One of the blockbusters in Egyptian cinemas last summer is the film "A Zero". "On Zero," or "Starting from Scratch," starring Mohammed Ramadan, who is well known in Israel. Ramadan, 35, is a much-loved actor, rapper and dancer in his country and throughout the Arab world, whom the legendary Omar Sharif chose as a continuation of his acting legacy. In the not-too-distant past, he provoked great anger in Egypt after photographs of him shared with better-known Israelis, such as Omar Adam and Dia Seba, and lesser-known ones, which were published on social networks.
Criticism of the joint photographs went so far as to suspend Ramadan's membership in the Egyptian Artists' Union for a while and accuse him of legitimizing normalization with Israel, four decades after the peace agreement was signed. Ramadan, for his part, claimed that he does not ask every person he meets and takes pictures with him about his citizenship and religion. His immense popularity soon made his "sins" forgotten, and the masses again flocked to his films in theaters.
"A Zero" is a social drama, the plot of which deals with singer and DJ, Hamza "Dragon" (Ramadan), who struggles to make a living and raises a child alone. Hamza's humble world was destroyed when he learned that his young son was suffering from a rare blood cancer. He can schedule the bone marrow transplant treatment at the government hospital only after waiting a year and a half in line, and the cost of immediate treatment at Hamza Private Hospital cannot be achieved in normal ways.
In addition, he and his son are thrown out of their home and find temporary shelter in an acquaintance's hotel. In his situation, Hamza is willing to become a drug dealer to pay for his son's urgent medical care. Meanwhile, a doctor with whom Hamza falls in love (movie star Nelly Karim) prepares to become engaged to an older man so that she can pass on the high bride price to pay for the treatment of the sick child.
The plot gets complicated, but, unlike real life, a happy ending is all good: a wealthy businessman whose son Hamza saved from a suicide attempt turns Hamza into a musical star. Hamza transforms overnight from a poor man into a millionaire, his son is cared for and recovered, and of course he marries his beloved, whom he saved from the marriage she sought to impose herself on his behalf.
I watched "A Zero" at the almost family-run movie theater in the Zamalek neighborhood on a sweltering afternoon. Getting a ticket in the state-of-the-art cinemas in Cairo's large shopping centers is almost impossible spontaneously. The air-conditioned theaters there are packed, and there are also ticket touts, which are overpriced at the entrance to these cinemas.
Zamalek is less convenient, but there is almost always room, and the new Egyptian and Western films arrive there. Young couples and groups of same-sex friends, guys and girls, soak up the summer heat in the air-conditioned halls. After "A Zero" I also watched the hot comedy of the summer, "Marei Alfarimo." This is an unfriendly watermelon salesman whose life is complicated by the receipt of an unexpected inheritance. These are "borekas films" in the tradition of Egyptian Friday movies, which I grew up on in my grandmother's home.
In the Western cinema sector in Zamalek, one of the most talked about films in recent weeks was "Oppenheimer," about the Jewish key to the nuclear bomb. The Egyptian press is full of articles discussing the fundamental ethical questions raised by the film. The issue of Oppenheimer's Jewishness as a criticism of the development of terrible weapons did not come up. The movie "Barbie" also arrived in Egyptian theaters somewhat late, after censorship determined that it could only be viewed from the age of 12 and up, so as not to expose children to its "immoral" content. The approval of the film came as a surprise, after it was banned in other Arab countries.
Counterweight
In the best tradition of Egyptian folk films, "A. Zero" reflects the daily sufferings of Egyptian society at all levels – poverty (but also wealth, which is presented as responsible for spiritual emptiness), imperviousness of the establishment and government, crime and violence. An inseparable part of the film is its religious-traditional aspect: throughout the film there are gestures and religious sayings by the main actors - prayers, praise to Allah and appeals to Him. Religion is the only proponent of the characters in the film against everyday difficulties. This is not extremist, Islamist religiosity, but an ordinary, conservative religiosity that is inherent in Egyptian society and of which no one is ashamed anymore. This religion is the answer cultivated by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's administration as a counterweight to the fanatical religiosity of the Muslim Brotherhood, which he ousted from power with the help of the Popular Army and widespread popular support ten years ago.
Summit in Egypt: Sisi, Mahmoud Abbas and Abdullah meet in El Alamein // Archive photo
The "June 30 Revolution" is called the mass popular demonstrations of opponents of then-President Mohamed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, who worked during his short term in office to radically and rapidly change Egypt's face in the direction of religious extremism. Morsi was the only fully democratically elected Egyptian president since the end of the monarchy in the early 50s.
The elections were made possible after the popular revolution, which in early 2011 led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak after 29 years in power. But the political opponents of the Muslim Brotherhood did not want to abandon the country to the extremist movement. They organized a large-scale and well-organized mass protest calling on Morsi to resign and hold new presidential elections, during which the headquarters and other branches of the Brotherhood in Cairo and throughout Egypt were attacked.
.., Photo: AP
Supporters of the Brotherhood, for their part, took to the streets to defend the elected administration. The next day, the military leadership announced that it was giving the country's political leadership a 48-hour extension to respond to the protesters' demands. Morsi and his aides rejected the ultimatum, while several senior government ministers and parliamentarians announced their resignations in solidarity with the protest movement.
On 3 July, in a televised address to the nation, then-Defense Minister General el-Sisi announced the end of Morsi's presidency and the appointment of the president of the Constitutional Court as interim president until new elections were held. Sisi was promoted to field marshal. Muslim Brotherhood leaders have been banned from leaving the country, and many of them, including ousted President Morsi, have been arrested and tried. He was subsequently sentenced to lengthy prison terms, and died in prison in 2019 without medical care.
Following the sequence of events, Brotherhood supporters organized a mass protest in August 2013 near the mosque named after the saint, Rabi'a al Adawiya, where Anwar Sadat's funeral was also held. During the dispersal of this protest, which at its peak was attended by 85,600 people, between 1 and 000,2014 demonstrators were killed. Since then, the raised hand with four fingers (Rabi'a, the fourth) has become a symbol of the Muslim Brotherhood movement around the world. Sisi resigned in early 97 and announced his candidacy for president, a position in which he won a majority of 2018 percent of the vote. He maintained that majority in the <> elections as well.
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From the outset, Sisi was chosen by Morsi as defense minister because he was known as a senior religious officer. Morsi also sought to placate Saudi Arabia, to which Sisi was close and which treats the "brothers" with great hostility. Sisi served as his country's military attaché in Riyadh. But Sisi's religious outlook was and still is very different from that of the Muslim Brotherhood, and is closer to the moderate and tolerant one currently promoted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
During my visit to Egypt, I was surprised to see that even though a decade has passed since Morsi's ouster, Egypt is still in a state of war against radical Islamic terrorism. Reports on television channels close to the government and full pages in the daily and weekly newspapers are devoted to the current and past activities of the Muslim Brotherhood's "terrorist gangs."
Capital of the Muslim Brotherhood
On the tenth anniversary of the Rabi'a Massacre, a documentary called "Kitchen Memories" was screened at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in early August, following a discussion on the Sisi administration's harsh repressive policy against the Brotherhood and other political movements that oppose it.
Human rights activists accused the Egyptian military leadership of planning a mass slaughter there in advance to deter anyone who tried to destabilize the central government again. "They wanted to kill them all," said one participant. The film, which has so far won the Swedish Oscar for Best Documentary, refers beyond the events of "Rabia" to "the death of Egyptian democracy and the dissipation of dreams and hopes that the Tahrir Square revolution gave way."
In response, the Egyptian media immediately launched an aggressive campaign against Britain and its "historic ties to the Muslim Brotherhood." The film was described as "new lies by the Brotherhood, designed to damage Egypt's name." The weekly Roz al-Yusuf, Egypt's first founded by a woman 98 years ago, recently dedicated its front page and a series of articles to "London, the refuge of extremists fleeing Egypt." The weekly accused the British authorities of an encouraging attitude towards radical Islamic movements and of turning Britain into a major stronghold of the Muslim Brotherhood since the 50s, when the first Brotherhood established themselves there and began to expand their religious, political, economic and academic influence.
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London is portrayed as the terrorist capital, and a network of contacts between British intelligence and the Muslim Brotherhood stretches from the 40s until the Rabi'a events in 2013, through the attempted assassination of Gamal Abdel Nasser, the assassination of Sadat and many other acts of terror. The weekly notes that Brothers has a fortune worth $10 billion in Britain, invested in various ventures.
The weekly October published a report prepared by Judge Mohammed Abdel Wahab Khafagi, vice president of the important legal body the Council of State, which states that the film "Kitchen Memories" is an imaginary distortion of the facts, and that the protest at the time was an armed group of the Brotherhood against the state.
By the way, it was Khafagi who issued the ruling forbidding the revelry at the grave of Rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzira in the city of Damanhur, and refused to approve the elevation of the rabbi's bones to Israel in order to prevent the "Judaization of Palestine." In another newspaper, the Muslim Brotherhood was accused of deliberately thwarting the Egyptian offensive in the 1948 "Palestine War" by promising to recruit millions of volunteers to the Royal Army and eventually sending only a few hundred.
A decade after their removal from power, do the Muslim Brotherhood and radical Islamic movements pose a real threat to the stability of the administration, or is it an attempt to divert public opinion from Egypt's problems, which Sisi, who is preparing for re-election as president in spring 2024, is struggling to solve?
"On the one hand, there is no doubt that the Egyptian government is very concerned about the activities of Islamist extremists on and around Egyptian soil," a European diplomat told me, requesting, like all Egyptian interlocutors, to remain anonymous, "The situation in the Sinai Peninsula is still not under full control, and the Egyptians are following with great concern the spread and strengthening of ISIS throughout Central Africa, including neighboring Sudan. Instability in Egypt's other neighbors – Ethiopia and Libya – is also a serious concern. Morsi's ouster a decade ago restored internal stability and security to Egypt at the cost of suppressing any opposition to the government. In fact, Sisi's move at the time saved the entire Middle East from falling into the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood and its partners. With all the concern about the fate of human rights in Egypt, we must remember that the alternative was not much different, but intended to exploit democracy to impose an authoritarian theocracy in Egypt."
As if
"Sisi has become a megalomaniac," estimates a European businessman working in Egypt, "destroying the country with his huge projects, which Egypt cannot afford. The Egyptian currency collapsed and lost 50 percent of its value within a year. Sisi is trying to get more financial aid from the Gulf states and Saudi Arabia. They, who supported him at the beginning of his career – Saudi Arabia was the first to welcome Morsi's ouster – are in no hurry to give him money, because they are no longer sure where that money is coming from. He applies to the International Monetary Fund for additional grants, but it is in no hurry to respond positively and be as generous as in his early years. Last year, he blocked all exports from Egypt for four months to stop inflation from soaring. There is not much logic in his economic moves."
As part of Sisi's efforts to obtain external financial support to realize his "Egypt 2030" vision, combined with the idea of establishing a "new republic" – a new political regime and economic order in the country, the Egyptian president is extending his hands everywhere: China is involved in the construction of the business "City" district in Egypt's new administrative capital, the Russians are supplying Egypt with 1,400 train cars to replenish the Egyptian railway fleet, Egypt and Russia are negotiating new trade agreements, And even with Turkey, the sponsor of the Muslim Brotherhood, Cairo seeks to strengthen economic cooperation.
Moreover, Egypt submitted an official application in July of this year to join the ranks of BRIC, the rival organization to the Western G7 group of industrialized countries, established by the four non-Western economic powers - Brazil, Russia, India and China. Sisi has learned the lesson from America's betrayal of Mubarak, and he is no longer willing to rely solely on Washington.
A pyramid in Egypt during a storm, photo: AP
Russia, for its part, is eager to return to Egypt, having been deported in disgrace by Sadat in the 70s. At the Russian-African summit in St. Petersburg at the end of July, Sisi was the chief guest of honor, and President Putin named Gamal Abdel Nasser as one of the greatest African leaders of all time. "Russia House" in Cairo also had a cartoon exhibition this summer, dedicated to the "lover of millions," Nasser. The latter was the one who opened Egypt's gates to Russia in the 50s and turned his country into a military and economic protégé of the Soviet Union. Today, local commentators say, "Egypt has become for Russia a gateway to Africa."
Dream of relocation
Every evening in the bourgeois Zamalek neighborhood, in the heart of Cairo, cheers and applause are heard. Young people in restaurants and cafés are promoting the return of electricity, which cuts off once a day for an hour and a half to two hours. In other parts of Cairo, power cuts are in the early morning.
In Egypt's peripheral communities, daily power outages can last up to six hours. Finding yourself at the height of the summer heat without electricity for the air conditioner or fan is an experience that can be extremely challenging.
Ostensibly, the Egyptian government seeks to "educate" its citizens to save electricity, not only because of a decrease in the amount of Egyptian gas extraction, but also because of a desire to export as much Egyptian gas as possible to Europe, thereby increasing state revenues. The organized power cuts, which the government is initiating and promising to deal with at the same time, are in addition to the steep price increases of basic food products: bread, rice, eggs, cooking oil, lentils, vegetables, fruits and meat. Inflation is at an all-time high. Salary increases for civil servants are not enough to meet monthly expenses. 60 percent of the Egyptian population still lives below the poverty line. 30 percent of Egyptians can afford to eat meat only once every few months. The government launched a campaign to encourage the eating of chicken legs so that the least could save on expenses. Ahead of the last Eid al-Adha holiday, a cleric from Al-Azhar University issued a fatwa allowing Muslim believers to sacrifice chickens instead of camels, sheep, goats and cattle for saving reasons, an initiative that sparked outrage.
Muhammad Ramadan from the movie "A Zero",
The young people I talk to – pharmacists, doctors, engineers – are completely desperate. "Only those who have succeeded, through family ties or equity, in integrating into the Egyptian business world – banking or high-tech – can live well," says A., 28, who graduated from pharmacy studies and works as an employee by profession.
"The chances and conditions for obtaining a visa to Europe are very low, so Egyptians my age are willing to risk illegal immigration, which could cost them their lives. But they don't see a future here. The Europeans support Sisi because they know that if Egypt deteriorates again, the masses of Egyptians will seek to reach them, and they are not interested in it. For them, Sisi is a guarantee to prevent another wave of mass migration. But illegal immigration continues relentlessly, despite reports from Europe of the rise of the far right and neo-Nazis."
"With my monthly salary, I can't afford to leave my parents' house," G., a 31-year-old practicing physician who works at a government hospital, told me. "We don't have money for rent, we don't have money for a car, we don't have money to go out and eat in restaurants. Others also have no money for food at all. During our shifts, which can be very long, we try to be in the operating rooms as much as possible, because these are the only rooms equipped with air conditioning.
"We are hopeless and want to leave. But even in order to immigrate, even to a country like Bahrain, you need a large sum of money. You have to work a lot to accumulate it. Not everyone has family help. We are a generation that no longer believes in political change for the better. What was is what will be, if not worse. The rich get richer, and the lower middle classes have been completely wiped out and joined the cycle of poverty. The demographic growth is so high that there is concern that in a few years we will reach mass hunger due to the lack of national agricultural infrastructure."
"Egyptians like to blame others instead of asking themselves what they can do to change the situation," F., a businesswoman in her 40s, told me. Its over-reliance on the government sector as an economic engine is problematic. The private business sector is not yet involved in the development of the Egyptian economy as it was during the Mubarak era.
The market in Cairo, photo: Eldad Beck
"But there is no doubt that Sisi has a far-reaching vision for Egypt to become a more modern state, where the weaker sectors receive services from the state that improve their quality of life. He invests in advancing the education system, advancing the health system and developing a kind of medical insurance for all. Even the big plans to build new cities are aimed at gradually solving the severe housing shortage and moving people from slums to better living conditions."
Miss Mubarak
The harsh living conditions make many Egyptians yearn for President Mubarak's rule. A kind of built-in nostalgia for days gone by and no more. "Under Mubarak there was more democracy, under Mubarak the economy was stronger," I hear. I point out to my interlocutors that Mubarak, who died three and a half years ago, after being released from detention and acquitted of all charges against him, has completely disappeared from the public sphere.
Nasser, Sadat and, of course, Sisi are commemorated everywhere. Sisi's image appears in advertisements on almost every street corner, along with the slogans "Long live Egypt" and "All for the citizen." Sisi appears on signs already slated for the upcoming election campaign, along with his major achievements: the expansion of the Suez Canal, which has not yet met its economic forecasts, the construction of the new administrative capital, to which the relocation of government ministries has been repeatedly postponed, the construction of new cities, most of which are still uninhabited, and various agricultural projects.
The government has set up government markets across the country, where food prices are reduced. It also plans to continue privatizing dozens of government companies that are not of strategic importance, as has already been done in recent years on a smaller scale. If Sisi's vision is realized, Egypt will indeed become a new state. Still, this is a gamble that could also lead Egypt to bankruptcy. Egypt's external debt has reached an all-time high: $165.4 billion. But GDP has also grown to a record $497 billion and is expected to continue growing in the coming years.
"Remember when they mockingly called Mubarak 'the laughing cow,' like French cheese?" I ask those who miss the former president. Some of them were high school students when he was knocked out of his chair. "Today it is forbidden to call him in public or on social media derogatory names," R., also a doctor, tells me. Their dignity must not be violated, and those who do so may find themselves in prison."
However, criticism of Sisi, especially for the huge expenses associated with the construction of new presidential palaces, lavish public buildings and glittering mosques, is also being expressed online, in increasingly overt ways. This is despite the fact that the Cybercrime Law, adopted in 2018, allows authorities effective and fairly broad censorship of what happens on the Internet and social networks, where a hashtag war is being waged between "Go, you Sisi" supporters and "We're with you, you Sisi" fans.
In a speech given on the tenth anniversary of the "June 30 Revolution," Sisi praised Egypt's willingness to sacrifice and patience in the face of the great economic challenges facing their country. "I believe that the generation whose efforts and patience brought Egypt out of chaos and anxiety for stability is capable of continuing the transition to the development phase," he said.
In the coming weeks, he and then the general public will be presented with the results of the "national dialogue" he initiated in order to give the Egyptian population the feeling that it is a full partner in changing the face of Egypt. This dialogue, which lasted about a year and a half, deliberately excluded the Muslim Brotherhood, which is accused by the administration and its supporters of trying to sabotage the discourse, which is supposed to lay the foundations for the new Egyptian republic, the second. So are the left-wing parties, which refuse to participate in the dialogue and thus give a certificate of approval to the government they accuse of destroying democracy and persecuting political opponents.
One of Sisi's records is the unprecedented number of mosques built or renovated during his presidency: 10,350 nationwide. During my visit to Egypt, the reopening ceremony of the Lady Nafisa Mosque, one of the largest and most important mosques in the Islamic part of Old Cairo, was broadcast live on television.
Also participating in the ceremony was the head of the Daudi Buhara community, a Shiite community based in India today but rooted in Fatimid Egypt, the dynasty that made Cairo the capital of Egypt. This community financed a significant part of the renovation work on the historic mosque. I arrived at this mosque two hours after it reopened. I found out that the restoration work was still underway, so the mosque that was reopened by the president is still closed.
In any case, the visit to the alleys of Old Cairo was spectacular: more mosques have been restored, commercial areas have been cleaned, beggars and other nagging people are no longer noticeable. One of Sisi's flagship plans is to invest in Egypt's historic sites to make them accessible and safe tourist destinations. The Khan al-Khalili market area has been upgraded.
"To Sisi's credit, Egypt has become safer under his leadership," a local tourism businessman told me. According to M., "Egypt is still suffering from two international events that have hampered its economic recovery processes – the coronavirus crisis and the Ukraine war. But if the government succeeds in its plans and the number of tourists increases, it will bring a lot of money into the state coffers. The number of tourists who arrived in Egypt last year stood at 11.7 million, an increase of 46 percent compared to the previous year, which was another corona year. In the first half of the year alone, 7 million tourists came here. An all-time high was set in 2010, with 14.7 million tourists. With all that Egypt has to offer and with all the government development plans, there is no reason why we should not also reach 40 million tourists a year, like some European countries."
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