Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
SARAH A. TOPOL
Tea and Kidnapping
FROM
The Atlantic
M
Y HOST, THE
37-year-old Bedouin tribal leader Sheikh Ahmed Hashem, had served me so
many glasses of sweet tea that I had lost count. It was a hot afternoon in early July, and we
weresittingonthefloorofhiscompoundinWadiFeiran,aremotevillagedeepwithinEgypt's
Sinai Peninsula. A single electrical cable connects the settlement's squat cement houses; a
single road runs through the surrounding mountains to the outside world. Everything felt un-
hurried, including Hashem's explanation, via a translator, of his people's complaints against
the Egyptian government. But when I asked why the local Bedouin had started kidnapping
tourists, he was quick to correct me: “It isn't kidnapping. It is a
tourist safari
.”
Thesheikh'sbrotherMohammed,awirydrugrunner,noddedvigorously:“Touristscometo
Egypt and pay for this kind of experience,” he said, beaming. “Now they are getting the same
thing for free!”
DuringtheEgyptianrevolutionlastyear,thecountry'sbeleagueredsecurityservicesmostly
pulled out of the Sinai, the triangular peninsula that lies between mainland Egypt to the west
and Israel to the east. Drug running and weapons smuggling spiked; in the northern half of the
peninsula,shootoutsbetweenIslamicmilitants andthepolicebecameroutine;thegaspipeline
connecting Egypt and Israel was repeatedly bombed. In recent months, the security vacuum
has emboldened a handful of Bedouin in the southern half of the peninsula to lobby for the
release of jailed kinsmen via a novel tactic: kidnapping foreign tourists and using them as
bargaining chips. Between February and early July, Bedouin tribesmen took three pairs of
Americans, three South Koreans, a pair of Brazilians, and a Singaporean on “safaris” lasting
between a few hours and several days.
Egypt's Bedouin, historically nomadic Arab tribespeople who have lived in the Sinai for
centuries, harbor a number of grievances against the government. After Israel returned the
peninsulatoEgyptin1982,followinga15-yearoccupation,theEgyptiangovernmentaccused
the Bedouin of collaborating with the Jewish state; the Bedouin have since been rejected from
military service and most government jobs. The Bedouin complain that the state's notoriously
brutal security services deal particularly harshly with them today, imprisoning hundreds of
their kinsmen without trial. Bedouin villages have little in the way of infrastructure, health
care, or schools compared with the rest of the country. And although the Sinai's Red Sea coast
is dotted with high-end hotels, tribesmen complain that tourist cash does nothing to improve
their lives, as tourism outfits won't hire them.
