Egypt Ousts U.S. Journalist Who Works for the Jerusalem Post

An American journalist who works for the Jerusalem Post was ousted from Egypt yesterday. Joan Borsten, who also writes for the Los Angeles Times and holds Israeli and American passports, was the second staff member of Israel’s English-language daily so treated in the past month.

She had visited Egypt 14 times during the last 18 months. But when she arrived at Cairo airport at 4 a.m. local time yesterday on a flight from India, Borsten’s passport was confiscated and she was forced to remain in the transit lounge for six hours under surveillance by Egyptian security agents. She was subsequently placed aboard an Egyptian airliner and flown to Tel Aviv.

Last month Egyptian authorities deported Annan Safadi, the Jerusalem Post’s Middle East affairs editor, after he wrote an article about alleged differences between President Anwar Sadat and Vice President Hosni Mubarak. A ban against the paper was announced in Cairo although it was not immediately clear whether it applied to all Jerusalem Post reporters or Safadi alone.

Several days ago, an official of the Egyptian Embassy in Tel Aviv informed the Post that Borsten would be admitted to Egypt on a U.S. passport as a representative of the LA Times.

Israeli political circles were said to regard the Egyptian attitude toward Post reporters as “serious.” Efforts to have the ban lifted have failed so far. Borsten said she told immigration officials in Cairo

that she was on assignment from the LA Times but was informed by them that her name was on a “black list.” The Egyptians told her she could not enter the country for political reasons but did not mention her affiliation with the Jerusalem Post, Borsten said on her return to Israel.