Israeli journalist tells Sisi to care for poor Egyptians not Palestinian issue

An Israeli journalist has urged Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi not to too distracted by the issue of moving the American embassy to Jerusalem and to instead focus on combatting the severe poverty in his country.

Roi Kais referred to a picture of an 85-year old blind Egyptian woman living in a cardboard box selling vegetables, which caused a stir in Egypt.

Kais, an Arab affairs editor at Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, tweeted on 28 January: “With all due respect to the embassy issue, such pictures are what really should bother Al-Sisi who said today at a conference in Aswan: ‘We are very poor, but we are moving forward’.”

Al-Sisi had commented, for the first time, on US President Donald Trump’s administration’s intention to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, during his talk with the youth in the city of Aswan on 27 January. He said that Egypt is working to ensure that such a move would not complicate the Palestinian issue any further.

He also added: “Our position regarding the Palestinian issue is clear. It is a critical point in the history of the region, and the Palestinians should be granted peace.”