran high during Gaza, and because of the rise of right-wing parties in Israel,' he said.

'Taba is not a life-or-death issue for most Egyptians,' Said allowed. 'Egyptians tend to focus on Palestinian issues when there is a crisis, and to focus on domestic issues the rest of the time. This holiday's message is that peace is possible, and there are many ways to achieve it? Taba is Mubarak's legacy.'

'Egypt was wounded during the Israeli attacks on Gaza and was subject to an organized campaign to portray it as complicit in the Israeli invasion,' said Ammar Ali Hassan, former director of the Middle East Studies and Research Centre in Cairo.

'The holiday has a dual message,' he said. 'For Egyptians, it's meant to refresh their memories of Mubarak's accomplishments through dialogue. For the extremist powers in Israel, its message is that Egypt, which has declared a holiday to mark the return of a small piece of its land, will not allow anyone to take one inch of its land.'

Nonetheless, Fadl, of the daily al-Masri al-Youm, seemed unimpressed by such explanations.

'Wouldn't it be unfair and unjust not to take a vacation for President Mubarak's birthday as well?' he asked. 'Shouldn't we also commemorate his appointment as vice president, and his appointment as president?'

'And wouldn't it then be unfair not to take a holiday for (his son) Gamal Mubarak's birthday, since he will be our next ruler? Or, if my suggestion sounds exaggerated, let us then celebrate only the occasion of his being appointed to the head of the (ruling party's) Policies Committee, an event that changed the face of modern Egypt?'