The Black Zone

Dostor weekly today published their big report about the mass graves of our POWs in Sinai today and from here I would like to thank  journalist  Wael Mamdouh for his time and effort in  doing such great report alone , Mamdouh has already done something I always wanted to do and still want to , to take my camera and record by word , picture and video these mass graves to prove to our just case.

Dostor newspaper has put the government or rather the regime in to a corner and unfortunately I think the regime will ignore the whole matter again because of many reasons most of us know , this report I believe is just like these reports in the media that prove the failure of this regime on every single level.

Back to the Dostor report , you can find it here in Arabic . The report is about the massacres that happened against our officers and soldiers on the 5th and 6th of June 1967 in Al Arish valley area or as it was known then as the “First Defense Line”or as it is known to the locals there now “The Black Zone”

The report includes testimonies from the locals and one of the Egyptian POW survivors who escaped death in 1967 , this besides the photos and the video from the mass graves themselves showing the bone.

Stay tuned for more coverage insh Allah , please spread this post

The Real Headline of The Week

After few hours Dostor Weekly issue will hit the newsstand with a new scoop that probably will cause a lot of stir in the Egyptian-Israeli relations. Dostor will publish astonishing details about a new POW mass grave found in Sinai supported by video and photos.

According to OnTv’s “headline” show  this mass grave is in the middle zone of Sinai. The middle zone of Sinai if I am not mistaken is at the Metla passages , already this is a strategic military zone in Sinai.
Wait for more coverage insh Allah.

I do not know yet the details and the background of this mass grave but I know that this area was badly damaged in the heavy rains that hit Sinai from couple of months ago so may be these heavy rains were not a curse but rather a bless as they revealed a hidden crime under the sand after all those decades.

Wait for more coverage insh Allah

Update

Here is the episode of “Headline” show discussing the Egyptian POW mass graves found in Sinai with Egyptian journalist Wael Mamdouh of Dostor.Unlike what I though earlier these mass graves were not newly found , they have been known all the time by the locals in Sinai as they used to bury our men properly after the departure of the murderers. Wael Mamdouh documented everything including the remains of the POWs cloths found in the scene and kept by the locals besides their testimonies. Until this moment the locals there know the names of the officers who committed these crimes and are ready to testify against them.

A very interesting piece of information Mamdouh found in his research that the Israelis did not care that much to hide their crimes against our POWs in Sinai because they thought that Sinai would be theirs forever but after the 1973 war and also during the Camp David negotiations they began to fear that their crimes with their hard evidence would be exposed and thus they found a way to hide it, they planted landmines in the big cemeteries !!

This is just the start

Unit 1391

Truth always comes in the end regardless of how many years and how many attempts to hide it and the truth of Unit 1391 was a proof on this.

The world had a chance in 2003 to know Unit 1391 but unfortunately it missed this chance for some reason thanks to the media that ignored it or rather believed so easily that Israel’s first known secret detention came better known as Unit 1391 had been shut down , well for sure it is shut down but there are for sure many secret detention prisons worse that unit 1391 in that country.

That secret detention is only one in a big series of secret prisons there and I do not have to bet that it had been used not only against Palestinian Political prisoners but also against Arab POWs including the Lebanese and Egyptian POWs , it had been used for sure since the time of the British forces.According to several Lebanese sources this prison which could not be found on official maps was used during the Israeli invasion to Lebanon in 1980s and several Lebanese Amal movement POWs were transferred there and never were seen again. May be the high ranked Egyptian POW from officers were taken there from Atlit camp to there for interrogation as several Egyptian  POWs remember that several Egyptian POWs were taken from the camp and did not return back , there were not seen again whether dead or alive in the camp.

Unit 1319 may have been closed on papers but I am sure it is still open by a different name in different location. It is not enough to close its file ,the torture and human rights crimes do not fall by seniority I am afraid.

From Wikipedia : Camp 1391

Thanks for Dear friend Hossam  for reminding me with Unit 1391

40 Years On Bahar El-Baqar Massacre

From 40 years ago the IAF attacked a small village in Egypt called Bahar El-Baqar targeting a small 3 classrooms school , that school was named after the village : Bahar El-Baqar primary school.

The Israelis attacked the school claiming that they had mistaken it for a military facility , the result of their mistake as usual was 30 dead students not to mention the injured.

Bahar El-Baqr school massacre is just one bloody page in the Israeli army book of war crimes. 40 years have passed and strangely despite the official neglect the people still remember it , the name of “Bahar El-Baqar” has been immortalized in our Egyptian memory forever whether by a small dramatic scene in film starring Magda or Poem by Egypt’s Saleh Jahin that was sang by Shadia

Bahar El-Baqar raids according to international standards now are a war crime.

Remembering Bahar El-Baqar and paying respect to its victims won’t affect our relations with Israel on the contrary it will send a message to the whole world that Egypt never forgets her children

NO News Bad News

It has been more than a week since that shocking report from Yediot Ahronot with its shocking findings reached to our press. It has been more than a week and since than there has not been a media follow up in Egypt at all expect the day after Ahronot published its report and after that it has been as if these stuff belong to other people than the Egyptian people !!

There was no official reaction at all ; not even a small announcement that our “embassy in Tel Aviv will follow the matter from there and restore back those items in order to return them to the families of those men !!”

I do not ask the regime to open an investigation on how exactly late Mr.Y got his trophies from the six days war , all I am asking is just simple announcement on the updates of this case.

FYI this case did not make it to our official media for some unknown reason I can’t guess !!

A Testimony of an Ex-POW Called Fouad Hegazy

Egyptian writer Fouad Hegazy is known to be the first one to write about his experience as an Egyptian POW  in Atlit prison. His book “The POWs build barricades” was from first novels to speak about that sad and terrible experience. Mr. Hegazy had a political activity before the six days war and he is considered  from the most active writers and novelists from outside

The POWs build barricades
The POWs build barricades

Cairo and Alexandria. He is originally from Mansoura and God knows that this man is behind the reason of having this website, he was the one who introduced me through his interview with Mona El-Shazely two years as far as I remember to the forgotten suffering of our POWs.His description to how our Egyptian POWs died while being transferred by train to Atlit reminded me with Schindler’s list film train scene.

Recently this year Dar-Shorouk published a new edition from his novel “The POWs build barricades” which was first published in Cairo in 1976. He had written this novel and finished in 1968 right after his return from Atlit.

The name of the novel itself is inspired by the famous events that took place on the night of 27th of Ramadan I believe where there was huge mutiny in the prison that put Atlit, the city itself in high alert status.

This novel was translated in to English and Russian and I am currently searching for these foreign translations. It was also used in PHD thesis in Sweden.

Now I have added Mr.Hegazy’s testimony to our Egyptian testimonies.I recommend please to read it and spread it because it is very important.He was captured by the Israelis on the very first day of the war, and remained a prisoner for eight months. This testimony will give a little hint about the Israeli death camp aka Atlit

Were They Collected As Trophies From Murdered POWs ??

Nobody saw this coming nor expected something similar like this to happen , as a son of a late Israeli paratrooper decided to return back the ID and letters his dad collected from the dead Egyptian soldiers and officers in  the six days war to the families of those soldiers and officers. He decided to give them back to Yedoit Ahronot to help him in locating the relatives and relatives of these soldiers and officers “where is our embassy??”   Theses families and relatives  have been awaiting for 42 years to know anything about their men who went to that war and never came back.These souvenirs were telling the story from the other side according to the newspaper which gave me the impression that they do not consider us as humans who have a life too !!!?

The souvenirs include IDs,photos,permissions, letters and diaries of soldiers and officers on the front you can see them below here

Here are the names of these late officers and soldiers God bless their souls mentioned in the report :

  1. Ali Hassan Ali , a solider from Cairo who was born in 1905 and used to work as a conductor
  2. Fathi Abdel Khalek Shahin from Sharkia , who owned a pastry shop and was a musician at the same time ; Mr.Shahin was ready to sing in weddings and parties.
  3. Hassan Salim Agowa , a solider who took a leave from the base from 30/4/1967 to 1/5/1967 ; a very short leave indeed
  4. EAF officer Mohamed Ibrahim who took a leave and returned back to his fate.
  5. Soldier Mahmoud Ibrahim , No. 904841 in in unit 451031 who used to write his memories where he said that his unit captured 8 IDF soldiers
  6. Galal Said Abdel Hamid from Ismailia who lived at no.5 at the Plage street
  7. Mahmoud Abed

Yedoit Ahronot published this as a special report and I do not know if they expect  the level of controversy they will create back in Egypt as this report , these souvenirs will open the door of the Egyptian POWs files again and thank God they will do it.

Some people including me believe that these souvenirs were taken from Egyptian murdered POWs and this is because some reasons :

1- The newspaper for some unknown reason did not identify the name of the Israeli paratrooper nor his son , only “Y” ; why are they afraid from mentioning his full name ?? Already I believe we should thank the son of Mr. “Y” for his desire to return those stuff to where they do really belong !!??

The fact that they hid his name and the name of his family not to mention the detail of his father’s military background as which battalion he used to be at .. etc except that he is a paratroop raises many questions.

2- The father wanted to return these stuff to Egypt for decades but he was afraid and I only wonder the reason behind; why he was afraid from returning back these stuff to the Egyptian embassy in Tel Aviv ; was he afraid from accountability and that our diplomats may ask questions on how he got them other than he took from dead Egyptians.

3- Some people believe that Mr. Y, the father was a member in Shaked battalion but I doubt it because Shaked was not the only battalion that killed our POWs. Also if he were from Shaked battalion I would bet that these souvenirs would have been destroyed by now to protect Ben Elizer from any accountability.

4-The father said nothing to his son about the circumstance of the fights

The son of that paratrooper decided to return back these Egyptian collectibles  after the death of his father by a year and half.

I believe the least thing our embassy in Tel Aviv must do is to restore these items immediately and return back to rightful owners, we need to have them back. I do not even dare to ask them to investigate who that Mr. Y was !!

P.S Al Shorouk Newspaper is calling the families of these men in the photos to contact the newspaper and share their stories.

POW No.36715 Speaks

Steps on  steps on a jailed landa jailed land
Steps on a jailed land

POW No.36715 is Mohamed Hussein Yunis who was captured by the IDF during the six days war 1967 and he has published a new edition from his memories about this tough experience. The book is called “Steps on jailed land” and it was published by “Dar Al-Shorouk” in Cairo in 2008 after its first print in 1982. The memories are like a novel , conversations between a POW who just had returned back home and his psychiatrist

Yunis describes the feelings of humiliation the Egyptian soldiers and officers whether in the six days war itself or their capture in Atlit prison. He describes in details both the physical and psychological warfare the Israeli army practiced against the Egyptian POWs.

According to critics the book is a documentary written by the feelings of a poet and the spirit of artist , an artist with No.36715.

Unfortunately the book is currently available in Arabic and in Egypt only for the time being , you can find it in book stores in Egypt especially Al-Shorouk Bookstores

Breaking News : 60 Seconds

First of all Arabic channels have just aired the video of Shalit , those expensive 60 seconds that prove he is a live and fine not to mention healthy

I will work to post it here. Shalit looks fine in fact great unlike the Palestinian and Arab prisoners. Shalit’s message was recorded last September 14, 2009 as the newspaper he was holding showed the date.

Today earlier Israel has released 19 female prisoners for those important 60 seconds, very important 60 seconds which are recorded for sure.

I want to say something , this small deal is very important , yes most of those 19 female prisoners were going to be released sooner next year but the fact that for just 60 seconds , 19 prisoners were released after years of negotiations.

Israel did not win in this deal as much as both Hamas and Omar Soliman did and I say Omar Soliman because this is a bounce for his foreign policies political record.

Here are the complete of the Palestinian female prisoners freed today by the Israeli forces :

  1. Ayat Kisi Original release date: November 18, 2009.
  2. Rojena Riyad Mohammed JinajiraOriginal release date: June 9, 2011.”
  3. Rimat abu Ayisha Original release date: November 13, 2009.”
  4. Haba Assad Halil Alantasha Original release date: March 03, 2011.”
  5. Samud Abdullah Halil Original release date: December 15, 2009.”
  6. Mimouna Javrin Held without bail pending trial”
  7. Jihad Abu-Turki Original release date: May 24, 2011″
  8. Barah Malki Original release date: November 11, 2009″
  9. Lila Mohammed Tzalah al-Buhari Original release date: October 31, 2010″
  10. Fatima Yunus al-Zak Held without bail pending trial”
  11. Nifin Halil Abdallah Dak Original release date: January 01, 2010″
  12. Kafah Bahash Original release date: September 08, 2010″
  13. Linan Yusuf Abu Ghulma Original release date: September 08, 2010″
  14. Shirin Mohammed Hasan Original release date: March 04, 2010″
  15. Sana’a Tzalah Hagargah Original release date: August 05, 2010″
  16. Sabeena Ziad Mohammed Manal Original release date: November 19, 2010″
  17. Zahoor Abed HamdanOriginal release date: May 15, 2011″
  18. Hiam Ahmed Yusuf Ba’id Original release date: May 07, 2010″
  19. Nahad Farhat Daghra Held without bail pending trial”
  20. Najuah Abed Alghani Held without bail pending trial”

Important Petition

I know that you probably think that online petitions are useless but they are not because I believe they are another form of expression available to the people around the world.

This petition is special , it is an international petition to the UN General Assembly to set up a special international penal court to try Israeli war crimes, notably in the Gaza Strip.

It is published by the French Palestine Solidarity Association, I hope that more people sign this petition to show that we have not forgotten what happened in Gaza and we want justice.

What happened in Gaza was a war crime by all means.

Thanks to dear friend Ségolène Liger

Spread the website please