A footage from Israel as a reminder

Do you remember Israeli “This is us” documentary which included a very rare footage for Egyptian POWs mistreated during their capture by IAF in Al Arish in June 1967 !?

In 2012 we had only 2 minutes only from that documentary directed by Eric Bernstein , well there are more two extra minutes from the same documentary.


The extra minutes show the humiliation of the Egyptian POWs in 1967 forced to be in their underwear.It is very sad footage as well important one.It was filmed at the same location I believe that photo was taken

Egyptian POWs in Al Arish June 1967
Egyptian POWs in Al Arish June 1967

 

Al Jazeera International’s First Person:Egyptian POWs

This old video below goes back to 2007 in the 40th anniversary of the Six Days war and it shows  Ex-Sergeant Amin Ramadan who speaks about his experience in captivity at notorious Atlit along his friend and co-worker for 40 years Goma’a Hassan who is still suffering from physical injury hunting him down since the Atlit days. I talked about this video in 2007 as a report that was published in Al Jazeera international , I did not know that it was based upon a video that aired on the channel but it is never too late.

Ramadan and Gomaa

Ramadan who has become a kind of an activist for the 1967 POWs , is already suing the Israeli government among others for a just compensation on what they have seen and suffered on the hands of the IDF in 1967. His testimony is from the important living testimonies that prove the involvement of Ben-Eliezer in the mistreatment and abuse of our POWs against international laws.

The Start of the Naksa

Naksa was the term the Nasserite Regime used to describe the Six days war defeat to lessen its effect.
Naksa means in Arabic “Set-back” ,the word “Defeat” was not used then.
Today is the memorial of the Naksa , our own definition of the six days war. Today from 42 years ago a human tragedy has started in Sinai where innocent people were killed brutality against international and even human laws and moral.
Today fro 42 years ago the agony of the Egyptians POWs has started and up till now it has not finished yet.
It will finish when those who killed those innocent men are punished just like the international laws say so

Egyptian POWs in 1967
Egyptian POWs in 1967

More updates about the New Sheikh Zowaid Mass grave

Yesterday morning in the city of Sheikh Zowaid in the North Sinai Governate, citizen Khalil El-Mani’e had found bone remains “Skulls, teeth and bones “ for people in military boots while digging in order to building some building . It did not take much time to know that these remains were actually for Egyptian Soldiers from their military boots that were killed in 1967 as POWs.

Mr. El-Mani’e went and reported immediately to the Egyptian authorities represented by the Police forces (( I was correct it is not theSheikh Zowaid 1 Egyptian army but the Egyptian police )) , which immediately by its turn reported back to Cairo and made the area of the cemetery as restricted area, no cameras or photos are allowed except those which took shots before the restriction and they are already very few.

The restriction will be continued till a forensic team comes from and examine the remains in order to know their correct number “their estimated number according to the eye witnesses are 120 soldiers”, whether they were killed in action or as POWs which is very important as this will be an evidence that IDF committed war crimes against the Egyptian POWs during the six days war as the Egyptian regime seems to depend on science and does not depend on people’s testimonies!!

Already the area where the mass grave was found used to have a camp for the Egyptian Army during the six days war.

Already Daily El-Masry Youm made a scoop yesterday when their correspondent in Al-Arish made a short interview with an Eye witnesses from the natives who refused to share their names, these Eye witness had seen the burial of those soldiers from 40 years ago with other important details.

Eye Witness # 1 from the natives, he was born in 1960 and so in 1967 he was 7 years old when he had witnessed the burial of those soldiers from 40 years . He had seen Sheikh Salah El-Mani’e ((He may not related to the person who found the mass grave in direction connection but they belong to one tribe)) and his tribe burying those men in the Sheikh Zowaid which was unpopulated area during that time in a mass grave and that some wild animals had devouring some parts in the bodies.

Eye Witness#2 from the natives too , he said that they managed to save one of the officers who is called “Mohamed El-Mahdy” and he was from El-Mansoura despite his injure in this massacre as he was shot by 8 bullets and that he escaped through the sea

Also they managed to save lance corporal called “Mahmoud Arafa” and return him back to Cairo after forging Palestinian id for him. Till very near time they used to communicate with “Arafa” yet they do not know if he is dead or alive now.

Several eye witnesses said that it was a common thing during that time that their parents and chief tribes bury the POWs then they would pray the funeral Islamic prayer on their souls.

If I were from officials, I will start immediate search for officer “Mohamed El-Mahdy” and lance Corporal “Mahmoud Arafaa” as they are considered from the surviving victims and eye witnesses from the first degree

Till now there is no official statement issued from any official party regarding the incident, also the official media ignored the matter which the AFP transferred to the whole world yesterday, and naturally the Israeli press ignored the whole matter as they are busy with Bush’s visit.

Already I do not want to say it but this is a déjà Vu case, the same circumstance and the same testimonies yet nothing on the official level is taken to restore back the rights of the soldiers and their families from Israel according to international laws.

Sources:

More info about Yesterday’s POWs’ mass grave in North Sinai

Even before I got the newspapers , here couple of details about the Mass grave that was found in North Sinai yesterday the wednesday the 9th of January 2008.

It turned that the Mass grave was found by accidently yesterday when one of the natives of Al-Arish city reported to the police authorities that he found while digging in order to build a new house remains of bones in military uniforms .

The place till now is not known but it is in the Sheikh Zowaid city which is between the city of Al-Arish , the capital of North Sinia Governate and the city of Rafaah which is on the Egyptian-Israeli borders.

The remains are estimated to be for 30 persons from the Egyptian soliders who were killed during the six days war.

Eye witnesses from the natives are reporting to the media that currently the Egyptian authorities presented in the Egyptian army (( I highly doubt that it is the Egyptian army because according to Camp David ,the Egyptian Army does not have existence in this area , may be I am wrong but I will ask about it )) made it a restricted area , no one is allowed to reach it currently .

The good news is according to the media also there is a team of foresnics who will examine the bones in order to know whether those people were killed from 40 years ago in in action “KIA” or as “POWs” , I hope and I wish that the findings of this team to be announced publicly and if in case “POWs” I wish that the regime takes more serious steps as they will have then official evidence

Already from my readings and research which you can find here in the website , I will say that they were not killed in action or battle , they were killed as POWs because The city of Shiekh Zowaid is a populated area with mass graves for POWs , the residents of the city who were there in 1967 had seen by their own eyes the systematic mass murder for the Egyptian POWs

This comes at the same time the mass grave of the 1949 soliders was found in Eilat and also it comes at the same time where the Egyptian-Israeli relation is facing hard time after what President Mubarak ,the president of Egypt attacked the Israeli foreign minister Livni for crossing the lines with him .

Sources :

A new Mass grave for the Egyptian POWs in North Sinai

I have just recieved the news which will be among the newspapers headlines tomorrow “Thursday the 10th of January 2008” , a new mass grave has been found in North Sinai .

I do not have more information now but insh Allah I will have more information tomorrow including the exact location of the mass grave .

As primary information this mass grave seemed to be from the 1967 Egyptian POWs mass graves

A possible Egyptian POWs mass grave in Eilat

First of all Happy new year to everyone

Second of all I am sorry that there was lack of updates in the website ,I am sorry it is my mistake ,I apologize again

Third , I know about this news from couple of days “thanks to dear friend Wael Abbas but I did not publish anything because I did not have any information  more than that the Israeli press was speaking about mass grave for Egyptian POWs  found in Eilat / Um Rashrash in Israel , and so I could not publish anything without any confirmation especially I felt that it could be among the current war of the words between the Egyptian regime and the Israeli officials.It seemed illogical to me that the Israeli Press itself would speak about Mass grave for the Egyptian POWs inside Israel itself proving the occurrence of war crimes ,it did not make a sense not to mention I searched every single Israeli newspaper on the web and I did not find anything still I kept it in my mind

Today I found that this news may hold part or most of the truth according to the short article published by Daily El-Masry El-Youm Egypt’s best selling daily newspaper .

It turned out the Al-Aqsa Foundation for the Reconstruction of Islamic Sanctities had discovered an unknown mass grave for Muslims in the city of Eilat. I checked from the official site of the foundation and found more interesting details about the incident

  • On the 27th of December 2007, one of the Israeli workers in a site planned to be a Jewish Cemetery found bones ,skulls and a knife, he reported his superiors ,still they continued their work
  • In the evening of 28th of December 2007,information arrived to Sheikh Ali Abu-Sheikha that the Eilat city workers had digged unknown grave containing remainings of Muslims in a site the city was planning to use as a grave yard for the Jews and Non-Jews
  • On the 29th of December 2007 , in the early morning a group from the foundation went to see the site and investigate these claims which turned to be true , they found an Islamic mass grave there ,1 with bones, skulls and other human remains , they were sure that this is a mass grave for Muslims because they found parts from the Quran with remains of military clothes and boots ,they documented the findings with photographs and video films
  • After a short time officials from the city came and told the group from the foundation that they found the Muslims remains fragmented all over the location
  • On the 31st of December another bigger group from the foundation went to investigate more in the location where they found more of the remains , more of bones ,more of military clothes and they believed those remains were for Muslims who could have been executed
  • On that day the foundation sent a call to all the Arabs and Muslims in the world to share any information regarding the cemetery or the mass grave
  • On the 31st of December 2007, the foundation succeeded in taking an order from the court in Eilat to prevent any further construction works in the site to be activated since the 1st of January 2008
  • Now the site is recognized as an Islamic cemetery protected by the Israeli laws the only thing remaining in the puzzle is to know who were those people in the past

You can find more about the foundation and what it had done from their official website here and there in Arabic language.

Now to what We conclude from all this :

  1. We can’t be certain that this is 100% mass grave for the Egyptian POWs as long as there is no further investigation from the Egyptian Embassy which is representing the Egyptian State , there must be accurate scientific investigation with the help of international forensic detectives to be neutral and investigate in the manner ,already this is a golden opportunity because if it was truly a mass grave for the Egyptian POWs then it will be a war crime committed inside the Israeli borders
  2. Still we can’t deny that all the description and details of the mass grave go with the description and details of the mass graves of the Egyptian POWs found across Sinai
  3. The location itself goes with the stories of the ex-POWs as Eilat was among the concentration points the IDF used to gather the Egyptian POWs in before transferring them to Atlit ,and already they killed some of the POWs just for fun according to the surviving accounts in these points.
  4. Also the specific location of the mass grave, as far as I know it is in the controversial village of Um Rashrash((This village is on the borders and is said to be an Egyptian land, there is a large dispute about it in Egypt regarding it)) , Um Rashrash is very close to the Egyptian-Israeli current borders on the Aqaba Gulf near Taba
  5. The bodies and the remains of the bodies from the bones in the military uniform are not usual things , first of all they can’t not be from the IDF , the IDF buries and buried the Muslims who served in the army in well known cemeteries ,also most of the Muslims who served in the IDF were from the North of Israel, this is in the south of Israel and the location seemed to be forgotten with no remarks what so ever , this is an old mass grave made from very long time made to be forgotten ,in a hurry that those who made it did not care to inform the Israeli authorities about , already who made it for sure are Israelis because since 1948 this part of land was under the Israeli control and no Arab army as far as I know entered it                                          
  6. Who used to wear military uniform and was close to Eilat or from Um Rashrash ?? The Egyptian army , you can’t say they were from the PLO because the PLO were in Gaza and they did not have a complete unified uniform like the Egyptian army
  7. Who used to be executed while wearing military uniform and buried in mass graves with no reference at all ?? No one except the Egyptian POWs
  8. Still with all reasons, we will not be certain 100% to claim our right back except by the following : inspecting the remains and asking the surviving POWs if they know anything about this place 

BY the way I sent an email to the foundation asking them for more details and pictures of the cemetery in order to show here and to show to the veterans they can recognize the uniforms and boots better than us

Important Updates: The complete script of Shaked in English

At last I did it and I translated the Rush Shaked Documentary scriptmenu_17 from Arabic to English so all the people will understand what was said in the controversial Israeli documentary. I translated from the origin Arabic script I found in my Cruel World blog.It is very important because according to it that is the Second Israeli confession of committing crimes against the Egyptian POWs in 1967 after the veterans confessions of committing war crimes in 1956 against our POWs from Militaries and civilians. I am sorry if there were mistakes in the Hebrew names but you must know that all that delay was to check from the names and to write it correctly ,I tried as possible to check from the names several times and some of them from those who appeared in the documentary turned to be from the important officers in the IDF as you will know The documentary and what was said in it are the solid proof against the claims of the director of the same director of the documentary who lied and said that the Egyptians were not mentioned in the documentary !! Well ha can say anything especially when the documentary was never shown again , also it is a solid proof against the claims of the Shaked battalion veterans who denied that they had killed any Egyptian pows during 1967 You can find the script in English here please spread the news Again if you find any mistakes in the Hebrew names please tell me and I will correct them

Important lecture and book discussion alert

Next Thursday the 20th of September in Cairo ,there will be very important lecture and a book discussion related to the case of the Egyptian POWs

The book is “The People and the war” which was written by 1967 and 1973n5960210754_474 veteran Colonel Osama El-Sadek whose testimony about what had happened from crimes against the Egyptian army by the IDF is considered one of the most important testimonies from what it contained from details and incidents

Here are the details of the lecture from time and place :

  • Start Time:Thursday, September 20, 2007 at 8:30pm
  • End Time:Saturday, October 20, 2007 at 11:00pm
  • Location:Cairo Library, next to the Safir Hotel
  • Street:Hassan Sabry, Zamalek
  • City/Town:Cairo, Egypt

Col. Osama testimony is available in the website here whether in the Egyptian Testimonies section or in the video section

The POWs Case on TV in Ramadan

First happy Ramadan to all Muslims in the world , Ramadan Karim

Second I am sorry for the lake of the updates , pardon me but I was so busy in the last months

Third For the first time this year the Egyptian Drama discusses the case of the Egyptian POWs more deeply than usual

The Egyptian POWs is the focus of the Egyptian TV series “Point of Order“-نقطة نظام-

Point of Order” is about a 1967 veteran who witnessed the murder ofSalah El-Sadany the Egyptian POWs and their burial alive in the sands of Sinai , this veteran who could not forget what happened finds him in front of the same man that killed those POWs ,the same Israeli officer ,whom years later became a business man

That Israeli officer-business is coming to invest in Egypt after all those years , after what he did from crimes against the Egyptian POWs

The TV Series discusses this taboo along with other issues like the corruption and social problems the Egyptian society Facing Nowadays.

This TV Series is written by the famous Mohamed Safaa Amar , the script writer whose TV series are always successful and top rated by both viewers and critics , he wrote this TV series from five years ago only now he was able to represent it

It is directed by famous director Ahmed Saqr who had many successful and serious Egyptian TV series

The TV Series is starred by an A list actors of TV Drama in both Egypt and Syria : the leading roles are for Salah El-Sadany,Poussi and for the first time the famous Syrian star Suszan Nagm El-Din 

“Point of Order” despite being shown in a very crowd and competitive time in Ramadan with other TV Series began to win the press attention due to the sensitivity of its topic

It is currently being shown on the following channels :

– Art Hakayat – 01:00 PM “Cairo local time

ADTV – 01:00 “Emirates local time

As soon as the TV series is finished ,I will post its links for download

[tags]Egypt, media, TV, TV Series, Ramadan, Egyptian POWs, Egyptian, Syrian[/tags]