Egyptian parliamentarian in hot water over Israel delegation
After Tawfiq Okasha was kicked out of the Egyptian parliament for meeting with Israeli Ambassador, Egyptian MP Sayed Faraj is in trouble for creating a delegation to send to Israel. 'My words were taken out of context. I'm against normalization."
Egyptian Parliamentarian Sayed Faraj issued a statement saying that he is forming a parliamentary delegation of ten legislators to go to the Israeli Knesset and discuss subjects relating to Israel-Egypt relations, Arabic media reported last week.
"It is incumbent upon us to benefit from all of the advancements Israel has made, yet do so without referring to the issue of normalization with the Zionists," Faraj tweeted. According to reports, he went further and said that he isn't against normalization with Israel, and that "we have to be in contact with them."
Egyptians have already begun to refer to Faraj as the "new legislator for normalization," a title which he inherited from former talk show host and parliamentarian Tawfik Okasha, who was ejected from the Egyptian parliament for meeting with the Israeli ambassador to Egypt. Okasha's meeting with the ambassador was taken so poorly amongst members of the Egyptian parliament that a parliamentarian even threw his shoe at Okasha.
Faraj realized that his career could be destroyed by these statements, and quickly went to be interviewed by Egyptian newspaper Al-Watan, saying "I said that if I had the ability to create a parliamentary delegation consisting of ten parliament members and go to the Knesset in order to expose to the world that they (the Israelis- ed.) are responsible for terror in the Arab world, I would do it."
The member of parliament added that some people may have built a theory that he is the one who launched the initiative, but that this simply wasn't the case.
"I am against normalization with Israel," he said, referring to the tweet he said was made by someone else in his name.
In an official statement from his office which was published in Egyptian media, he clarified that he fully supports the Palestinians, and that his words were taken out of context. Faraj also added that he calls on the Israeli opposition parties to put preassure on the governning coalition in order to create a solution to the Palestinian issue, and have it based on a just political agreement. He did this on the occasion of Palestinian Land Day.
It seems that 37 years after signing a peace treaty with Israel, "normalization" is still considered a dirty word in Egypt and in the Egyptian parliament.
