The announcement of the inauguration of the Israeli National Library a digital archive for the Egyptian government newspaper Al-Ahram sparked widespread anger among journalists and media professionals in Egypt.
On Wednesday, the account "Israel Speaks Arabic" of the Israeli Foreign Ministry announced this controversial step, pointing out that the new project places copies of the ancient Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram in the hands of readers everywhere, since its founding in 1875.
Al-Ahram is the largest Egyptian state-owned newspaper. It was founded by the Lebanese brothers Bishara and Selim Takla, at the end of the nineteenth century AD, and was edited by senior Egyptian journalists over its 146-year history.
The Israeli announcement did not reveal the source of the Israeli National Library’s acquisition of Al-Ahram’s archive, but Cairo 24 said that Al-Ahram’s digital archive belongs to the American East View platform, a platform that includes a huge collection of archives of a large number of international newspapers.
The news site added, without clarifying the source of its information, that the American East View platform offers the digital archive of Al-Ahram newspaper for a fee (unspecified);
Which led to its availability to researchers of the Israeli National Library.
In agreement with the previous information, journalist Mahmoud Kamel, a member of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate Council, said: According to what I received from informed sources (which he did not disclose) at Al-Ahram Foundation, following the dismissal of Mamdouh Al-Wali from the presidency of Al-Ahram’s board of directors, Omar Sami, the acting chairman of the board at the time, sold Al-Ahram archives. An American company called "East View" for $185,000.
And Kamel added through his Facebook account: To complete the farce, the contract for the sale was signed by one party without the signature of the representative of the American company, and the value of the suspicious deal has not yet entered the Al-Ahram treasury!
He continued: The legal affairs of Al-Ahram Foundation conducted an investigation into the incident (the date has not been set) which ended in nothing (..) This catastrophic information calls for urgent investigation by all state agencies if it is proven true.
How did it get out and how did it get there?
In turn, the opposition journalist Khaled Al-Balshi asked, saying: The question remains in the Al-Ahram Archive story, how did this treasure reach Israel?
How did he get out of the pyramids to make it available through a library in the Zionist entity, and at what cost?
Al-Balshi went on to denounce, through his Facebook account: Instead of making the archives from the same pyramids available to the Egyptians before others, so that the newspaper and the researchers benefit, and we all benefit from what we have of real buried treasures?
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He continued: It is a question about the issue of selling Egypt's heritage for a long time instead of us (the Egyptians) exploiting it and making it available to everyone, a question that will remain as long as we treat this heritage as a national security.
While journalist Ahmed Kamel criticized the incident on his Facebook account, saying: The Zionists desecrated the Al-Ahram archive, as they desecrated our land and our Aqsa Mosque, and added: It is a shame to push the (Supreme Media Council) to investigate and protest against that disaster, and to reveal any corruption that had a role in that.
Social media platforms were also buzzing with criticism of the incident, while Al-Ahram newspaper did not issue, until Sunday noon, any comment in this regard, or clarification of information about the allegations of selling its archive to the East View platform.
It is worth noting that Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979, after 4 wars between them, and apart from official relations, large sectors of Egyptians remain rejecting normalization with Israel.