Word: bedouin
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...along Egypt's border with Hamas-ruled Gaza via underground tunnels has skyrocketed in the past two years, driven by an Israeli blockade on the Strip. Smuggled goods have become the Palestinian territory's only lifeline outside of aid and a valuable source of income to Sinai's marginalized Bedouin. But from a security standpoint, the trade is a round-the-clock law-and-order concern - particularly guarding against the transport of weapons and persons - and one that Mwafi says yields daily intercepts and arrests. "We are always in a situation because we are near Gaza and Israel," says...
...hardly Mexico. But North Sinai's significance in the broader scheme of Egyptian national security is huge. Egypt fears spillover from Gaza's internal crises and has warned of foreign-terrorist infiltration via the tunnels. Asked about a recent protest outside a state security center by several dozen Bedouin women who were demanding trials or release for their loved ones, the governor only chuckled and said, "You are a journalist or you are from the human rights [organizations]?" (See "Egypt's New Challenge: Sinai's Restive Bedouins...
...Sinai's people are mostly Bedouin - a formerly nomadic Arab people with a distinct culture and dialect - though Mwafi is unsure of their exact percentage of the population. The Bedouin in Sinai are Egyptian and have been for as long as Sinai has been Egyptian - but that hasn't quieted a modern history fraught with tension and mutual distrust. Cairo has received sharp local criticism in recent months for its construction of a new subterranean barrier along Egypt's Gaza border, meant to cut off smuggling. Analysts say the heightened crackdown on the lucrative underground trade, coupled with years...
Last month, Bedouin killed two policemen and freed suspects who were on their way to a court hearing. And in November, clashes injured 11 police officers when they tried to seize cement bound for the Gaza tunnels. (There is precedent for worse: in November 2008, violence erupted after police killed three Bedouin during a protest; Bedouin retaliated by kidnapping 25 police officers and overrunning a police post. In 2007, Bedouin protesters set fire to the ruling-party headquarters in Al-Arish.) (See the line of political succession in Egypt...
Local authorities are extremely sensitive about the state of the Bedouin, even if it is reporting on how Bedouin feel about the government. In February, TIME published an article that chronicled the lives and politics of Bedouin who were at odds with the Egyptian government. TIME's sources ranged from wealthy arms smugglers to village farmers and the impoverished desert inhabitants of huts made of twigs. But the sentiments they expressed were the same: The Egyptian government had failed them. Not only that, but in some communities, anger at government neglect and mistreatment ran so high that Bedouin said they...