Word: councils
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...protected the drug syndicates for a price, reaping millions of dollars from the opium bounty. But ordinary residents benefited from the drug trade too; it provided a lucrative crop for 70,000 farmers and their families, work for laborers and a source of graft for officials. Even the tribal council played a role in the trade, adjudicating disputes between drug lords...
...Egyptian national consciousness. To the authorities of North Sinai, then, the sheer notion that there were Bedouin willing to side with Israel over Egypt constituted nothing short of the most serious treason. "Journalists should depend on official sources," declared Mosaad Arug, a member of the North Sinai local council, in a meeting convened to confront TIME's reporter about the story. "The people you met are not in charge and should not be trusted." More than 30 governing councilmen and -women - including a few Bedouin - crowded around a large conference table, many of them brimming with anger...
...Council members shouted demands for the names of sources and locations. They expressed indignation at the mention of pro-Israel Bedouin and the report that some Bedouin even cheered for Algeria (Egypt's fiercest soccer rival) during the final round of the African Cup of Nations. Several council members launched into wider diatribes about U.S. policy in the Middle East and Israeli conspiracies in the Sinai. But most of all, they wanted the reporter to apologize for tarnishing Sinai's name. "You interviewed smugglers. And those people are outlaws," said a council member, Abdel Hamid Salem. "President Mubarak...
When names and an apology weren't given, the anger shifted to pandemonium. "Zionist!" a man yelled as the meeting broke up. A letter submitted to TIME by the council accused TIME, along with the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz and the American news website Global Post, of fomenting "irritation, division, unrest and instability in Sinai" and of "creating a gap between the people of Sinai and the government...
Local authorities insist that the Bedouin are not discriminated against, that those in prison are there on legitimate criminal charges, and that despite what many Bedouin and rights groups say, Bedouin can serve in the police and military. Abdallah Jahama, a Bedouin council member who had served as a Member of Parliament under the ruling National Democratic Party, said he knew of "more than 50" Sinai Bedouin who were serving in the police or army. But when asked to name one, he couldn't. And when asked to provide a Bedouin soldier's telephone number, he provided...