People to keep in mind during the Egyptian Uprising, the Bedouin

[the_future_modernes]

Lets just link to the demographic breakdown of Egypt posted on Wiki as a starting point.

Time Magazine notes in its report on the Egyptian Uprising that:

And a prominent Bedouin smuggler in the Sinai peninsula told TIME that Bedouin are now in control of the two towns closest to the Gaza Strip, and that they planned to press on to attack the Suez Canal if Mubarak does not step down. He also said that police stations in the south Sinai would be attacked if Bedouin prisoners were not released.

...

As for Mubarak himself, shouts would go up among the crowds in Tahrir Square every time a rumor rippled through that he had left the country. It is widely believed, however, that the president remains in his vacation home in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheik in the south Sinai — the very spot the Bedouin have their eyes on.

MORE

Egypt police shoot Bedouin protester dead -sources

CAIRO Jan 27 (Reuters) - Security forces shot dead a Bedouin protester in the north of Egypt's Sinai region on Thursday, eyewitnesses and a security source said.

The 22-year-old man, Mohamed Atef, was shot in the head while demonstrating in the town of Sheikh Zoweid, they said. Security forces fired tear gas to disperse dozens of protesters.
MORE

Bedouin kill 3 Egyptian police in attack on building

ISMAILIA, Egypt Jan 29 (Reuters) - A group of Bedouin on Saturday attacked state security headquarters in the town of Rafah near Egypt's border with Israel, killing three policemen, witnesses and a security source said.MORE

So Why are the Bedouin pissed off?

Egypt's New Challenge: Sinai's Restive Bedouins 2010 article

The Bedouin are a historically nomadic people who migrated to Egypt from the Arabian Peninsula centuries ago. Locked out of development projects and tourism investment along Sinai's southern coast, the long-marginalized Bedouin have often been forced to work outside the law to make a living. But over the past two years, some of the tribesmen have prospered as a result of Israel's blockade on Gaza, which has turned smuggling into the territory's economic lifeline — and also a source of weapons for militants.

But the smuggling boom may soon be over, as Egypt constructs a subterranean steel wall along the border, designed to cut off the network of tunnels that have kept both Gaza and the Bedouin afloat — a move that will antagonize the tribes in a tinderbox region.

MORE

Bedouin Culture in Egypt Dying in Drought Its not just the drought. Its the blasted dam building that submerged their ancestral lands without so much as a by your leave that the article blithely mentions and then ignores for the rest of its length. God SAVE US from Western news sources!!!

The Ababda are one of two main tribes that make up the Bedouin population of Egypt's southeastern desert. The other is the Besharin. Although their traditional lands reach from the Red Sea to the Nile, differences in language and their nomadic lifestyle kept their culture intact and distinct from the rest of Egypt. Until recently these nomadic tribesmen were little changed by the millennia. Today their culture and even their language are dying.

Taha is an Ababda man living in an area called Gambeet.

Taha is explaining to an aid worker that his tribe's once large herds are gone. Now he says the average family owns at most six goats.

Taha is the only man present in Gambeet when we visit. The other men are out collecting wood to turn into charcoal. The charcoal will be sold in Shalatin, the largest town nearby and four days journey by camel. Charcoaling has become increasingly important as their herds continue to grow smaller.

Taha says things were not always this way.

In 1964, the Aswan High Dam was completed. Six years later the reservoir, called Lake Nasser, was full. An estimated 90,000 people were displaced and more than 5,000 square kilometers of land was submerged.

The only permanent grazing areas of the Ababda and the Besharin were left under water and the remainder of their lands have suffered from a decades-long drought.MORE

2007 article Bedouin Take On the Govt

CAIRO, Jun 18, 2007 (IPS) - Last month saw a wave of angry sit-in demonstrations held by the Bedouin of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, triggered by the killing of two tribesmen by police in April. And last week, Bedouin leaders again reiterated their long list of grievances, claiming that state representatives had so far failed to meet their basic demands.

The Bedouin are an indigenous people living in the Sinai, Saharan and Arab deserts. Their numbers in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, are estimated around 380,000, divided into some 26 different tribes.

Although most Bedouin now live sedentary lifestyles, they were known until recently for their nomadic way of living and relatively conservative traditions. The Bedouin have often had to struggle for their rights within Egypt. Egypt has a population around 80 million.


...

A chief demand of Bedouin protestors, therefore, has been a halt to police violations against local residents and the release of Bedouin prisoners wrongfully detained since 2004. According to tribal spokesmen, police are still holding some 4,000 local men since the Taba bombings.

Demonstrators also demanded the economic development of the Sinai Peninsula, which they say has been historically neglected by the government, as well as more employment opportunities for the local population.

"Central Sinai is among the poorest areas in the world, with rampant unemployment and few basic services available," Hatem al-Buluk, rights activist and resident of al-Arish, located some 50 km from the border, told IPS. Pointing to the five-star resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, he added, "All development on the peninsula is confined to the coasts at the expense of the interior."

...

To the chagrin of Cairo, the proximity to the border with Israel of the demonstration also gave the incident a national security dimension.

Although the affair was portrayed in western news media as an attempt by Bedouin to cross into the Jewish state for political asylum, Bedouin leaders adamantly deny this. They maintain that they staged the demonstration at the border in order to pre-empt a heavy-handed police response. MORE

Comments

[buria_q]

thanks so much for this roundup, and for responding quickly to moderating mistake in dw politics.