CAIRO: A difference in opinion on whether to attend an exclusive press meeting with President Barack Obama or boycott the meeting in objection to the presence of an Israeli journalist has turned into a full-blown dispute between two of the country’s prominent journalists.
Al-Masry Al-Youm chief editor Magdy El-Gallad and renowned Egyptian columnist and Islamic thinker Fahmy Howiedi took their argument to TV, exchanging blame and indirect insults.
Howiedi refused to attend an exclusive roundtable with US President Barack Obama following his Cairo speech last Thursday due to the presence of an Israeli journalist.
“It wasn’t easy . sitting in the same room and on the same table with an Israeli during the current events, Howiedi wrote in a column titled “A matter of conscience published in the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Roa’aya.
Howeidi’s move was particularly criticized in the media by El-Gallad, who was the only other Egyptian journalist attending the meeting.
“I was invited for my position [as Al-Masry Al-Youm’s editor] and not for who I am and this is different than Howeidi, who was invited as a writer with certain beliefs and ideologies. Therefore, he didn’t not influence me, said El-Gallad in a phone call to the TV program “Al Hayah Al Youm.
He went on saying that he is not like Howeidi who has local and international connections, adding that he “hasn’t visited Iran and has nothing to do with Hamas.
Howeidi, who is currently out of town, called in the show to refute this, saying that he wasn’t expecting such claims from El-Gallad in a bid to justify his attendance.
“I have been working in journalism since before you were born and it’s not right for someone to defend himself by attacking the other party . All the facts he said are incorrect and you know that. . I hoped you would have respected my decision just like I respected yours, he said.
Howeidi, according to his published column, was unaware of the fact that there was going to be an Israeli journalist present before going to the meeting. After he learned this fact, he excused himself and left.
“President Obama is coming to address the Arab and Muslim world; Israel is neither an Arab or Islamic country so what makes an Israeli intrude on a group of Arabs and Muslims? he asked the representatives of the American Embassy before he left the meeting
Eight journalists were to attend the meeting with Obama, two from Egypt, one from Saudi Arabia, one from Lebanon, one from Palestine, one from Indonesia, one from Malaysia and one from Israel.
Two other Arab journalists boycotted the roundtable.
“After Obama’s speech [Thursday] at Cairo University, we gathered, six senior journalists from all over the Muslim world and I, the reporter for Yedioth Ahronoth, around a circular table in a side room. The president wanted to give us an interview, The Israeli journalist Nahum Barnea who was present on behalf of the Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, described the incident in the Friday edition saying.
“The original group had eight. The Syrian did not show after hearing that a reporter from Israel had been invited. The Lebanese, Naoum Sarkis, had been sitting with us all at the front of the hall but when he realized where I was from and whom I was representing, he passed on the opportunity and fled.
