European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 6, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Bedouin children play with the family Camel. The bedouins see the Sinai a theirs and have Little use tar the Laws of Egypt or Israel. Sinai is not egyptian or israeli. It is bedouin9 Christopher s. Wren new York times a s Ashish ani2. A wiry Young Bodoria lol Tail. He had Buill a Wall around his new stucco House on y to have he egyptian authorise Send a trader one Day to Knock it Down they told him that the land bordered by stately Palm Trees and overlooking a Crescent of dazzling White Beach a no Ceiba was not his unless he had a deed 10 prove it those Trees Are our Trees for a Hundred Ani said As he sat on a mat with a couple of visitors pouring Sweet Lea from a battered enamel pot now the egyptian asks. I want paper where can i get paper i think he wants to sell the land to Rich people the bedouin nomads once enjoyed unchallenged Possession of the desiccated wads wind sculpted Hills and rolling Sand dunes of Sinai. The timeless rhythm of heir lives was played out in seasonal migrations on Camel and fool throughout the wilderness Peninsula. They lived in tells Woven irom Goat hair tended livestock and gardens scratched 1mm the Stony ground and earned their Money smuggling contraband through the Limestone canyons loyalties were confined to family and Inbe and rarely extended to the successive overseers from Turkey Brilain Egypt and Israel who claimer political control of Sinai Israel s Geli ure of Sinai irom Egypt in the 1967 War interrupted the tree spirited existence of the bedouins Many were clustered Mio Settle meals with clinics and schools the Beller to Monitor them by 1982. When Egypt had regained the entire Peninsula it had inherited responsibly Lor e Deser people who had become increasingly sedentary the bedouins tribesmen whose number in the vast Southern Sinai has been reckoned of Mically at Only 12.000. Had been seduced from the old nomadic freedoms by the allure of modern conveniences such As cars and electricity i Don l want to live in the mountains with the goals like Anil said i want Losi a Here we have Many people in the Village enough for a school in no Ceiba. A sleepy Seaside settlement along the Gull of Aqaba the egyptians assert that some bedouins have grabbed prime beachfront Lanty in anticipation that its value Wilf Rise once tourism is revived in Sinai during the israeli occupation a vacation resort called Neiot flourished Here attracting visitors from Europe As Well As Israel. The bedouins Whoso people migrated mostly irom saudi Arabia into Sinai say the land was divided among i heir tribes sometimes after bloody disputes Long before Ifie egyptians cared. The bedouin Don l need paper Suleiman Makawi said i know your tree and you know my the governor of Southern Sinai. Gon Mohammed Nur Eddin Afifi said in an interview Hal land claims constituted one of his government s main problems with the bedouins. Asili said a Law had been enacted recently that would recognize a bedouin s claim in he could show that he or his forebears had cultivated the land around the House Survey teams would be dispatched to verify he claims but local residents have Lei i frustrated dealing with the egyptian bureaucracy. We have a paper but it jus says you own land one woman said i does i say where or How a year ago she recalled Ifie government sent saturday. Septembers 1986 someone to measure her husband s land we Haven t heard anything since she said. The bedouins express mixed feelings about the transition from israeli Rule Back to egyptian Rule. Prices were higher under the one said and the israelis were tougher with them than the More lenient egyptians " Alami Suleiman recalled arguing about identification papers with an israeli plainclothes policeman who than slapped him. Suleiman said he pulled his knife and Slabbed the israeli in the shoulder i spent two years in ail in he said but the bedouins also say the israelis introduced schools and health services and they say they miss the Money Hal they used to earn guiding tourists into the mountains. Tourism irom Israel which had begun to decline All but stopped after an egyptian Border policeman went berserk and killed seven israeli tourists fast october at fats Burka North of no Ceiba the it Rafels consider the bedouins exotic but the egyptians tend to look upon them As inferior and have made Little Effort to learn their dialect or customs. The egyptian thinks the bedouin is stupid people one Man said. Now however egyptian officials such As Asili have tried to gain the Confidence of bedouins before in was a mistrust on both sides but i think it is gelling better a resident of no Ceiba said. Several bedouins sitting in the Shade of a lean to made of Palm fronds said the egyptian authorities had begun to truck Waler to their Village of unbaked houses but had yet to Hook up electricity to an existing Power Lino they expressed lit lie Affinity Tor Cairo. The bedouin is not a Young Man in a while Cotlon headdress said. The Sinai is not egyptian or israeli it is the stars and stripes Page 17
