Sinai’s Bedouins reject law banning local land rights

Tribal leaders claim Egyptian authorities tried to shut down their meeting Bedouin tribes in the Sinai have demanded Egypt's Defence Minister repeal a decree banning private land ownership along the region’s eastern border. Bedouins have threatened civil disobedience as part of Egypt’s January 25 celebrations if their demands are not met, tribal leaders said in a press conference on Tuesday.
Tribal leaders are protesting against a law introduced by Egyptian Defence Minister Abdelfattah al-Sisi in December, forbidding private land ownership, rental or development within five kilometres of the eastern border with Gaza and Israel [excluding Rafah].
Al-Sisi’s decree also bans development on islands, protectorates or Red Sea archaeological sites within the stated area.
The regulations were the latest in a series of legal measures addressing land and property rights in the peninsula, which local residents have condemned as unjust.
"Keeping this ban will only serve Israel’s plans to ruin relations between Sinai's tribes and Egyptian military institutions," said Sheikh Abdelkader Abu Garir, a tribal leader from Sinai. Abu Garir claimed al-Sisi’s decision would have to have received the blessing of the United States.
An Egyptian army spokesperson previously claimed that the Defence Minister’s decision was only taken after consultation with tribal leaders, something that was strenuously denied by leaders present at Tuesday’s conference.
"The Minister's meeting saw nothing but meaningless speeches,” claimed Abu Garir, insisting that Sinai's residents see no solution other than lifting the ban.
Tribal sources meanwhile told Arabstoday that security forces had tried to shut down the press conference.
"We did not invite government officials to the conference," said Said Atiq, a prominent Bedouin leader. "The government has no choice but to cancel the ban."
Mohammed Abdelhamid, a local official from Egypt’s ruling Freedom and Justice Party [FJP] also criticised the new law, claiming it reflected foreign pressures on Egypt’s military establishment to defend Israeli border security in the region.
On January 13, an army spokesperson announced al-Sisi was looking into Bedouin tribes’ demands and how to accommodate them without repealing the law.