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In Sinai: The Uprising of the Bedouin

(New York Review of Books) Nicolas Pelham - Rapid population growth has turned Sinai's indigenous population of Bedouin people into a power to contend with, particularly in the corner of North Sinai where Egypt, Israel, and Gaza meet. Today, several of their twenty tribes are tens of thousands strong. To dilute their growth, Cairo's leaders have relocated hundreds of thousands of Egyptians to Sinai from the Nile Valley, with their different Arabic dialect, culture, and historical background. The newcomers administer the territory, exploit its raw materials, and run a southern Riviera along its coasts. Together, Sinai's Bedouin and Hamas dug - sometimes with Egyptian government collusion - hundreds of tunnels under their common border. By 2009, the smuggling enterprise had become North Sinai's prime source of revenue. Fancy villas, with roofs fashioned as pagodas and garages for Lexuses, testify to the extent of their success. When Egyptians rose up against Mubarak's rule in Jan. 2011, armed Bedouin tribesmen turned on the Egyptian security apparatus, ransacking their bases and chasing them from the peninsula, enjoying their first taste of autonomy. Two years on, the Bedouin have acquired real power across the peninsula. In recent weeks small bands of militants have charged the multinational base at Al Goura, shot at Egyptian helicopters, killed an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid, and routed Egypt's poorly trained troops in their armored cars. Salafi successes on the battlefield are drawing younger Bedouin to their cause.
2012-11-30 00:00:00
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