The Earthquake of Normalization and the Defeat of Principles in the Journalists' Syndicate
Friday 26/June/2026 - 01:27 AM
Mohamed Ghanoom
At a time when regional tensions continue to escalate and the war of extermination in the Gaza Strip persists, with its flames spreading into southern Lebanon, the Egyptian Journalists' Syndicate—long regarded as the last bastion of resistance against normalization—has found itself at the center of a fierce internal crisis.
The current dispute, which erupted behind the scenes of the "Pioneers Cultural Salon," has evolved far beyond a routine disagreement over an internal activity. It has rapidly become an open confrontation, placing the current Syndicate Council under direct accusations from members of the General Assembly concerning the faithful implementation of the Syndicate's historic resolutions. Critics argue that the controversy exposes what they describe as a "double standard" concealed behind the council's declared rhetoric and slogans.
The roots of the crisis lie in a seminar organized by the Pioneers Group within the Syndicate—a forum composed of senior writers over the age of sixty—to celebrate the publication of a book by tourism expert Elhamy El-Zayat.
According to official complaints and protest memoranda submitted by eight members of the General Assembly, the seminar included the guest's recollections of his childhood and upbringing among Jewish communities, as well as his discussion of Hanukkah celebrations.
The objections did not stop at the cultural dimension. According to the complainants' memoranda, the guest also spoke about his travels to Israel, his visits with the president of the Israeli state and the Israeli ambassador, and the tourism facilitation measures associated with those visits.
This presentation, delivered inside the Syndicate's headquarters while copies of his book were being distributed, provoked widespread anger among journalists, many of whom regarded the event as a "blatant breach" of the Syndicate's intellectual foundations and a direct challenge to its long-standing anti-normalization policies.
Although the Syndicate Council quickly sought to contain the situation by announcing that the incident and its organizers would be referred for disciplinary investigation and by temporarily suspending the Cultural Salon's activities, this move was met with widespread skepticism from a critical faction within the General Assembly. They viewed the decision as an attempt to "throw dust in people's eyes" and to divert attention from deeper and more sensitive issues looming over the Council.
The current wave of criticism is fueled by comparisons drawn by angry members of the General Assembly. Opposition voices have raised pointed questions about what they describe as the Council's "graveyard silence" regarding alleged normalization-related actions attributed to prominent Syndicate leaders.
Critics have publicly referred to circulating allegations concerning the travel of Hisham Younes, the current Deputy Head of the Syndicate, Hanan Fikry, a former Syndicate Council member, and Osama Dawoud, also a former Council member, to Israel, along with claims that Israeli visas had been stamped in their passports.
The visit by Hisham Younes, accompanied by Hanan Fikry and Osama Dawoud, to the West Bank and East Jerusalem took place in November 2013. The repercussions of the controversy extended into 2014, although they all stemmed from that same visit.
The following is the complete chronology of events:
First: The Visit (10–16 November 2013)
A delegation from the Egyptian Journalists' Syndicate traveled to Ramallah to participate in celebrations marking the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, following an invitation from the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate and the Arab Journalists Union. The delegation consisted of approximately fifteen journalists, including Hisham Younes, Hanan Fikry, and Osama Dawoud.
At the time, Palestinian sources stated that the visit had been made in response to an official invitation from the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate to participate in Palestinian national events.
After the delegation returned to Cairo, a dispute erupted within the Egyptian Journalists' Syndicate following reports that some members of the delegation had entered occupied East Jerusalem.
A number of journalists argued that this could constitute a violation of the General Assembly's resolutions prohibiting all forms of professional or personal normalization with Israel.
Accordingly, the Syndicate Council formed an investigative and fact-finding committee consisting of Diaa Rashwan, Gamal Fahmy, Mohamed Abdel Quddous, and two members of the General Assembly.
The committee heard testimony from Hisham Younes, Osama Dawoud, and Hanan Fikry regarding the details of the trip. They maintained that their destination had been the State of Palestine, not Israel, emphasizing that the invitation had been officially extended by the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate and the Arab Journalists Union, and that the Egyptian Journalists' Syndicate Council had been fully informed of the visit and had approved it.
They further stated that no meetings had been held with Israeli officials or institutions, that the delegation had engaged in no activity that could be considered normalization, and that their entry into East Jerusalem had been solely for the purpose of visiting the families of prisoners and observing the conditions of Palestinians.
They also asserted that the original plan had been to enter covertly under the guidance of members of the Palestinian resistance, without dealing with the Israeli occupation authorities or obtaining Israeli visas, and that they would have abandoned the visit had this method proved impossible.
After reviewing the facts, the Syndicate Council received the committee's report in December 2013. In essence, the report concluded that the explanations provided were sufficient to resolve the controversy, expressing hope that the matter could be closed so that attention could return to professional issues. The report found no evidence of normalization with Israeli entities based on the facts presented to the committee.
Despite the committee's findings, the Journalists Against Normalization Movement continued to demand stronger measures and organized protest demonstrations, arguing that merely entering Jerusalem through crossings controlled by Israel constituted a violation of the General Assembly's resolutions.
In December 2013, Hisham Younes issued a lengthy response in which he stated that the delegation had not met with any Israelis, whether officially or unofficially; that the five-member investigative committee had cleared the delegation members; and that some opponents of the visit had ignored the committee's report. He urged his critics to use the Syndicate's legal and institutional mechanisms if they wished to reopen the case, rather than resorting to media campaigns.
In March 2014, the Syndicate Council announced that three journalists would be referred to the disciplinary committee on charges of violating the Syndicate's anti-normalization resolutions concerning Israel. This decision was linked to the continuing debate over whether the visit had violated the General Assembly's resolutions.
Opponents argue that prosecuting secondary cultural activities within the Pioneers Cultural Salon while refraining from opening an official and independent investigation into what they describe as a Zionist breach involving the passports of officials responsible for managing Syndicate affairs—both current and former—constitutes a glaring contradiction and a serious imbalance in the administration of justice within the Syndicate. They contend that the current leadership limits itself to "fiery slogans" at conferences while remaining procedurally silent behind closed doors.
These developments place the current Syndicate Council in a genuine predicament, confronted by decisive questions raised by various factions within the General Assembly that, they argue, require immediate and public answers:
First: How can members of the General Assembly trust the Council's commitment to defending the Syndicate's anti-normalization principles when allegations continue to surround current Syndicate leaders concerning travel and the acquisition of Israeli visas without accountability?
Second: What standards govern the work of the Syndicate's disciplinary committee? Have penalties such as suspension from practice or removal from the Syndicate become tools applied only to marginal activities and certain journalists, while influential officials remain exempt?
Third: How did the Council's administrative procedures grant prior approval for organizing the Pioneers Cultural Salon seminar without carefully reviewing the background of the invited guest? Does this reflect serious administrative negligence, or an intellectual blindness produced by narrow electoral rivalries?
Members of the General Assembly emphasize that the resolutions adopted since 1980, prohibiting professional, personal, and institutional normalization, are not merely words on paper or instruments for electoral posturing.
They argue that the current events have placed the Journalists' Syndicate before a genuine test of its ability to enforce its rules with fairness and impartiality. Either the ongoing investigations will produce a serious reckoning that restores ideological discipline and purifies the Syndicate at every level—whether involving those who merely spoke at the Cultural Salon or those proven to have carried Israeli visas—or the Syndicate will fall into the trap of selectivity and favoritism, allowing the first signs of compromise to remain tainted and permitting further breaches to enter through the back door.
