An Egyptian playwright known for his controversial stance on normalising cultural ties with Israel said he was prevented from leaving Egypt to receive a prize at an awards ceremony in the Jewish state on Tuesday.
Ali Salem, the author of over two dozen satirical plays, explained he was blocked at the Taba land border on Wednesday and Cairo airport on Sunday by officials who said he did not have the proper exit papers for his trip.
The dramatist, who has also visited the Jewish state several times and writted a book called My Visit to Israel, had been due to receive an honoury doctorate at Ben Gurion University in southern Israel.
He said the passport authorities in Cairo and Taba then made enquiries into obtaining the necessary document and were told ”that there was no authorisation for me”.
”I did not understand this measure stipulating the need to obtain a travel authorisation. I did not know such a thing existed and could not imagine that it could,” he said.
Salem, expelled from the Egyptian writers’ union in 2001 for his pro-Israel stance, had caused controversy four months ago when he attended a conference in Israel on information technology in the Middle East.
Leading Egyptian intellectual organisations, which continue to reject the establishment of cultural ties with Israel and boycott the country’s cultural output despite a 1979 peace treaty between the two states, at the time blasted Salem’s visit as a sell-out of Egyptian interests.
The document demanded of Salem — ”An Authorisation to Leave the Territory” — usually needs to be obtained by workers suspected of travelling on a tourist visa but planning a long-term stay abroad.
But it is also asked of political figures deemed controversial by the state.
Salem said he did not know if the most recent incident was due to his attitude towards Israel. He said the Israeli novelist and writer David Grossmann would be collecting the award and giving his speech in his place. – Sapa-AFP