EGYPR: The spy who embarrassed me

 

Jailan Halawi questions how the new Egypt will respond to an alleged Israeli spy

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Four days following his arrest, the 27-year-old American-Israeli Ilan Grapel, arrested Sunday 12 June on charges of espionage, is still making headlines. While similar cases have kept the public intrigued, Grapel left them that and divided over the truth of the matter. The big question is, if Grapel is proven guilty, how will the authorities respond in post-revolution Egypt?

The case at hand is whether Grapel is indeed a spy or simply a student who was bumbling and inept.

Reports by Egyptian authorities paint the picture of an American-Israeli citizen who entered the country on a tourist visa and posed himself to the public as a journalist freelancing for various European news agencies. Under such a guise, Grapel was present in all the revolution's hot spots including Tahrir Square. He reportedly conducted interviews and assessed public opinion on ongoing events as a stringer. Yet, when arrested, he failed to provide any documents supporting his CV.

According to his parents and friends, Grapel is a law student at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia in the US who was on a three-month, university-sponsored accredited programme to help refugees. Perhaps, but that does not justify his behaviour and the circles in which he mingled. 

Grapel faces charges of "encouraging protesters to perform destructive acts, and to form a divide between the army and the people in order to spread chaos and create a security vacuum." He is currently remanded for 15 days by the state security prosecutor pending further investigation. If proven guilty, Grapel could be sentenced to life or serve from 10 to 15 years in prison. 

"There is definitely incriminating evidence [against Grapel] that the prosecutors did not yet reveal, otherwise they [prosecutors] would not have announced it at such a sensitive time," sources close to the interrogation told Al-Ahram Weekly speaking on customary condition of anonymity. 

Grapel is not only identified by Egyptian authorities as a spy, but worse, as an officer in the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. 

A former paratrooper in the Israeli Defence Forces, Grapel fought in the second Lebanon war where he was wounded. As heroic as it may seem to his fellow citizens, many observers believe that taking part in the war goes contrary to what one of his colleagues in Baltimore said, that Grapel was a human rights activist who believed in the rights of the Palestinians to declare their state and the right of the Lebanese people to resist occupation.

When the news of Grapel's arrest broke on Monday, the Israeli press said that since the Israeli Embassy in Cairo realised that the Egyptians were handling the matter through the American Embassy, the Foreign Ministry decided to obtain updates from the US Embassy in Cairo and the State Department in Washington. On Monday, Grapel met an American consular in Cairo who checked he was being treated fairly and put him in contact with his family in the US.

On Tuesday, a messenger from the Israeli Embassy in Cairo visited Grapel and on the same day Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman denied the charges levelled against Grapel in statements to Israeli military radio.

Lieberman described Grapel as a student with "bizarre and irresponsible behaviour who has no ties with Israeli, American or even lunar intelligence services." 

Lieberman further described the Egyptian authorities' move as a "mistake" that is equally "bizarre" and urged an immediate end to the issue. "I hope that everything will be over in the coming days and that will be achieved by a deportation," Lieberman said.

Lieberman's comments angered many political activists who rejected interference by anyone in Egyptian sovereignty over its land and criticised what one described as Lieberman's haughty tone.

Innocent or guilty, the alleged spy has become the talk of the town and the main topic of debate among political activists and ordinary folk. The major issue among activists is that if Grapel is proven guilty, what will the authorities do with him?

"We've had enough of making concessions," said political activist Gihan Nabil. "Post-revolution Egypt is one where the rule of law prevails. We take no orders from anyone. We are mature enough to know how to implement the law. If found guilty, the spy should serve his sentence [in Egypt] and if not, then he should be released."

"Before the revolution, we exported gas to Israel at the lowest price and stood with them against our brothers [in the Arab world] and deported their spies," said school teacher Mustafa Naguib. "My priority is what will the country do with him if proven guilty? It puts us in a confrontation with Israel but we are no longer the same people who would accept favouring political considerations over our sense of nationalism." 

One theory making the rounds is that in an attempt to understand how post-revolution Egypt sees Israel, the Jewish state arranged for such a confrontation, a trial balloon. 

As soon as authorities announced the arrest, scores of Grapel's pictures were leaked to the press. In some quarters, instead of incriminating him in the eyes of the public, the photos brought out a counter debate that prompted the funniest of Egyptian sense of humour and sarcasm. Grapel took pictures and videos of himself almost everywhere he went, posting them on his private page on Facebook. The alleged Mossad spy has become the main topic on Facebook and Twitter, with posts carrying dozens of jokes about how naive his actions were if he was really a spy. 

Between those who believe he's a spy and those who don't, tweets and posts on Facebook included these statements: "The clumsiest of all spies," and in making fun of the number of charges against him, "Thank God they didn't accuse him of breaking into the former State Security Intelligence offices and burning the documents."

Across press pages, photos of Grapel were shown everywhere, including pictures of him in Al-Azhar Mosque with some reports alleging he lied to worshippers and claimed being a Muslim to illicit their opinion on domestic issues.

"The spy tagged Egyptian intelligence instead of the Mossad. What a dork," read one post in reference to Grapel's page on Facebook that had all his pictures documenting his life. 

The funniest post: "Word has it that the Mossad are the ones who reported Grapel [to Egyptian intelligence] when they found him spending too much money on sightseeing and outings."

But isn't a spy supposed to act like one, be as clandestine as possible? According to a former political expert speaking on condition of anonymity, "one of the tactics of intelligence is to make themselves so obvious and clumsy in their behaviour that they disperse any doubts. 

"It is a challenge and an embarrassing situation for all parties," said the source. "If he turns out to be a spy, it would be embarrassing for the Mossad to send such an amateur, and would be equally embarrassing for the Egyptian authorities to let him go. The biggest embarrassment, however, would be if Grapel were found innocent."