On 1 May, Egyptians were surprised by the announcement of the launch of the so-called Union of Arab Tribes in North Sinai Governorate, headed by Sinai businessman Ibrahim Al-Organi, with Ahmed Raslan, MP for Matrouh Governorate and former head of the Arab Affairs Committee, and Major General Ahmed Deif Saqr, former governor of Gharbia, in the post of vice-president, while MP and journalist Mostafa Bakry was announced as the union’s official spokesperson.
The union had issued a number of statements via a page bearing its name on Facebook, which sparked wide controversy over the nature of the union, which has begun addressing international bodies, bypassing the state’s official role. It issued a statement warning of the consequences of the Israeli occupation army invading the Palestinian city of Rafah, calling on the UN Security Council to intervene to prevent the Israeli aggression, and it called on the Arab League to hold an urgent session to discuss the repercussions of the escalating events.
Widespread Criticism
The formation of the union sparked widespread criticism among Egyptians, especially on social media, where they expressed anger at part of the Egyptian flag being cut out and replaced with the union’s emblem, questioning the connotations of the dividing line in the flag that appeared and was circulated by the media at the union’s launch ceremony. They also commented on the choice of Ibrahim Al-Organi as head of the union, especially after what had been raised in recent months about his company’s activities regarding the passage of displaced people from Gaza into Egypt through the Rafah land crossing in exchange for large sums of money. Opinions also spread likening the Union of Tribes to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, which have been waging a war against the army since April last year. Some, however, ruled out these views given the strength of the Egyptian state, which rests on centralised authority.
The union’s first founding conference was held in the city of El-Sisi near Rafah (we published a report about it, discussing Al-Organi’s role in building it and how it is planned to be completed), which also drew criticism about Al-Organi’s role in particular, and about the mechanism by which he amassed his noticeably growing wealth.
According to the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights, Al-Organi became the first civilian to land in a plane at the El-Gorah military airport since 1982, which serves as the headquarters of the Multinational Force, south of Sheikh Zuweid in North Sinai. The foundation published a video showing Al-Organi with his son inside the El-Gorah camp, with the government Gulfstream IV plane that flew him from Almaza Air Base in Cairo to the El-Gorah camp in Sinai in the background.
Notably, an official reception like Al-Organi’s inside the military base only happens in specific cases, such as the arrival of a foreign state’s military attaché, which raises further questions about the importance of the role Al-Organi plays.
Reactions
Following the announcement of the union’s formation, the Civil Democratic Movement said in a statement on its Facebook page on 8 May that it rejects the support of entities of a political, economic or military nature, and the presence of militias in Sinai, stressing that its members agreed to resort to the courts against entities parallel to or replacing the state, and to submit a petition to the Ministry of Social Solidarity setting out the potential dangers of establishing entities under any name.
The statement added: “We warn the Ministry of Social Solidarity against granting the announced union official permits, given that this violates the constitution, which prohibits the establishment of entities on an ethnic, religious or sectarian basis. Approving this entity would be a step backwards from the foundations of the modern civil state, especially since the announcement of the entity’s founding was accompanied by showy displays indicating that it has power and space parallel to the official state institutions.” The Civil Movement announced the launch of an initiative to defend the constitution as the last bastion for defending the civil nature of the state and protecting it from sliding into the abyss of chaos and fragmentation, as its statement put it, in addition to forming a committee of the Civil Movement’s parties that declared itself in permanent session to follow the situation moment by moment and confront any practices by the “Union of Arab Tribes” or any entity that violates the rules for forming entities in the constitution and the law.
The Bread and Freedom Party (under formation) rejected the launch of the Union of Arab Tribes in full coordination with and under the sponsorship of the authorities. In a statement, the party hinted at its rejection of Al-Organi leading the new union, pointing out that “many suspicions hover over the remarkable multiplication of his wealth, the strengthening of his relationship with the security agencies after a history of tension between the two sides, and the prominent role of the companies affiliated with him in the process of ‘coordination’ for entry from Gaza into Egypt in exchange for huge sums of money”.
The party warned of the danger of such formations, which it described as “feeding tribal chauvinism at the expense of citizenship and equality, especially as their armament develops and they rest on a network of interests that does not express genuine organic representation of these marginalised border communities and their historical issues and problems”, questioning the union’s role and the aim of its launch, specifically whether this union has a role in the arrangements after the Gaza war.
Commenting on the formation of the union, especially given what is being circulated that its head was previously accused of attacking security forces in 2008.
Al-Organi, who hails from the city of Sheikh Zuweid in North Sinai, was released in 2010 after being detained for about two years over clashes between police and tribesmen in Sinai, and Sinai Bedouins were accused at the time of holding dozens of security personnel. News spread at the time that Bedouins in North Sinai, Egypt, had released 25 police conscripts, including a senior officer, after abducting them for several hours in protest at the killing of one of them by police gunfire. Al-Organi’s name has become associated with money and wide influence in Egypt. The company “Sons of Sinai” handled bringing in the materials needed to rebuild the Gaza Strip after it was subjected to a large-scale Israeli attack in 2014.
Mohamed Badr, one of the founders of the Kefaya movement and the Popular Current, tells Zawia3 that he considers the call to establish the Union of Sinai Tribes “the first nail in the division of Egypt for the first time in about six thousand years”, arguing that the idea revolves around racial discrimination between segments of the people, into Arabs and non-Arabs. He adds: “Any groups arriving in Egyptian society have always merged into it and become part of its fabric; for example, after the Kurds entered Egypt with Saladin, they merged and became part of the Egyptian people, whereas today, when you keep repeating ‘Arab tribes’ that came to Egypt with the arrival of Islam, you divide the elements of the people. What are Egypt’s Copts to do, for example?”
He describes the unity of the Egyptian people throughout its history, expressing astonishment at what is happening, and continues: “I see this as an invitation for every component of Egypt to form its own body, which then moves beyond being a human, social or political formation to clash with others, and each component is forced to protect itself, which poses a grave danger to the homeland.” He considers the formation of the Union of Arab Tribes an extremely dangerous indicator, regardless of Al-Organi and his history, as he describes it.
Badr points out that Ibrahim Al-Organi needs to be looked at, adding: “Enlisting thugs so that they become part of the fabric or the face of society needs to be reviewed”, in his words. He also comments on the release, on a health pardon, of Sabry Nakhnoukh, who, as he describes it, was previously sentenced in weapons and drugs cases to terms of up to 20 years, expressing surprise at his being given the leadership of the largest local security company in violation of the law, since the law, as he points out, stipulates that the head of a security company must be a retired police or army officer or a member of one of the other security agencies, describing these measures as possibly leading the homeland towards division.
Badr expresses his discomfort at Al-Organi coming to the fore, issuing statements and calling on the Security Council to act on Gaza, asking: “Is he an alternative to the state?” As a former colonel in the armed forces, he says: “Since when have these people been part of the Egyptian army? This is a dangerous indicator: preparing a civilian entity and treating it as part of the army gives it the right to arm itself and exercise force, and so you are preparing a new Hemedti, as Omar al-Bashir, the former Sudanese president, did, which has led to the deterioration of the situation in Sudan now.”
Meanwhile, Karima El-Hefnawy, the Egyptian Socialist Party’s representative in the Civil Democratic Movement, says that Egypt is a unified central state whose people have never known any sectarianism or division on a geographical, ethnic, tribal or religious basis, so the formation of the Arab Tribes council is an extremely dangerous matter and the beginning of Egypt’s fragmentation, which harms its national security.
She adds: “We have announced our rejection of this division, and we will file a case in court, in accordance with the constitution, before the State Council and the Supreme Constitutional Court, to reject the formation of this union”, stressing that what is happening now at the Rafah land crossing is a breach of the Camp David Accords, which we demand be cancelled, and also a breach of the Philadelphi agreement that regulates the movement and affairs of the crossings, and expressing her dismay at statements by US President Joe Biden in which he says that an American security company would run the crossing, which poses a danger to Egyptian national security.
Sayed El-Toukhy, head of the Karama Party, believes that this formation, and before it a number of formations they have monitored operating against protesters, are among the thorny and intertwined issues, adding: “This suggests that the confrontation is turning inward, to repel any movements calling for a minimum of Egyptians’ freedom to engage with national and sovereign issues. This is the most dangerous thing that could happen to Egypt, for the first time in its history, especially since this formation is in Sinai, which is an extremely sensitive area, giving us a signal that we are facing the dismantling of the unity of Egyptian society and of the identity and cohesion of the homeland.”
El-Toukhy stresses the importance of the Rafah land crossing as a sovereign and national symbol, adding: “The fact that it is controlled by a person who has no official capacity and is not from the Egyptian army shows that we are facing a disaster, especially since the crossing is a matter of national security for Egypt, and no group or militia can confront Israeli violations, as that is the army’s job.”
As for writer, journalist and politician Khaled Dawoud, we asked him in a previous interview for his opinion on what is being said about the Union of Sinai Tribes, and he said: “I believe that, within the framework of the role of the central state in Egypt, it will not allow the formation of paramilitary entities or independent armed militias outside the control of the official security agencies.”
