El Arish Experiencing Changes

El Arish, after little more than a week under Egyptian administration is experiencing the strains and pains of change. Many of the town’s younger residents are trying to cross illegally into Israel-held territory to find work. Others have resorted to the ancient tradition of smuggling, a two-way traffic in which mainly Bedouins are involved.

The work problem stems from the Egyptians’ refusal to allow El Arish workers to retain jobs they held in Israel before the transfer of authority on May 26, Employment opportunities are scarce in the town and wages are higher on the Israeli said of the line. A lively trade has developed in Israeli identity cards which sell on the black market for several thousand Israeli Pounds. They enable the holder to cross the demarcation line to seek employment in Israeli-held-Sinai or the Gaza Strip.

An Israeli patrol recently captured about 30 El Arish Arabs who entered their territory illegally and presumably will return them to the Egyptians, Smuggling meanwhile is centered near the large Bedouin encampment of Sheikh Zuweid. Commodities that are cheaper in El Arish than in Israel are transported by camel and exchanged for items unavailable in the Egyptian town. Three Bedouins smuggling tea from Israel to El Arish were recently fired on by an Egyptian patrol. One was killed another wounded and the third escaped.

Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan who is presently in Cairo to discuss the normalization of relations with Egyptian officials, fold reporters there yesterday that the problem of the unemployment in El Arish is on the agenda. But he insisted that it could be solved only by reciprocity. “We will not accept a situation that El Arish workers will work in Gaza but Israeli fishermen cannot fish in the Bardawil lake” south of El Arish, he said. “Either the border is open to both parties or it will be closed to both. The principle must be reciprocity.”