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Small Egyptian Victories

(Israel Hayom) David Keyes - From Dec. 5 to 7, I attended the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's conference on civil society held in Lithuania. When I finished speaking, an Egyptian delegate ripped a piece of paper from her notebook, scribbled something on it, and passed it to the Egyptian blogger sitting to my right, Kareem Amer, who spent four years in prison under Hosni Mubarak. Amer showed me the note: "Be careful. He's from Israel." Amir told me, "If you want to talk about this publicly, go ahead. We cannot accept racists among us." I approached the Egyptian delegate after the session and introduced myself. She refused to look at me, speak with me or acknowledge my presence, all because I hold a particular citizenship. During the closing ceremony the next night, the Egyptian woman suddenly approached me and said, "David, I'm so sorry for the way I treated you yesterday. Things in Egypt are very tense and it was not OK for me to do what I did." The transformation of my Egyptian colleague was unexpected and welcome. How many more Egyptians might undergo a similar reversal if challenged and engaged? The writer is the executive director of Advancing Human Rights and co-founder of CyberDissidents.org.
2011-12-16 00:00:00
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