TABA/JERUSALEM: Egyptians crossed the border home on Thursday and some bowed down in prayer during a prisoner exchange involving an American-Israeli man who Egypt charged with spying and who was on his way by plane to Tel Aviv.
Israel agreed to swap 25 jailed Egyptians for Ilan Grapel, 27, who was detained in Egypt in June on accusations he was out to recruit agents and monitor events in the revolt that toppled Hosni Mubarak, an ally of Israel and the United States.
Israel, whose relations with Egypt have been strained since the uprising, denied the charges. Israeli officials said Grapel had been released and was flying to Tel Aviv.
Three minors among the detainees, two aged 15 and one aged 16, were the first to arrive, and were greeted by a welcome committee clutching flowers and Egyptian flags.
"Thanks be to God," Abdullah, one of the Egyptians being released, told Egyptian state television at the border, which interviewed several as they crossed one-by-one. Several bowed down in prayer.
Another, Rabie Suleiman, who had been serving a four-year jail term on drugs charges, was asked what he would do on his return: "I’ll come here and find any job, and I won’t go back."
The United States, which provides the army that now runs Egypt with billions of dollars in military aid, had called for Grapel’s release. Analysts said the exchange provided a cover for Egypt to resolve the diplomatic headache.
"I consider it a cover for returning this spy with pressure from the United States," Egyptian analyst Hassan Nafaa said.
"The release of those 25 represents a cover that has no meaning in fact. It does not harm Israel and it does not significantly benefit Egyptians," he added. Many of those detained by Israel were convicted of smuggling offences.
The US-brokered exchange deal was reached shortly after a more high-profile, Egyptian-brokered swap between Israel and Hamas that freed captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.
US Congressman Gary Ackerman, who pressed for Grapel’s release, travelled to Israel to accompany him back to the United States, his office said in a statement.
"It is … hard for me to accept the fact that an innocent and perhaps naive citizen travels (to Egypt) to identify with the Arab Spring — and it’s clear this is not a spy, nor an agent, nor a drug trafficker — and he is arrested under all kinds of false allegations, and we are then forced to pay a price in order to free him," Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israel’s Army Radio.
Israel has also called for steps to help free another Israeli, Oudeh Suleiman Tarabin, jailed by Egypt 11 years ago.
The family of one of those to be released, Ashraf Abdallah El-Swarky, said the 18-year-old had been sentenced to three years in prison by Israel on charges of illegally crossing the border.
They say he had lost his way. He has spent one year in jail.
"We just want to see our brother. It is a good thing from Egypt to work on freeing them," said his brother, Mohamed.
Others in the area said many of the Egyptian prisoners to be released had been involved in smuggling, which is rife along Egypt’s border with Israel and the Palestinian enclave of Gaza.
Israel’s Prisons Service said El-Swarky had been jailed for drug trafficking as well as "infiltration". The others on the release roster were held for similar offences, including gun-running, but not for espionage or attacks on Israelis.
Many Bedouin in Sinai complain of neglect by the state. Sinai resorts such as Taba and Sharm el-Sheikh, with their five-star hotels, are popular with tourists. But Bedouins say they are excluded from jobs there and have to scratch a frugal living, or turn to smuggling.
Grapel’s mother has said that her son, a law student in the United States, had been working for Saint Andrew’s Refugee Services, a non-governmental organization, in Cairo. Grapel emigrated to Israel in 2005 from New York and served in its military in the 2006 Lebanon war.
Israel Hasson, an Israeli lawmaker who has been involved in the negotiations, told The Associated Press from Cairo that 27-year-old Ilan Grapel looked "fine" and was "smiling." Hasson and another Israeli official were dispatched to Egypt to escort Grapel on the one-hour flight to Tel Aviv.
Hours before the release, his father, Daniel Grapel, told The Associated Press that his son had been held in isolation in an unknown location and that when they last spoke two weeks ago, he seemed to be in "OK" condition and "getting fed."
"I am happy that this thing will be done and over with and that he will be able to resume his normal life away from Egypt," Daniel Grapel said in a telephone interview from his home in Queens, N.Y.
His wife, Irene, flew to Tel Aviv to meet their son, and they will remain in Israel for at least two days to meet with Israeli and American officials before returning to the US, he added.
The deal went ahead after the Israeli Supreme Court rejected petitions trying to stop the deal. Immediately after landing in Israel, Grapel was set to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Grapel made no secret of his Israeli background, entered Egypt under his real name and his Facebook page had photos of him in an Israeli military uniform. Such openness about his identity suggested he was not a spy, and even in Egypt, where hostility toward Israel runs high, the arrest was widely ridiculed.
Over the years, Egypt has arrested a number of people accused of spying for Israel.
Israel flew its ambassador out of Egypt in September when the Israeli embassy was attacked by protesters angry at the killings of Egyptian border guards when Israeli troops pursued raiders who killed eight Israelis in August. Israel said the gunmen infiltrated from the Gaza Strip via the Sinai.
Initially, the US Embassy in Cairo had taken the lead in Grapel’s case because he had entered Egypt with his US passport. A former Israeli ambassador to Egypt, Eli Shaked, told Israel Radio that the US was a main player in clinching the swap deal.
The US Embassy in Tel Aviv had no comment on the affair.
