For the most part, tourism between Israel and Egypt has long been a one-way affair. In this vein, Israeli tourism to Egypt peaked in 1999 at 415,000 visitors, whereas Egyptian tourism to Israeli reached a high of merely 28,000 visitors in 1995.
Of course, there are many reasons for this imbalance. For starters, Israelis have far more disposable income than Egyptians, and are thus more likely to travel in general. Moreover, the Sinai Peninsula – a major destination for Israeli tourists — has long provided Israelis with relatively cheap resort accommodations, whereas Israeli beach resorts have no comparative advantage for Egyptian tourists. Finally – and most importantly — there is a substantial divide regarding Israelis’ and Egyptians’ open-mindedness to one another: Egyptians overwhelmingly dislike Israel to the extent that tourism is out of the question, whereas Israelis are more likely to put politics aside.
But even for those Egyptians who are financially able to visit Israel and ideologically undeterred, the Egyptian government has done its fair share to build additional barriers to Egyptian-Israeli contact. According to an Egyptian evangelical pastor who asked that his name be withheld, Egyptians who wish to travel to Israel must apply for special single-use passports – a process that automatically places them on an official government register. Upon returning to Egypt, they are frequently questioned by state security officials and closely monitored. Egyptian friends who have expressed their desire to visit Israel have confirmed this account.
Moreover, even when Egyptians seek to interact with Israelis without visiting the Jewish state, Egyptian security services may intervene. One Egyptian academic, who asked that his name be withheld, shared the following story. Recently, he had been invited to an event sponsored by the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, and intended to attend. Shortly before the event, however, Egyptian security services contacted him, “advising” him not to attend – the implication being that there would be retribution if he did otherwise. Apparently, Egyptian security had learned of his intention to attend the event by monitoring his mail.
It’s a very sad reality that, almost three decades after the signing of the Camp David Accords, Egyptian-Israeli rapprochement remains half-baked. Among the many forces fueling this divide, the Egyptian government is a major culprit.
