The UN ‘List of Shame’ & an Israel-Egypt Gas Dispute: A Media Arabic Briefing | Media Arabic Booster 06/24

June 2024 saw international pressure mounting from multiple directions, and this Media Arabic Booster analyzes two major stories reflecting that.

First, we’ll look at the headline from al-Masry al-Youm covering Israel’s addition to the UN’s “list of shame.” Then, we dive deep into a report by al-Arabi al-Jadeed that investigates whether Israel cut off natural gas to Egypt as a form of political blackmail related to the Gaza conflict and the ICJ lawsuit.

This post will give you the vocabulary needed to discuss energy security, international law, and diplomatic pressure.

A close look at a headline

Headlines in Arabic media are generally easy to understand – but there are also some tricky words.

al-Masry al-Youm: Israel on the “List of Shame”

On Saturday, June 8, 2024, the Egyptian newspaper al-Masry al-Youm (المصري اليوم) published the following headline on its frontage:

What is the reason and background for this article? For the first time, the Secretary-General of the United Nations has placed the Israeli Defense Forces on the so-called “list of shame”.

This annual list names armed groups and military forces that recruit children, harm them, commit sexual violence, or attack schools and hospitals. The list is part of a report on “Children and Armed Conflict,” which aims to hold violators accountable and protect the rights of children in war zones. Being on this list means violating international laws for the safety of children in conflict zones.

Let’s see how this renders in Arabic.

Let’s focus on the word العار. There are two roots which may produce the same output:

ع-ي-ر ⇔ عارٌ

The I-verb عارَ – يَعيرُ means to stray, to wander; to come and go. The II-verb عَيَّرَ – يُعَيِّرُ عَلَى means to insult; to abuse. From this root, we get the noun عارٌ (a regular noun with regular case endings) which is used in the above headline. عارٌ means shame, disgrace. The plural of عارٌ is أَعْيَارٌ.

ع-ر-ي ⇔ عارٍ

The I-verb يَعْرَى – عَرِيَ عَنْ means to be naked; to be exposed; also: to be free/bare of. The noun عارٍ means naked, nude; also: void (خالٍ). It is an active participle (اِسْمُ الْفاعِلِ). The plural forms are عارُونَ and عُرَاةٌ or feminine عارِياتٌ and عُرَاةٌ. For example: flawless (عارٍ مِن كُلِّ عَيْبٍ). Remark: Notice the ending! عارٍ is a so-called noun with a reduced, incomplete ending (اِسْمٌ مَنْقُوصٌ) – if you don’t know it, check out this article.

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Vocabulary list

All words marked in color above are explained here.

Translation of an article

Let’s look at parts of a longer newspaper article in Arabic. We will translate each sentence carefully. The highlighted words are in the vocabulary list below.

al-Arabi al-Jadeed: “Did Israel cut off Egypt’s gas supplies to politically blackmail it?”

On June 13, 2024, the following analysis was published in the Qatari-owned London-based newspaper al-Arabi al-Jadeed (العربي الجديد). It deals with the supply of natural gas from Israel to Egypt and whether and how Israel may have used this recently to put pressure on Egypt.

Let’s now take a closer look at a few complete paragraphs.

هل قطعت إسرائيل الغاز عن مصر لابتزازها سياسيًا؟

Did Israel cut off Egypt’s gas supplies to politically blackmail it?

Section 1

ربط خبراء وسياسيون مصريون بين التراجع المصري عن الانضمام إلى جنوب أفريقيا في مقاضاة إسرائيل أمام محكمة العدل الدولية، وبين إقدام الجانب الإسرائيلي باتخاذ إجراء عقابي بتعطيل شحنات غاز كانت مقررة لمصر نهاية شهر مايو/أيار الماضي، ما أدى إلى تفاقم أزمة إمدادات الطاقة التي ضاعفت أزمة انقطاعات التيار الكهربائي. سبب الربط بشكل أساسي هو أنه لم تحدث أية خطوات عملية مصرية على صعيد دعم الدعوى في لاهاي، التي اتُهمت فيها إسرائيل بارتكاب جرائم الإبادة الجماعية في قطاع غزة.

Egyptian experts and politicians have linked Egypt’s backing down on joining South Africa in suing Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to the Israeli side’s decision to take punitive measures by disrupting gas shipments that were due to reach Egypt at the end of May, leading to an escalation of the energy supply crisis that has exacerbated power outages. The main reason for establishing this link is that Egypt has not taken any practical steps to support the case in The Hague, in which Israel is accused of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.

Section 2

فضلًا عن ذلك، وصلت توجيهات إلى وسائل الإعلام المملوكة للشركة المتحدة المحسوبة على جهاز المخابرات في مصر بعدم ذكر التحرك المفترض الذي سبق أن أعلنت عنه القاهرة، في 12 مايو/أيار الماضي، بعزمها الانضمام لدعم الدعوى المقدمة من جنوب أفريقيا، مع تركيز التعليمات على أن التحرك المصري منصب بالأساس على الجوانب الإنسانية مع الحفاظ على دور الوسيط للقاهرة.

Additionally, instructions were sent to the media outlets owned by United Media Services, which is affiliated with Egypt’s intelligence apparatus, to not mention the supposed move that was previously announced by Cairo on May 12 regarding its intention to join the lawsuit filed by South Africa, while insisting that the Egyptian move is primarily focused on the humanitarian aspect and Cairo’s mediating role.

Section 3

وأشار مصدر مصري في حديثٍ لـ”العربي الجديد” إلى أن الجانب الإسرائيلي “استند في هذا الإجراء إلى بند في عقود الغاز الموقعة بين مصر وإسرائيل خاص بإمكانية وقف الإمدادات من دون شروط جزائية أو غرامات، حال تعذر الأوضاع الأمنية”. وكشف المصدر أن ما ضاعف تأثير الإجراء الإسرائيلي هو تباطؤ شحنات مواد بترولية كانت مقررة في الوقت ذاته من السعودية، كانت تحصل عليها مصر بأسعار تمييزية وبنظام دفع ميسر.

Speaking to Al-Araby al-Jadeed, an Egyptian source indicated that the Israeli side “based this measure on a clause in the gas contracts signed between Egypt and Israel, which allows for the possibility of stopping supplies without punitive conditions or fines, if the security situation becomes difficult.” According to the source, what deepened the impact of the Israeli measure was the slow progress of other fuel shipments that should have been delivered at the same time from Saudi Arabia, which Egypt was getting at preferential prices and concessional payment terms (~ installments?).

Section 4

نائب مدير مركز الدراسات السياسية والاستراتيجية بالأهرام عمرو هاشم ربيع أعرب عن اعتقاده، في حديثٍ لـ”العربي الجديد”، أن “أزمة خفض إمدادات الغاز الإسرائيلي لمصر سياسية بامتياز، إذ تسعى تل أبيب من وراء ذلك للضغط على مصر لانتزاع تنازلات سياسية، وعقابًا للقاهرة على حزمة من التوجهات المصرية، ومنها رفض احتلال إسرائيل معبر رفح وممر فيلادلفيا ورفض دخول المساعدات الإنسانية إلى الجانب الفلسطيني من معبر رفح، باعتبار أن تل أبيب ليست طرفًا في اتفاقية تشغيل المعبر، ما شكّل إحراجًا شديدًا لتل أبيب أمام المجتمع الدولي”. وقال هاشم ربيع إن إسرائيل “مستاءة للغاية من إدانة مصر المجازر الإسرائيلية في صفوف المدنيين الفلسطينيين، وآخرها مجازر النصيرات، وإعلان مصر انضمامها إلى دعوى جنوب أفريقيا أمام محكمة العدل الدولية.

Speaking to Al-Araby al-Jadeed, Amr Hashem Rabeeh, deputy director of the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, argued that “the crisis of reducing Israeli gas supplies to Egypt is political par excellence, as Tel Aviv is using that to pressure Egypt into making political concessions, and to punish Cairo for a series of Egyptian inclinations, including the rejection of Israel’s occupation of the Rafah crossing and the Philadelphia Axis and the refusal to deliver humanitarian aid to the Palestinian side through the Rafah crossing, seeing as how (considering that) Tel Aviv is not a party to the agreement to operate the crossing. And this has significantly embarrassed Tel Aviv in front of the international community”. Hashem Rabeeh said that Israel is very upset by Egypt’s condemnation of the Israeli massacres of Palestinian civilians, the most recent of which is the Nuseirat massacre, and Egypt’s announcement to join South Africa’s lawsuit at the International Court of Justice.

Section 5

ووضع ذهاب تل أبيب في ابتزاز مصر إلى أقصى مدى في سياق “محاولة خلق رأي عام شعبي ضد صانع القرار في مصر، وإظهار الحكومة المصرية في وضع العاجز في مواجهة أزمة الكهرباء”،… مشيرًا إلى أن مصر “أمامها بدائل عديدة، ومنها التوجه إلى قطر والجزائر للحصول على احتياجاتها من الغاز، وأن الجزائر تبدو الأكثر مناسبة وذلك لارتباط قطر بعقود وشروط جزائية لتصدير الغاز إلى عدد كبير من دول العالم”.

So, he placed Tel Aviv’s extreme blackmailing of Egypt in the context of “an attempt to create popular anger toward the decision-makers in Egypt, and depict the Egyptian government as being unable to face the electricity crisis.” … “He pointed out that Egypt has “many options, including turning to Qatar and Algeria to obtain its gas needs, although Algeria seems to be the most suitable given that Qatar is bound by contracts and penal conditions to export gas to a large number of countries in the world”.

Section 6

أما أستاذ هندسة الطاقة بجامعة الزقازيق حافظ سلماوي، فرأى أن أسباب خفض إمدادات الغاز الإسرائيلي لمصر الغاز قد تكون لها اعتبارات فنية، وتعود لتطورات الحرب في غزة، والتوترات على الحدود اللبنانية، بشكل يمكن معه توجيه كميات أكثر من الصادرات الإسرائيلية للمجهود الحربي، ولتعويض زيادة الطلب على الغاز في الداخل الإسرائيلي.

On the other hand, Hafiz Salmawy, a professor of energy engineering at Zagazig University, believes that the resons for the reduction of the Israeli gas supplies to Egypt may have technical considerations, linked to the developments in the war in Gaza and the tensions on the Lebanese border, in a way that requires the shifting of the Israeli exports toward the war effort, and the compensation of the increasing demand for gas on the Israeli domestic stage.

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1. Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-17808954 ↩︎
2. Source: MadaMasr – https://yalla.li/stv0n ↩︎