By Sarah Saad
The recovery of Taba is a confirmation of the Egyptian will’s resilience and its ability to preserve Egyptian soil. Additionally, the victory in reclaiming Taba and returning rights to their owners is due to the competence of the Egyptian negotiator and the solidarity of all state officials and agencies in managing the crisis, resorting to international judiciary, and following a scientific method to resolve international disputes by peaceful means. This is, of course, in the presence of the availability of strength elements.
Taba recovery story
Egypt took an arduous path to recover Taba, which began when the first official announcement of the Taba problem came in March 1982, a month before the Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula. This was when the head of the Egyptian military side in the joint military committee, which was formed to complete the Israeli withdrawal from Sinai, announced that there was a dispute between Egypt and Israel concerning some border points, especially mark (91).
The dispute was raised again on the day of the completion of the Israeli withdrawal from Sinai on the twenty-fifth of April 1982. Bearing in mind the Egyptian political leadership’s keenness to complete the Israeli withdrawal on time and not to spoil the joy of the Egyptian people over the return of Sinai, the Egyptian and Israeli sides agreed to postpone withdrawal from Taba and resolving the conflict by referring to the rules of international law and the terms of the Egyptian-Israeli peace agreement in accordance with Article Seven, which stipulates the following:
First: Differences regarding the application of this treaty shall be resolved through negotiations.
Second: If it is not possible to resolve these disputes through negotiations, they shall be resolved by compromise or referral to arbitration.
The temporary agreement signed by the two parties at the time stipulated that Israel would not build any new facilities in the area until the conflict was resolved. Despite this, Israel opened the Sonesta Taba Hotel on November 15, 1982 and announced the construction of a tourist village there. It also carried out some symbolic operations which constituted a kind of imposition of sovereignty and Israeli occupation of the Taba region.
Media misinformation
The Israeli side tried to rely on the idea of media misinformation and falsification of facts during their control over the region from 1967 to 1982. They attempted to change its geographical features to remove the Egyptian border marks before the June War. They removed the nose of the mountain that reached the waters of the Gulf of Aqaba and dug a road in its place linking the Israeli city of Eilat and the Egyptian City of Taba.
Egyptians had to search for these signs that Israel removed from existence, and did not find the main sign No (91), which is the last sign. Indeed, Egyptians did not find it at the beginning (except for the location of the penultimate sign, which was rumoured for some time to be the last. Therefore, the attempt to falsify history and even geography and media misinformation were one of the pillars on which Israeli policy relied in managing the conflict.
Egyptian documents bag
Egypt decided that its battle to liberate “Taba” would be a legal, diplomatic process in which it would use all the documents and manuscripts it obtained from international archives in order to prove to the whole world that Egypt’s right was beyond doubt and not subject to waiver.
On May 13, 1985, prime minister Decision No 641 was issued to form the Supreme National Committee for Taba from among the most prominent legal, historical, and geographical competencies. This committee then turned to the Egyptian Defence Authority in the Taba case, which took upon itself the responsibility to manage the conflict in this case, using all arguments to prove its right.Historical documents represented 61 per cent of the total evidence.
Power of the Egyptian negotiator
The road to regaining Taba was not easy, and therefore reason and law had to be used to strengthen the peace process and stabilise its foundations. After the victory of October 1973, the dissolution of the first clash in January 1974, and then the dissolution of the second clash in September 1975, developments followed until the peace treaty was signed on March 26, 1979. After Israel withdrew from Sinai, the dispute arose over 10 kilometres, which Israel tried to win at the last moment as usual.
At that time, Israel announced the annexation of the Taba region, claiming that it was within the scope of Mandatory Palestine. The peace treaty had stipulated Israel’s withdrawal from Sinai beyond the international borders. The treaty specified that these international borders were the recognised borders between Egypt and Palestine under the Mandate.
As the withdrawal date approached, Israel began maneuvers since the beginning of 1982.At that time, Alexander Haig, the US Secretary of State at the time, came to Cairo to offer to conclude another agreement with Israel that included new conditions, and the then Egyptian President, Mohamed Hosni Mubarak, refused any bargain over any inch of Sinai.
Thus, the chapters of the epic of taba recovery passed over a period of six years after the Israeli withdrawal from Sinai on April 25, 1982, and Egypt fought for it with the same spirit as the October War.
According to everyone’s testimony, the Egyptian defence team’s performance was at the highest level of competence and ability, and it succeeded in having the international arbitration panel issue its ruling on September 27, 1988, declaring Egypt’s right to exercise sovereignty over its entire territory.
The work of the Egyptian defence team after the issuance of the ruling and Israel’s evasion from implementation extended to other rounds of meetings that were held to implement the arbitration ruling and hand over Taba and its facilities to Egypt.
Taba epic reached the final scene with the handover of Taba on March 15, 1989 and the raising of the flag on March 19.
Egypt’s success in reclaiming Taba is due to its skill in managing the crisis competently and its long-standing self-reliance in the face of Israeli maneuvers.
This is in addition to setting firm foundations for negotiation, the most important of which is not giving up a piece of the homeland, regardless of its size. Although Taba is a small area whose area does not exceed 1,020 square metres, Egypt has always believed, and still does, that the homeland does not accept division or bargaining.
