Last update - 00:00 14/09/2006
Relatives of Sinai accident victims protest Egyptian negligence
By Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondent
The families of the tourists killed in last month's bus accident in the Sinai demonstrated outside the Egyptian Embassy in Tel Aviv on Wednesday.
The relatives claim that Egyptian authorities have neglected to handle the disaster in which 12 people were killed, 11 of them Arabs from northern Israel.
Protesters carried signs demanding that Egypt reopen an investigation into the accident, particularly the Egyptian rescue and security forces' conduct and the prevention of Israeli rescue crews from reaching the site to help. "Saving lives overrules borders and politics," read one sign.
The demonstrators were also deeply disappointed by the Egyptian court verdict in the trial of the bus driver, who received a one-year jail sentence. "The Egyptian verdict, 12 dead equals 12 months in prison," they shouted.
Some relatives also carried pictures of their loved ones beneath slogans saying they had been abandoned in the field and left to bleed to death.
During the demonstration, two protesters tried to enter the embassy grounds, but were rebuffed by police officers stationed there.
The embassy's senior staff, including the consul, were not in the building at the time, and no Egyptian representative came out to meet the demonstrators, who had hoped to convey a letter containing demands to open a thorough investigation, improve medical services in Sinai, and compensate the victims.
The head of the Kfar Manda Local Council, Ibrahim Abdel Halim, who lost three relatives in the accident, expressed disappointment at the senior embassy staff's "evasiveness." "This is a continuation of the contemptuous and demeaning attitude toward the families," he said.
Haaretz has learned that the families had come under heavy pressure to cancel the demonstration in return for a meeting with the Egyptian consul, but rejected the offer.