By Hatem Y. Ezz EldinPort Said is a small city that lies in the northeast of Egypt and extends about 30 kilometers along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The city of 700,000 was the first gate through which the British entered Egypt in 1882 and was also the scene of the tripartite aggression launched by France, Britain and Israel in 1956. The people of Port Said played a historic role in defending themselves against aggression. The withdrawal of the last foreign soldier on December 23, 1956 was an incident that the city and the whole country recall with honor and pride. Last week, Port Said Stadium was the scene of one of the worst athletic disasters in the world when around 74 Al-Ahly fans were killed and hundreds were injured after a football match between their team and Port Said's Al-Masry. Following investigations and reports from eyewitnesses that blamed the recklessness of security forces and the involvement of thugs in the bloody event, it became clear that Port Said once again faced a new kind of tripartite aggression. This time the aggression came from domestic forces; namely, irresponsible security personnel, remnants of the former regime and thugs. Some people still do not believe that security forces in Port Said failed in their duties. They argue that any real involvement of such forces in the event would have inflamed the crisis and would have doubled the number of victims. Others blame the victims themselves; a concept that has unfortunately been widely circulating in Egypt since the January uprising. Eyewitnesses of the Port Said massacre said that hundreds of black-uniformed police with helmets and shields stood in lines doing absolutely nothing and that some of them even reportedly encouraged the killers. The reasons behind this tragic event vary, but they all lead to the conclusion that the real beneficiaries are those who do not want to see a stable Egypt in the post-Mubarak era, i.e., the remnants of the toppled regime. The remnants of Mubarak's regime have successfully drawn on the weakened police apparatus, chaos and increased number of thugs in the street to fulfill their target. In a recent decision, the government ordered that ex-Mubarak officials at Torah prison be split between five prisons. However, the fear of planned chaos is still there and grows with every failure of the government to bring the criminals to justice. We should understand that the new tripartite aggression on courageous Port Said is a message that does not only target a group of enthusiastic young people, but all of society. The objective is to divide people and make hatred among them a common language in revenge for the successful, unified action that ousted one of the worst dictatorships in the Middle East. I am sure that the people of Port Said will resist the new aggression on their city as they did before in 1956, and will again inspire all Egyptians with the values of redemption and sacrifice that the enemies of the country are struggling to destroy. (Hatem Y. Ezz Eldin is a political researcher based in Jeddah. He can be reached at: [email protected]) __
