The 25 January 2011 revolution is the product of a long process of dissent accumulation over decades in Egypt led by workers and students.
![[19-1-1977] Demonstrators protesting increased food prices regroup on a rubble strewn street in Cairo Wednesday, after battling the Central Security Forces (Photo by AP)](https://arabawy.org/wp-content/uploads//2007/11/Jan-1977-Bread-Intifada-e1427489793383-434x315.jpg)
Tag: 1968
Egypt’s 1968: The revival of street politics
Above is Chapter IV of the MA Thesis I wrote 10 years ago, when studying at the American University in Cairo’s Political Science department. This chapter discusses the revival of the student movement following the 1967 defeat.
Of course reading it today I wish if I would have edited some parts, changed the lingo here and there, and added more resources and info I’ve been learning over the past years.
But in general I still think the thesis stands, and could help shed some light on this critical period in the history of the left in Egypt.
The almighty Israeli spies
When students and workers took to the streets in Alexandria, November 1968, denouncing the Nasserist regime, the state-run media announced the arrest of Israeli spies who were involved in the agitation for the protests (Arab Report and Record, 1-15 December 1968: 399).
My mother, who took part in the 1971-2 student protests against Sadat, recalls how the Central Security Forces were beating them with sticks while denouncing the students as “Israeli agents.”
During the 18 day uprising, a young woman journalist appeared on TV “confessing” she was trained by the Mossad to foment those “riots” in Tahrir. And of course it turned out to be a big lie.
And now, the government has announced it caught another Israeli spy gathering information about the protests and fomented chaos with the intent “of harming political, economic and social interests and negatively impacting the course of the revolution”… and “prosecutors suspect he paid protesters to cause friction with the military and to foment Muslim-Christian tensions.”
Seriously what a soap opera.
By this latest case, the Mukhabarat is trying to pull together a cheap move, so that any public criticism against the military would be depicted immediately as the work of Israeli spies. More importantly, the Mukhabarat is trying to convince the public it’s a vital agency, in charge of protecting the country from any “foreign plots”, so as not to receive the same treatment as State Security Police.
The Mukhabrrat is hardly any different from SS. It’s been involved in renditions and torture, spying on Egyptians abroad, coordinating dirty operations with the CIA and Mossad. Do Israelis have spies in Egypt? Of course. And the biggest two spies are Mubarak and Omar Suleiman. One is enjoying a five star treatment in Sharm el-Sheikh, and the other seems to be getting away with his crimes, and possibly even run for presidency!
Dear Mukhabarat, stop treating us like children. Who the hell is this Israeli super agent who will single handedly go around fomenting protests, agitating against the army in the streets and mosques? Get a life, grow up.