Encounter With The Egyptian-Israeli Security Agreement « Kawther Salam

Encounter With The Egyptian-Israeli Security Agreement « Kawther Salam:
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Encounter With The Egyptian-Israeli Security Agreement

مصر تمنعني من دخول أراضيها للمشاركة في مؤتمر هيئة الأمم المتحدة
The appeal below was sent to the Office of UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon, asking him to change the location of the meeting “Young Women and Men in the Uprisings of Arab Intifada: Elements of Change” organized by UN-ESCWA, UN-Women and OHCHR from the Arab Republic of Egypt to another location. Egypt continues to violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and hinders the entry of a number of UN guests who are active in politics, human rights, and women issues from entering their territory to participate in the conference and without discernible reason. In the appeal, Mr. Ban-Ki Moon is asked to find an alternative country to hold the conference, a country where human rights and international treaties are more respected.

Background of the appeal: I delivered my appeal to the Secretary General after Mr. Treq Salam, a former Consul and intelligence officer at the Embassy of Egypt in Austria who is now head of the Egyptian Public Intelligence Services (Mukhabarat) for “Austria and the Northern European countries”, denied me entry to Egyptian territory to participate in the UN Youth Forum. All visa applications of Palestinians go through the Egyptian intelligence services and are routinely denied due to the collusion between Egypt and Israel in the suppression of Palestinians.

This collusion can have far worse consequences that a visa denial: if a Palestinian is “wanted” by the israelis, Egypt will throw them in jail where they are usually tortured. One person who was gratuitously tortured in Egypt was a lawyer from Gaza called Kawther Salameh. She was tortured because of a remark which I made in 1997 in Hebron to an Egyptian radio reporter and they thought that she was I.

Office of the Secretary-General
FAX: 212-963-7055
United Nations, SA-1B15
New York, NY 10017
Dear Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon,
Your Excellency,
My name is Kawther Salam. I am a Palestinian from Hebron, and a journalist. I live in Vienna, Austria as a political refugee according to the Geneva Conventions since 2002.
On October 1 2011 I was honored to receive an invitation from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA), the United Nations organization for women (UN-Women) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to participate in the forum of youth under the title “Young Women and Men in the Uprisings of Arab Intifada: Elements of Change”, held on 16 – 17 October 2011 in Cairo, Egypt.
My invitation was signed by Dr. Rima Khalaf, Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), who I understand reports directly to your office.
The organizers of the ESCWA Forum wrote to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry asking them to issue me a visa so that I could enter the country for the event. On October 3 2011, I met the Consul General of Egypt in Austria, Mr. Sharif Lutfi, and I filled the application for the visa in his office. I provided him with all the necessary documents. I was not issued a visa at that time. Consul Lutfi called me today Saturday 15 at midday to tell me that I would not receive a visa.
According to credible sources at UN organizations and elsewhere, I have been informed that the Egyptian authorities refuse to issue visas to enter their country to ALL persons who are from the occupied Palestine territories as a matter of policy, and that this state of affairs has gone on for many years. This policy derives from the fact that Egyptian authorities collude with Israel to generally suppress Palestinians, but especially those Palestinians who would speak out in favor of our peoples interests and inalienable rights.
Egypt is a signatory to several treaties adopted by the UN which should oblige that country to respect human rights, the freedom of movement of journalists, and the institutions of the UN. According to my knowledge, Egypt is accessory to the UN Charter, the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and other relevant treaties statutes. Being a member of the UN, it is surprising that Egypt would interfere with an event organized by the UN out of a questionable motivation. The unjustified and deliberate refusal of the Egyptian authorities to allow the arrival of invited persons to the UN Forum and activities is a clear sign of disrespect of Egypt towards the UN its institutions and the values which this institution represents. This refusal can also be seen as a message to all people who think and speak politically and who express their political views in a peaceful manner, this message being “you are undesirables in Egypt even if the UN invited you”.
As a Palestinian, a woman, a human rights activist and a journalist, I know first-hand what it means to be discriminated against, punished and dehumanized because of who I am. That such discrimination and hindrance in the exercise of my political and journalistic work would come from Egypt is even more execrable because this is not a result of national on the side of Egypt, but the result of collusion of the Egyptian government with Israel and their unending campaign of crimes against us the Palestinians.
I am neither the first nor the last Palestinian who has been discriminated against by Egypt in a similar way, and all Palestinians know about the uncounted Palestinians who have disappeared into the vast gulag of torture facilities in Egypt simply because the Israelis wished that these people to vanish. The collusion of Egypt with Israel to violate basic human rights has not changed with the deposition of the Mubarak regime. While the words in public and before the media have become friendly and reassuring after the revolution, the practice of denying Palestinians travel permits and “disappearing” people who Israel wants to vanish seems to have become business as usual.
As a Palestinian, a human- and women rights activist who was invited by UN-ESCWA and denied entry due to the restrictions of questionable motivation by the Egyptian authorities, I would appreciate if your Excellency will recommend that UN-ESCWA forums such as the “Young Women and Men in the Uprisings of Arab Intifada: Elements of Change” Forum and other activities of the UN and its member bodies are held in another country in the future, were human rights, freedom of movement, freedom of political speech and UN treaties are appreciated and respected in good will, in word but also in deed.
Thank you very much for your consideration.
Most respectfully,
Kawther Salam
Vienna, 15 October 2011
CC:    Dr. Rima Khalaf / UN-ESCWA

All Arab countries infiltrate and spy on their expatriate communities in a rather heavy handed way, and depending on what is reported about a person, he or she can get into problems when they return to their origin countries, their families can be pressured or arrested, or they can be otherwise be pressured to conform to what their government thinks is appropriate. In the case of Consul General Salam, according to what was reported to me by several people in private conversations, he spied on the Egyptian community and also on people from other Arab countries in Austria, and infiltrated elements into many civic organizations to help him in his mission.
Consul Salam is unpleasant in person, and it didn’t help that he disapproved of my journalistic work, especially my reports concerning the Egyptian community in Vienna, in one case a crime issue which Consul (M. N) wanted to cover, and the issues surrounding the Coptic Community in Austria and Egypt, which had to suffer much under the dictatorial regime of Egypt during the last two years.

Mr. Salam was a well known figure of the Mubarak dictatorship and his corrupt party and regime in Egypt. His work in Vienna was to instill divisions and infighting within the Egyptian community and its various social venues like union, businesses etc. in Austria. He and his people intimidated, terrorized and frightened the Egyptians living here and spied upon them, reporting, for example, about people who were against Jamal Mubarak succeeding his father as president. The elements of Mr. Salam who came after him went so far as to establish a new Egyptian Union in Graz in order to support the “succession” idea and to impose this opinion on the Egyptians living there using his contacts within the Mubarak regime and by coercion.

Mr. (M. N) another former consul was forcing the Egyptian journalists to report what he wanted and he threatened anyone who would cover the Coptic demos in Vienna which took place after the murders of the Egyptian Copts during Christmas in Naja Hamadi.
I made “Consul” (M.N) and his boss unhappy because they did not have influence over me, and since I published the truth, it was always against their will. It is known among the Egyptians that “Consul” Salam and consul (M.N) would write negative reports full of lies, rumors and innuendo about people whom they disliked.
Reportedly many people who went to Egypt to visit relatives or take care of personal business found themselves in interrogations which lasted several hours, or days due to the reports of this “Consul” and his elements after him. I often wonder what this man wrote about me into the computer of the Egyptian intelligence. Then I answer to myself, I do not care, because the truth is stronger than their lies.
Mr. Salam left behind broken social institutions in Austria general infighting in the Egyptian community. He left behind people litigating against each other in the courts and deep rivalries within the community. The people whom he organized to support certain points of view within the community are now distrusted and avoided because of the bad reputation which they have due to their support for dictator regime of Mubarak. Currently the elements of the “Salam” clique are trying to position themselves in new leadership positions within the community, with methods and opinions which are not far away from the methods and positions of the former dictatorship.
The questions to ask are, how did Mr. Salam, one of the elements supporting the Mubarak dictatorship manage to get into his high position in the public intelligence despite the fact that everybody who knows him speaks in negative terms about him, despite his bad reputation, despite his lying, his fabrications and his false and malicious charges which caused many people to be jailed, interrogated, tortured for no reason at all? How can any Egyptian patriot brook having a person of so questionable references in a high government position? When the elements of the former dictator Egyptian regime will disappear from the government of that country for good?