Activist who urged killing Israelis nominated for top EU award
Alaa Abdel Fattah, 32, an Egyptian blogger and political activist, has been arrested numerous times by Egyptian authorities since the eruption of a popular revolution in the country in early 2011. Abdel Fattah, who boasts 626,000 followers on Twitter and 156,000 on Facebook, was released on bail September 15 after being charged with organizing an illegal protest in Cairo and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Abdel Fattah was nominated for the Sakharov Prize on September 23 along with rappers Mouad Belghouate (Morocco) and Ala Yaacoubi (Tunisia) by the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) Parliamentary Group, a left-wing group of 52 European parliament members representing 14 EU countries. The winner of the prize will be announced on October 16.
During an exchange on generalizations in the Egyptian political context, Abdel Fattah wrote: “All Zionists are criminals, all racists are stupid, all humans have rights. These are examples of acceptable generalizations.”
Debating the Palestinian issue, Abdel Fattah wrote on November 15, 2012, that “there is a critical number of Israelis that we need to kill and then the problem is solved.”