Youssef Shaaban, head of the Egyptian Actors Guild, toured liberated villages in south Lebanon on Tuesday and threw stones onto the Israeli side of the border.
After hurling his stones, he expressed the support of all Egyptian actors for the Lebanese and Palestinian causes.
“You can’t imagine how proud I am today to be here in south Lebanon,” Shaaban told thisiscyberia.com. “I felt the grandeur of the martyrs who forced the enemy to run away.”
“However, at the same time I’m angry to see these Israeli settlements built on violated Arab lands,” he added.
Shaaban also announced that several Arab writers were working with his guild on a number of televised and cinematic works which focus on rejecting all kinds of normalization with Israel “as long as it still occupies a meter of Arab land.”
The renowned Egyptian actor visited many southern sites, including Beaufort Castle, the former Israeli posts in Abbad and Dabsheh, Khiam prison and Fatima gate, where he hurled his stones of defiance.
According to Shaaban, the Egyptian actors guild has always been very concerned with the Arab-Israeli conflict.
“We always protest against Israel’s atrocities against the Lebanese and Palestinian people,” he said. “We've also burnt the Israeli flag several times and are currently preparing many films and plays related to the Intifada.”
Shaaban expelled director Nabil Fouda from the guild last November for submitting a request to the ministry of social affairs to form the Egyptian-Israeli Friendship Association.
Shaaban said that forming such a group violated the guild’s resolutions, which banned members from normalizing ties with Israel after Egypt signed a peace treaty with the Jewish state in 1979 – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
