Of course, the international climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh is about climate. But COP27 was only two days away, when Egyptian political delegate Amr Darwish was forced out during a press conference last Tuesday and it became clear that in a short time this congress has mainly come to revolve around the question of whether Alaa Abd El-Fattah is still alive. The photo above and the accompanying video play an important role in this. Bad news for President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and his carefully constructed image of Egypt as a green and righteous country.
Back to where it started. Abd El-Fattah (“Alaa”) is a 40-year-old Egyptian-British activist. Ever since the blogger began speaking out openly against his country’s repressive regime during the 2011 protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the regime has accused him of “incitement” and “spreading fake news.” He spent seven of the past eight years in prison.
Family members, human rights organizations and influential journalists like Naomi Klein have been fighting for Alaa’s release for years. Climate activist Greta Thunberg announced not to go to Sharm el-Sheikh, partly because she does not believe in a climate summit organized by a country that systematically puts short shrift to criticism. “A system that doesn’t address the need for climate justice and the protection of human rights is one that lets everyone else down — we need both,” she wrote.
In this way, COP27 became completely intertwined with the Alaa case. The prisoner has been on hunger strike since April this year and drank his last glass of water on Sunday, the first day of the summit. Rather die with the eyes of the whole world on Egypt than languish in a cell. So the pressure is high, not only on British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (Alaa has a British passport), but also on Egyptian President Sisi.
On Tuesday, one of Alaa’s sisters, Sanaa Seif (also regularly arrested), spoke about his predicament at a press conference. There, MP Darwish (not elected, but appointed by the government) tried to silence her. He was immediately stopped by, among others, Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International. She is the woman who is furious at him in the photo. In the background is Seif (in yellow) and in the foreground you see the bald guard that Darwish will definitely push to the exit in a moment.
“Don’t touch me,” Darwish shouted (in a video that was readily circulated on social media). “This is Egyptian territory!” But unfortunately: in the congress hall of the COP27 complex, which was built with a lot of breast-fighting by Egypt, the democratic rules of the United Nations now applied. A chorus of telephones surrounded the scene.
Strange move by Darwish. Supporters of the Egyptian regime naturally tried the tactics of the Holy Indignation: ‘Waaaaaat? Hypocritical! Freedom of speech!’ – well, unfortunately you don’t have to go to Egypt to recognize that approach. It didn’t work that well either.
The footage is yet another tear in the mask of autocrat Sisi. The man who, in a neat promotional video on the COP27 website, urges other governments to ‘listen to the millions of people who are calling for an urgent and appropriate response to the climate crisis’. It asks for millions to fight the effects of global warming, while everyone knows that they want to use that money for tourism. Who nailed Sharm el-Sheikh so hermetically that there is hardly any room for difficult activists.
That’s exactly why this photo is so good. Whether Alaa dies or not (at the time of writing, the BBC reports that he has been admitted to the prison’s medical ward), this was the moment when his name really started to rule the climate summit. And the Egyptian government did that all by itself.