Egypt: Mohammed Ibrahim Ali Reappointed Minister of Antiquities

In Egypt, former antiquities minister Mohamed Ibrahim has been reappointed as antiquities minister by the interim government headed by caretaker prime minister Hazem El-Beblawi. He was reappointed  on Tuesday after Raafat El-Nabarawi, former dean of the Faculty of Archaeology at Cairo University, declined the offer.

Ibrahim first took the post in the National Rescue Government led by Kamal El-Ganzouri and continued to fill the position in Hisham Qandil's government. However, in the Cabinet reshuffle on 7 May, Ibrahim was replaced by Ahmed Eissa, dean of the Faculty of Archaeology, South Valley University. 

It is reported that the reappointment was "not welcomed by many archaeologists and employees of the Ministry of State for Antiquities who announced their plans to protest in front of the ministry". Apparently they are planning to "go go on strike and stage a sit-in [...] in front of the ministry building in Cairo's Zamalek district to prevent him from entering". They are moaning that the Minister "did not meet the demands of the ministry's employees" in his previous term of office.  Ahmed Shehab ("assistant of the head of the Archaeologists Human Rights Care Association" - sic), said that:

during Ibrahim's tenure, Egypt's antiquities and monuments went from bad to worse, adding that encroachment hit several of Egypt's archaeological sites, such as in Dahshur Necropolis. Ibrahim did not carry out his promises to assign newly qualified archaeologists and appoint antiquities ministry temporary employees. He also failed to remove corrupt figures in the ministry.

So you see, in Britain, our colleagues are handling the cut of English Heritage all wrong. they need to make demands to the DCMS, and if the Minister does not immediately accede to their demands and allocate more resources to heritage and create more jobs for them, they need to stage a sit-in outside the ministry building preventing staff from entering. That will no doubt improve the situation in English Heritage no end.

No doubt about it, way to go....

Nevine El-Aref, 'Archaeologists reject Ibrahim's reappointment as antiquities minister', Al Ahram 16 Jul 2013

vignette: Egypt