On 1 May, the Arab Tribes Union (ATU), an alliance of 30 Egyptian Bedouin tribes, was announced at a large celebration in Al-Ajra in North Sinai governorate in a ceremony attended by political, business, community, and military leaders.
ATU’s head, businessman Ibrahim Al-Arjani, said the alliance had been created out of a sense of national responsibility and reflects the growing role of Sinai’s Arab tribes in preserving the national security of Egypt’s borders.
ATU’s leaders have asked President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi to take the role of honorary chairman.
Al-Arjani highlighted the launch of Al-Sisi city, close to the border with Gaza, as exemplifying the accelerated development of the peninsula after years of chaos and instability and vowed that the city’s first residents would be families of martyrs killed fighting terrorism.
“Sinai is witnessing an unprecedented construction boom thanks to the state’s dedicated and tireless efforts placing the Sinai Peninsula on the top of Egypt’s development agenda,” said Al-Arjani.
Al-Arjani is board chairman of several private businesses, including Misr Sinai Company for Industrial Development and Investment.
The formation of the alliance, said ATU Spokesperson MP Mustafa Bakri, “comes as Israel is pursuing a ferocious war on the Palestinians in Gaza with the malicious goal of liquidating the Palestinian cause and displacing Palestinians into Sinai.”
He added that the ATU rejects the forcible resettlement of Palestinians and supports an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and will work alongside the Egyptian state to preserve security and stability.
According to Bakri, ATU brings together Egyptian tribes from all over the country and represents 28 million citizens. The board will include Al-Arjani as chairman, former MP Ahmed Raslan as first deputy chairman, and former governor of Gharbiya Ahmed Deif Sakr as second deputy chairman. In addition, a 20-member presidential council will be selected. The council, Bakri says, “will choose the union’s secretary-general, form committees to be responsible for carrying out its activities and holding new conferences in Upper Egypt, the Nile Delta, and the Suez Canal zone.”
“Sinai is a precious part of Egypt and the role of the ATU is to help develop the peninsula for the people of Sinai,” said MP Ibrahim Abu Shira.
The announcement of the ATU elicited mixed reactions in political and media circles. Supporters, including pro-government officials, hailed it as a crucial ally in the fight against terrorism and a partner for the state as it continues to develop Sinai. Critics, however, including some civil society groups and opposition politicians, view the alliance as a threat to national unity.
Former Nasserist presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi issued a statement on 5 May saying that any organisation based on ethnic, tribal or sectarian affiliations conflicts with the principles of a unified national state and could facilitate moves to partition the nation.
Al-Ahram political analyst Emad Gad agreed, saying the union “should be rejected by all Egyptians who want to see their country united” and arguing that, by basing membership on ethnic and tribal foundations, it is in violation of the constitution.
Bakri denied that the union is anything other than “a civil society organisation that will be regulated and governed by the NGO law and by the constitution, Article 200 of which bans the forming of armed militias.” He added that the union is in the process of submitting papers to the Social Solidarity Ministry to be registered as an NGO.
He also dismissed the notion that membership of the union being limited to representatives of tribes means that it is based on ethnic foundations.
“Tribes living in border areas have been marginalised for too long and it is time for them to unite into an alliance that can cooperate with the state in developing the country,” said Bakri. The union’s development activities, he continued, will not be limited to Sinai but cover all border areas, in Upper Egypt in the south and Marsa Matrouh in the west.
He also denied that the union will act as a political party or a sectarian group. “It includes Muslims and Christians and their ideology is a national one aimed at serving the nation as whole,” he said.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 9 May, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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