Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — Bedouin tribes have threatened a revolt in Egypt’s Sinai
Peninsula.

Egyptian sources said leading Bedouin tribes in Sinai have pledged to
resist a government ban against owning land near the border with Israel and
the Gaza Strip. They said tribal chiefs determined that the five-kilometer
ban would harm Bedouin interests and expel up to 10,000 families.

“The government has no choice but to cancel the ban,” Ibrahim Maneay, secretary-general of the Federation of Independent Tribes, said.

The tribal chiefs relayed a deadline to the government to reverse the
property ban, announced in December 2012. The sources said the
Bedouins set a Jan. 30 deadline before tribes launch a violent opposition campaign in eastern and central Sinai.

The sources said tribal chiefs have been coordinating to organize a
protest campaign. They said the chiefs recently convened despite efforts by Egyptian authorities.

“We did not invite government officials to the conference,” Maneay said.

But on Jan. 31, the tribes said they would delay their ultimatum amid
nationwide riots against the regime of President Mohammed Morsi. The Sinai
Tribal Union did not set a new deadline.

“We are waiting for a memorandum to be issued explaining the decision,
as the armed forces promised by the beginning of the month,” Eid
Abu Sengar, a spokesman for the tribes, said.

The renewed tribal threats came in wake of pledges by the Morsi regime
to develop Sinai and improve conditions for the Bedouins. Officials said the
Defense Ministry had been considering a proposal to modify the
five-kilometer buffer zone along the Israeli and Gaza borders.

The Defense Ministry decree was meant to stop all private ownership
along the 220 kilometer Egyptian border with Israel and the Gaza Strip. The
exception was Rafah, a city divided between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

  Federation of Independent Tribes, Mohammed Morsi, Rafah, Sinai Bedouins balk at uprooting families near border, Sinai Tribal Union