Egypt deposited $38.15 million in a Swiss bank account Monday, completing the bills of sale for the Avia Sonesta Hotel and the Rafi Nelson Resort Village in Taba.
The transaction removed the last obstacle to the transfer of the Taba enclave and its tourist facilities to Egyptian ownership and control, scheduled to occur at noon Wednesday.
Israeli army engineers spent Tuesday moving the Israeli frontier control post some 100 yards north to the Israeli side of the new border, while Egyptian workers put up similar facilities on Egypt’s side of the border.
The Hebrew signs in the former Avia Sonesta Hotel, now renamed the Taba Sonesta Hotel, have already been replaced by signs in Arabic. And the hotel staff, including the switchboard, are already answering guests in English rather than in Hebrew.
Egyptian Tourism Minister Fuad Sultan and Energy Minister Mahir Abazah were due to arrive in Taba on Tuesday, and Prime Minister Atef Sedki and Interior Minister Zaki Badr were due Wednesday.
They will participate in a gala Egyptian flag-raising ceremony, to be attended by many guests and journalists from Cairo.
The Israeli flag-lowering ceremony and official withdrawal from Taba at 11:59 a.m. Wednesday morning will be a far lower-key affair.
The only Israeli who appears not to agree that Taba will be Egyptian after noon Wednesday is Israel Broadcasting Authority Director Uri Porat.
IBA technicians involved in covering the ceremonies have demanded “overseas pay” for their work from midday Wednesday. But Porat has rejected their demand, saying that what is changing is the sovereignty over the area, and not the technicians’ work conditions.
Meanwhile, Israel employees of the Avia Sonesta are holding a sit-down strike in a large Bedouin tent they have set up just across the Israeli border. They are demanding separation compensation at a rate of 350 percent of the normal separation pay.
This is similar to the rate paid by the government to residents and employers of Sharm el-Shcikh and other Sinai facilities forced to withdraw from the region when the Sinai peninsula was returned to Egypt.
Sonesta Hotel owner Eli Papushado has offered 175 percent severance pay to employees not wishing to work at the hotel under Egyptian control.
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