Cairo, February 04: Two senior Egyptian editors – one a member of the ruling party and the other an expert of Jewish affairs, have been punished by country’s journalists union for violating its ban on contacts with Israel.
Hala Mustafa, editor-in-chief of the state-run weekly Democratiya, or Democracy, was reprimanded by Egypt’s Journalists Union for meeting Shalom Cohen, Israel’s ambassador to the country.
The Union also punished Hussein Serag, an expert on Jewish affairs and deputy editor of the weekly magazine ‘October’, suspending him from writing for three months for his 25th visit to Israel.
Serag has translated many books from Hebrew to Arabic, including the latest “Between Tel Aviv and Cairo,” a memoir by Israel’s former ambassador to Egypt David Sultan.
In 1979, Egypt became the first Arab nation to extend diplomatic ties with Israel after a peace treaty was signed.
–PTI