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A Strip apart? Gaza grapples with politics of expanded Egyptian administration in Trump’s ‘century deal’ | MadaMasr

▻https://www.madamasr.com/en/2018/06/29/feature/politics/a-strip-apart-gaza-grapples-with-politics-of-expanded-egyptian-administrat

An economic delegation from the Gaza Strip arrived in Cairo on Tuesday night to discuss the United States’ proposal concerning the humanitarian and economic state of the besieged Palestinian territory, as Washington continues to push talks concerning the “deal of the century.”

Deputy Finance Minister Youssef al-Kayali headed up the Gaza delegation, which, according to a Palestinian political source who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity, was in Cairo “to listen to what the Egyptian side proposes without a preconceived position and without violating known Palestinian principles.”

To this point, indications of Gaza’s appetite for the deal have been absent from the unfolding diplomatic discussions. The US diplomatic envoy headed by Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, and Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, was primarily focused on informing regional leaders of the defining features of Trump’s initiative to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but, notably, did not meet with Palestinian actors during last week’s regional tour, which included stops in Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Israel.

The framework of the US’s “century deal” involves the construction of a joint port on the Mediterranean between the Egyptian and Palestinian cities of Rafah, according to US and European diplomatic sources that spoke to Mada Masr ahead of the US delegation’s visit last week. The joint port would act as a prelude to extensive economic activity, for which North Sinai would serve as a hub, and would include five principal projects that would be funded by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with a labor force that would be two-thirds Palestinian from the Gaza Strip and one-third Egyptian.

Egypt: A season of morality and police uniforms | MadaMasr
▻https://www.madamasr.com/en/2018/06/24/feature/culture/a-season-of-morality-and-police-uniforms

Days ahead of this year’s Ramadan TV season, fans of Egyptian television sensed an impending crisis, one that played out with the sudden removal of several anticipated series from the 2018 schedule. Some of the issues cited, such as shooting delays, were familiar. What was different, however, was the extent of direct state interference in both the schedule and the content of the shows that were broadcast, contributing to what many have called the weakest Ramadan season in many years.

Though particularly insidious this year, this kind of state control did not emerge out of the blue, there have been indications of it over the past two years. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and other state bodies have issued a series of statements expressing their displeasure with the content of Egypt’s artistic works, criticizing TV series in particular. It seems these statements were initial steps toward cementing state control over Egypt’s media and culture industry, followed by the monopoly of state institutions and their business affiliates over the satellite TV channels considered to be the powerhouses of drama production. Most of these channels are now owned by state-acquired or affiliated production companies, namely Falcon, Egyptian Media Group and Eagle Capital, placing the production and broadcasting of TV series largely at their mercy.

The state took one step further with the creation of the Supreme Media Regulatory Council (SMRC) and its associated Drama Committee in 2016. The council swiftly started to exercise its stated mission of practicing post-screening censorship, instructing TV channels to cut certain scenes or lines of dialogue, despite them having already been approved by the Censorship Board, as happened with the popular series Sabea Gar (The Seventh Neighbor), which ran on CBC channel from October 2017 to March 2018.

It is not only through acquisitions and expanding the role of censorship authorities that the state has tried to influence Egypt’s TV landscape, it has also attempted to control the economy of drama production itself. For instance, producer Tamer Morsy of Synergy Productions had a stake in most of this past season’s TV series, while simultaneously holding the position of CEO of Egyptian Media Group, the current owner of ONtv network, and a shareholder of several other channels. In addition, the company entered into an agreement with a number of other channels not to sign any TV series with budgets exceeding LE70 million.

Egypt : Government hikes fuel prices by up to 66.7% | MadaMasr
▻https://www.madamasr.com/en/2018/06/16/news/economy/government-hikes-fuel-prices-by-up-to-66-7

The government raised fuel prices at 9 am on Saturday morning by as much as 66.67 percent, according to Saturday’s edition of the Official Gazette. The move comes as part of the 2016 structural readjustment program agreed on with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and amid rising international oil prices.

Among the hikes introduced on Saturday morning, the second largest increases were levied on diesel and 80 octane fuel prices, which are used in microbuses and trucks. This will have a pronounced impact on low-income groups and overall inflation levels.

The greatest increase comes with the rise in prices of LPG cylinders used in households and some commercial outlets as an alternative to gas. The price of 95 octane and 92 octane fuel — used by private car owners — saw the lowest increase.

Egypte, Palestine, Gaza
At the terminal: Stories from the Rafah Border Crossing

| MadaMasr
▻https://www.madamasr.com/en/2018/06/12/feature/politics/at-the-terminal-stories-from-the-rafah-border-crossing

It has been one month since the Rafah Border Crossing was opened, marking the longest window in which Gazans have been permitted to leave and reenter the besieged Gaza Strip since 2013.

What was initially purported to be a four-day opening was extended on May 17, when President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced that travel across the Egypt-Gaza border would be permitted throughout the month of Ramadan.

From Gaza to the outside world
Mada Masr spoke to several travelers waiting at the on the Palestinian side of the crossing.

Zuheir al-Qashash, 44, was there with his family, which includes four children. “I sold my apartment, man,” he says. “I registered my entire family for crossing, and we are going to live with my mother in Egypt. To live in Gaza is to die slowly. I will not have my children [continue to] suffer through what we have been experiencing for the past 10 years.”

Qashash tells Mada Masr that he paid nearly US$7,000 for registration and “coordination in order to cross through Rafah.”

“It’s a big gamble,” he says. “But the biggest gamble of all is to patiently wait in Gaza, in hopes that the conditions will improve.”

To travel across the Rafah crossing, Palestinians must board special busses and pay large sums of money to register through travel agencies in Gaza. These agencies then submit applications to officers on the Egyptian side, according to several people who attempted the trip. Once officials in Palestine receive a select list of names approved by the Egyptians, they notify those selected to prepare to cross. The list, however, is always handwritten and never bears the official mark of Egypt’s Interior Ministry or any other government agency.

Palestinians have left the Gaza Strip in increasing numbers since the 2014 war with Israel. It is not unusual for entire families to leave at the same time, according to copies of the lists of travelers obtained by Mada Masr. Some of these families have since relocated to Europe.

The sight of entire families waiting at the Palestinian terminal for their passage to be approved has become increasingly common, following Sisi’s Ramadan announcement.

Egypt: State budget favors wealthy as lower-income groups continue to disproportionately shoulder tax burden | MadaMasr
▻https://www.madamasr.com/en/2018/06/07/feature/economy/state-budget-favors-wealthy-as-lower-income-groups-continue-to-disproporti

Parliament passed Egypt’s state budget for the fiscal year 2018/9, which will begin in July, on Tuesday. The budget targets a deficit of 8.4 percent of GDP, down from an estimated 9.8 percent at the end of the current fiscal year.

The tax structure in the 2018/19 state budget represents an imbalance in favor of the wealthiest and at the expense of the lower-income citizens, amid an ongoing austerity program that has included the implementation of new taxes in recent years.

A real estate tax, which functions as a tax on the wealthiest, was implemented starting July 2014, and a few years later the government introduced the value-added tax, a regressive tax that weighs more on lower income earners, who tend to use the bulk of their income on consumption-related purchases, than on wealthier individuals who have a larger capacity to save. In spite of this, this year’s state budget shows that the real estate tax and other property taxes remain a limited source of income for the government, while the share of VAT from total tax collections has grown.

This reflects an imbalance in tax justice, as the burden of financing government spending falls increasingly on lower-income earners. Property taxes, meanwhile, increased marginally as a share of total tax collection. Egypt’s state budget classifies land, building, t-bill and t-bond revenue taxes, property transfer fees and car fees as property taxes. The real estate wealth tax is classified under income tax.

Egypt : Labor union elections are back, but with few promises | MadaMasr
▻https://www.madamasr.com/en/2018/06/08/feature/politics/labor-union-elections-are-back-but-with-few-promises

Labor union representatives voiced their concerns over political exclusion from union elections, which kicked off on May 23 and concluded this week.

After being postponed for 12 years, labour union elections for the period 2018-2022 were finally held under a new law passed in 2017, ending, at least on paper, 61 years of monopoly by the state-affiliated Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF), and allowing for the formal creation of independent unions.

Members and leaders of independent unions, however, cite many obstacles to free and fair elections, among them the law itself governing the work of labor unions. “It was the worst labor elections Egypt has witnessed,” says Kamal Abbas, head of the Center for Trade Unions and Workers Services (CTUWS), which organized a press conference on June 3 to raise election violations.

One of the violations highlighted pertains to the ability of independent unions to regulate their legal status. While some independent unions have existed, predating the law for years, all of them now have to adhere to executive regulations in order to be recognized and ensure their members are eligible for elections.

CTUWS described the process of standardizing independent unions as “intransigent and bureaucratic practices from Ministry of Manpower directorates to prevent a right backed by law,” in a report titled, “Union freedoms — Between limited leeway and purposeful restrictions.”

Defying the gaze of others in Abu Bakr Shawky’s Yomeddine |
Adham Youssef
June 1, 2018
MadaMasr

▻https://www.madamasr.com/en/2018/06/01/feature/culture/defying-the-gaze-of-others-in-abu-bakr-shawkys-yomeddine

After finishing my interview with director Abu Bakr Shawky and producer Dina Emam at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, I move to my next scheduled meeting — a group discussion with a Kenyan director about her film, which is screening in the Un Certain Regard competition. Shawky is conducting an interview with a foreign journalist nearby, and I can’t help but overhear their conversation. The reporter asks him about the “political and religious messages” behind his debut feature and Palme d’Or contender, Yomeddine (2018).

Later, when I meet with Shawky again, I ask him to comment on that question. “Wherever there is a good story I will go,” he says. “There is an expectation from Middle Eastern films that they have to be about politics and religion, but I don’t want to do that anymore. Not because they are irrelevant, but I watch films from the United States, Europe and Asia that are not political, and I like them. So why can’t a Middle Eastern film not be political in the traditional sense and still be considered enjoyable and significant?”

There were three other Arabic-language films in Cannes this year; Nadine Labaki’s Cafarnaüm (2018), a Lebanese drama about poor children and migrants in the informal housing areas of Beirut; Gaya Jiji’s My Favourite Fabric (2018), a film that tackles female sexuality and the Syrian revolution (guaranteed to be a hit with Western audiences); and Sofia, Meryem BenMbarek’s story about premarital pregnancy in Morocco. Yomeddine stood out among them as a different narrative that is placed within a specific context, yet is universally appealing and relatable nonetheless.