Sana Hassan, an Egyptian writer and journalist now visiting Israel, may have her passport withdrawn by the Egyptian government, according to reports reaching here from Cairo. According to Egyptian sources, Ms. Hassan, who is a Ph.D. candidate in government at Harvard, is considered more American than Egyptian since she has spent so much time in the United States.
Egyptian sources also said that Ms. Hassan is not favored by either the Egyptian government or Arab activists in the United States. They said Ms. Hassan, whose father was an Egyptian Ambassador to Washington, is divorced from her husband a high Egyptian official.
Meanwhile, a dispute has cropped, up here whether Ms. Hassan, the first Egyptian journalist to visit Israel since the Six-Day War, should have been granted a visa. Opponents noted that previously “objective” Arab journalists, who were recommended by Israelis, came to Israel and turned out to be outspoken adversaries of Israel at best, and spies at worst. Ms. Hassan’s visa was granted in Boston on the recommendation of Mrs. Suzy Eban, wife of former Israel Foreign Minister Abba Eban, who had seen her debate with Arie Eliav in New York.
Ms. Hassan, meanwhile, is touring Israel, meeting Israelis privately and on the streets as part of her expected three-month stay here. This week she met with Knesset members Moshe Dayan. Arie Eliav and Dov Zakin. Eliav is a leading Labor Party dove with whom she debated the Arab-Israel issue at the American Jewish Committee’s annual meeting last May in New York. Zakin is a member of Mapam.
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