Monday, June 08, 2009
Egypt Bans marriage To Israelis
Hard to believe, isn't it? When was the last time a sovereign country outlawed marriages to citizens of another sovereign country?
“This is an historic ruling,” al-Wahsh said to reporters after the ruling. “Egyptians married to Israelis are dangerous to Egypt’s national security, acting in ways that contradict the constitution of their country and Islamic laws,” he said.As Solomonia points out, an important detail here is that it's a popular ruling. The judge was responding to what the people seem to want:
Calls flooded into TV talk shows discussing the verdict and readers posted comments on Web sites of newspapers that wrote about it.Can these people point to a single case of anti-Egyptian espionage coming from an Egyptian-Israeli marriage? I highly doubt it.Everyone appeared united in elation at the ruling, as well as in hatred of the Jewish state and everything that related to it, even if it was originally Egyptian.
And once again, as has often occurred with respect to Egypt, Israelis are left wondering: if this is the treatment we get from the countries that do sign a peace treaty with us, then why did we bother?
And on top of all that, this appears to be a manufactured issue in the first place:
It is not clear whether the Egyptian government will enforce the ruling against Israeli-Egyptian marriages, but it seems to have quenched the thirst of millions here for an action against Israel.(emphasis mine)“[These marriages] would usher in a new generation of people who would help Israel implement its imperialistic desires in this region in general and in Egypt in particular,” said Ibrahim al-Enani, a professor of international law from Cairo. “This court ruling doesn’t contradictwith either Egypt’s constitution or international laws,” he added.
Ironically, what might have been missed by the judges who passed the ruling is that most Egyptians living in Israel are married to Israeli women with Arab origins. These people speak the same language as the Egyptians and sometimes also share their same faith.
But in their desire to pour their anger at anything that might represent Israel, the judges and al-Wahsh, who filed the case months ago, did not bring that distinction to the table.
I haven't seen this story picked up much. Still, the LA Times has some additional details.
