First of all I truly apologize for not updating this website as it should , there is no excuse I can find to justify my neglect to this important website and its noble cause especially that there were very relevant and important news in the past months.
Well after this is not the first apology I will declare in this post because I have to apology to all our POWs in our wars with Israel especially in 1967 in specific those who were killed by Shaked in a cold blood. I have to apology to all our POWs and their families , in fact all of us should apologize to our POWs because this is the least thing we could do when our elected president Hosni Mubarak congratulated BenElizer on his 75 birthday instead of suing him in front of the ICC !!
Mubarak and the Shakid War Criminal
I could not and can’t believe such horrible news !! What made it worse is that we had waited the Egyptian presidency to deny this news but it did not which means the Israelis did not lie and Mubarak did actually congratulate this war criminal !!
The only denial Egypt has issued was regarding that joint solar energry project rumor , Mubarak regime has denied this news depsite I feel that there was an Israeli offer but the Mubarak regime had to reject due to the public anger , wel already import gas to Israel by the cheapest price ever when we have a butane gas crisis !!
I have got nothing to say except I apologize to our POWs
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 !!
Mossad Abu Fagr is an Egyptian blogger, writer and novelist from Sinai who is currently in jail for years now for no announced official reason.
Abu Fagr
This website does not get involved in the political issues of Egypt unrelated to our issue : The lost rights of POWs in our history but it has to speak about Mossad this time. It is a not a secret that the conditions between the locals in Sinai and the regime back in Cairo are not that good and solid due to the misunderstanding and short vision of the Egyptian regime with my all respect to it. The locals in Sinai ,especially those in Al Arish were those who buried our dead Egyptian POWs after being killed in the streets of the city by the IDF, they were the ones who gave shelter to those officers and soldiers who managed to flee from that on going carnage , they treated them if they were injured and they even helped them to return back to motherland from the occupied land despite that would cost them their lives and the lives of their beloved ones.
I believe it is the least thing we can do is we give to who those buried our men in their land and protected them all those years the right of land ownership. These people up till now remember very well where our men were buried and in fact they share the locations of the graves from generation to another least they forget and die without letting the world know about it.
Mossad was calling for that right among other rights and this is why I am speaking him on this day.
Giving the locals at Sinai the rights they want is the least thing we can do for those Egyptians who are ready to testify in front of the whole world about what happened there from more than 40 years.
Yesterday the world celebrated the Armistices day aka the remembrance day in several countries around the world like the UK and the States. Also in the Middle East Lebanese party and militia Hezbollah celebrated and remembered its men who were killed in action in the wars against the Israeli occupation to South Lebanon.
On this day I remember all the Egyptians who were killed and were captured during the 1956 Suez War especially in Port Said ; the great city which was nearly destroyed in the Anglo-French attack.
In 1973 Egyptian POWs were captured by the IDF , of course their numbers were too small comparing to those who were captured in 1967 not to mention all the spot lights were highlighted on the Israeli POWs captured by the Egyptian side.
As expected the Egyptian POWs in 1973 like their brothers in 1967 and 1956 did not receive the same treatment which the Israeli POWs received in Egypt.
It is enough that the Egyptian POWs of 1973 are accusing the IDF of injecting them by HCV and of using them in medical experiments in Atlit prison camp. Already this would not be the first time it happens, it happened before in 1967.
Most of the Egyptian POWs of 1973 have passed away by liver cancer and hepatitis diseases which they brought with them from their capture. The only remaining Egyptian POW from them is Abdel Rahman Mohamed Kadous ,who is currently suffering from liver cancer and also the neglect of the regime. kadous once tried to sue the Israeli government but the court for some reason refused the lawsuit.
We are currently celebrating the 1973 nowadays in Egypt and I believe we should not neglect the file of the Egyptian POWs in 1973 especially on the other side we treated the Israeli POWs as it should.
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.
a jailed land