Tomorrow insh Allah Dostor will continue its follow up for the report , already there is on going campaign being prepared currently to raise the matter to international and local courts.
According to that old article which was based upon quotes of Israeli foreign minister and the current President now Shimon Perez to Radio Israel late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin admitted the Israeli responsibility for the IDF crimes in both Suez War and six days war in a meeting with President Mubarak in Washington D.C in 1995 during the Oslo 2 agreement.
Again this is a French newspaper not an Arabic newspaper.
I tried to search in international archives regarding this incident and I found out that the Israeli Press said the opposite as usual :
From that small excerpt you will see how the Israeli media fools the Israeli public claiming that “The Mubarak government has been under pressure from Islamic militants in Egypt” to readdress the issue !!?? What Islamic
Mubarak and Rabin in 1995
militants !!?? It was in fact Dr. Cherif Bassiouny who spoke with president Mubarak about the matter and he is no way associated with any militant group !!?? It was clearly that the media there was using the Israeli public fear from militant groups and was claiming that they were pushing the Egyptian regime , the Mubarak regime to reopen the war crimes against the Egyptian POWs file as if Biro did not brag with his crimes !!
If you check the dates you will find it goes with what Dr.Bassiouny had revealed that Mubarak met with pressure from the States and Israel to close the file , may be Rabin admitted Israel’s responsibility in that meeting by off the record and wanted to be in that way in front of a comprise or may be he had admitted and let Clinton pressure Mubarak to close the file and let it not to ruin the so-called neutralized relations.
Neutralized relations are not built over the war crimes which will surface again one day.
Again the first links are from a French newspaper quoting Radio Israel which for long time was considered from the reliable sources of information in the Middle East. Of course if we search now in Radio Israel archives we will not find any record for that news in 1995.
My only hope regarding this incident if it took place for real that someone in the Egyptian delegation would have the courage to say that it took place and Rabin admitted Israel’s responsibility for the murder of our POWs in 1956 and 1967
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
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 !!
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
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
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 :
Ali Hassan Ali , a solider from Cairo who was born in 1905 and used to work as a conductor
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.
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
EAF officer Mohamed Ibrahim who took a leave and returned back to his fate.
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
Galal Said Abdel Hamid from Ismailia who lived at no.5 at the Plage street
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 !!
Many people in the world think that our soldiers and officers had been murdered in action during the six days war just like an army during a war , especially a defeated army , there is no argue in this but unfortunately many of our soldiers and officers had not be murdered in action but rather murdered in capture in the six days war.
First of all you must know that in 1967 the Egyptian army had just come out from the Yemen war exhausted , there was new recruitment process in the army , many young men from all around the country were dispatched to the front even without training or even receiving their uniforms.When the war broke and we seemed on the verge on a terrible defeat ,
inexperienced minister of war then Abdel Hakim Amar issued a withdrawal order that has been considered one of the most worst withdrawal ever issued in the modern military history. Without going in to too much details the withdrawal order was simply getting away from Sinai as soon as possible with no organization or defense plan at all. The sudden withdrawal plan by the way is from the X-Files in this war, there is no justification for why the Egyptian forces had to leave the peninsula without a single real fight despite they were capable of doing it and the officers were willing to do it.The forces had to leave everything behind them even weapons to be swift and move as quickly as they could to the second bank. Of course we are talking about Sinai in June , a hell in the desert especially with water and food running out. It was a tough experience of being lost and chased especially there was no direction home in that vast desert.
In this unorganized withdrawal the IDF found a golden opportunity to destroy the Egyptian totally through hunting down the tired soldiers and officers who thought that it would not be the end of the world if they were captured but unfortunately it was for them. Many Egyptians who surrendered to the IDF in their way to Suez Canal were shot either in their place or in mess graves they were forced to dig by their own hands according to eye witnesses from locals and survivors who managed to escape this hell. The Egyptian soldiers and officers thought that they would be treated like any POW around the world according to the Geneva conventions but of course they were mistaken.The policy of the IDF , in fact the Israeli regime then was to send a powerful message to Egypt that it was over , no more Egyptian army.
The people of Al Arish still remember very well in vivid details how the city from North to South drunk from the Egyptian blood of Egyptian soldiers and officers who were murdered while raising their hands up. The city is full of mess graves which the locals made for our men who were left to decay for days. This was just the tip of the ice-berg , you should only hear from the very few who were transferred to Atilt prison what hell really meant and how it was an ugly copy from the Nazi concentration camps to know what does it mean to be murdered in capture.
I do not know how we can’t considered pouring napalm over the walking withdrawn troops from flying jets as war crime !!??
I do not know how we can’t considered shooting in an execution style the withdrawn and surrendered troops as war crime !!??
What happened in the six days war from war crimes against the Egyptian army is an outrageous crime against humanity and it kills me that our regime pretends as if it never happened despite all the evidences that could send help of the Israeli commanders and officers in 1967 behind bars for war crimes !!??
FYI the Egyptians who were considered missing in action in the six days war were more than in any other war we fought in the 20th century. Up till now there are thousands of Egyptian families who do not what exactly happened to that young uncle in the black and white photo hanging on the wall of their granny’s chamber except that he was in Sinai during the six days war and that he will never come back again !!
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.
Moshe Dayan and the IDF left a very ugly memorial dedicated to 11 IAF pilots who were killed in 1967 in Al Arish at Sheikh Zowaid area. It is a rock scribed on its faces the names of those Israeli pilots who shut down by two Egyptian pilots in the six days war.
It is very provoking to all of us especially the people in Sinai.This is a memorial of an ugly invasion that should be removed , I do not think that in France there is a monument for the Nazis !! ??
What makes it worse is that in that particular area not less than 200 Egyptian POWs were killed in a cold blood by the IDF deliberately.
Dayan´s rock in Al Arish
The land where that memorial is located,is owned by Shaikh “Ismail El-Khataby” . Shaikh “Ismail” wants this memorial to be removed from his land that buried many Egyptian POWs and drunk from their blood in 1967. Shaikh “Ismail” is suing the Egyptian government and is not giving up till it removes this ugly provoking piece of rock from his land.He does not want any more Israelis to come and to pay respect to their pilots over the dead bodies of our men
Shaikh “Ismail” who was a member in the National guards in 1967 still remembers till now the massacre he witnessed against the Egyptian officers ,soldiers and even civilians at Al Arish, he witnessed how the Napalm was used against the Egyptian Civilians and military alike on the 5th of June 1967 and the terrible massacre against the Egyptian POWs behind that ugly rock at the same location , in that terrible massacre not more than 200 Egyptian POWs were killed from the bank after their surrender to the IDF !!
He and another great Egyptians from the people of Al Arish buried those beautiful Egyptians by their own hands in that area and this is why he believes it is an insult to those Egyptians to have that memorial on the same land that holds them in.
I have better suggestion , instead of having that memorial dedicated to the IAF pilots ,why we do not change it to dedicate to the thousands of Egyptian POWs who were killed in 1967 in the great city of Al Arish , we got many artists I am sure who are ready to remove all those scribed on the faces of that memorial to become Egyptian.
This is a memorial on an Egyptian land and thus it must respect the feelings of the Egyptians , we will not glorify pilots who used to bomb our cities and people with Napalm for God Sake !!
During the times of wars it is a normal thing that the news and the photos coming from the war zone is filtered , media is very powerful double edged weapon in time of war that can affect the people’s spirit whether positively or negatively , if you search in our modern history you will find out that during the times of war even the biggest democracies in the world had to censor and filter the news and photos coming from the war zone especially those issued by the enemy.
For that particular reason I am not surprised or shocked that the Nasser regime did not publish the photos the Israelis released to the wire services from humiliating shots to our Egyptian POWs during the captivity.There are many photos in this website Egyptians have not seen for decades , they only heard about their details and circumstance from the 1967 veterans who survived that shocking defeat , for sure the veterans accounts were even much horrible than those photos.
I have never stopped to search for new material from photos and accounts to add to the website and fortunately through our Egyptian groups in facebook I found couple of photos that led to huge patch of photos that have never been published to public in Egypt. I found the photos in Magnum Photo agency . Most of these photos were taken by Israeli photographers who accompanied the IDF during the war like for instance Micha Bar Am
Micha Bar Am on the Suez Canal in 1967
The photos I found are very sad and can be provocative to any Egyptian , you do not have to live during that era to feel how sad to see such moments , seriously I understand why the Egyptian regime then had decided not to publish these photos. (( Of course I am totally against the decision of the regime then to lie on the public in the first hours of the defeat))
I must warn the Egyptian visitors that some of the shots are really shocking
The remaings of an Egyptian officerThe underwear parade Passing by Blindfolded POWsHands Up
This was just the tip of the ice-berg, already from the photos you find violations to international laws and human rights treaties and agreements.
In 1967 just like Micha Bar Am was in the Israeli side we had our legendary Akhbar Al Youm Photographer Ahmed Youssef was in the Egyptian side ,he shot two set of films while the withdrawal from Gaza and Al Arish yet he hided his camera bag well before his capture in the desert by the IDF , he swore to my grandfather who was his friend and co-journalist in Akher Saa that he hided them well in some kind of boxes that would preserve them from the desert and time. The man till his death wanted so much to get back and retrieve those films because what he shot was a real evidence of war crimes against Egyptian POWs. I wish one day seriously that someone would find Ahmed Youssef’s camera.
BY the way I was very careful in my search for these lost photos because I found some photos that did not belong to the six days war and belong to other wars and other countries ; this was very sad because we do not need this.
Also if you want to save the photos or post them in your website , you are most welcome but please mention the Egyptianpows.net
The world should know what happened back then , we can get back the rights of these men if we want by law.
a jailed land
