Education Ministry Bans Politics, Religion in Schools
Egypt Security Sector Report
This week’s Egypt Security Sector Report tracks the regime’s growing reliance on repression and militarization at home and abroad. I cover how Cairo staged a rally outside the Dutch Embassy while punishing an activist’s family, expanded its moral and educational crackdowns, and tightened military control over food security, housing IT systems, and public land seizures. I also examine new US arms sales to the Air Force, Sisi’s privatization law, debt-fueled transport megaprojects, and the GIS partnership with TikTok. Plus: assaults on protesters abroad, migrants left adrift in the Mediterranean, and rare archival data on police deaths in the 1960s.
📁 Govt Orchestrates Embassy Rally, Punishes Family of Activist
On 19 August, the security services orchestrated a “protest” outside the Dutch Embassy in Cairo, mobilizing supporters to denounce the so-called “attack” on Egypt’s mission in The Hague.
Participants carried placards accusing the Muslim Brotherhood of being behind the incident and demanded that the Netherlands extradite Brotherhood members. The tightly controlled Egyptian media presented the rally as a “spontaneous public anger.”
The “protest” was a response to exiled activist Anas Habib’s direct action in the Netherlands, where he padlocked the gates of the Egyptian embassy to oppose Cairo’s role in the Gaza blockade. His act embarrassed the government internationally, exposing its involvement in Gaza’s suffering, and sparked a wave of similar protests at Egypt’s embassies worldwide.
In retaliation, the regime targeted Habib’s family in Egypt. Homeland Security arrested his 68-year-old uncle, Mukhtar Tayel, and cousin, Omar, detaining them on fabricated terrorism charges.
On 21 August, diplomats from the Egyptian Mission to the UN attacked two protesters, dragging them inside the building, and later handed them over to the NYPD.
The assault follows instructions from FM Badr Abdelatty to his diplomats worldwide to detain embassy protesters when possible and turn them over to local police, assuring them he will personally defend their thuggish actions.
📁 BCG Backlash Over Gaza Aid, Links to Egypt Military Privatization
Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is facing a major internal backlash after revelations, reported by the Financial Times, that its US consultants helped establish the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation—an aid scheme condemned by humanitarian groups for sidelining the UN and linked to the deaths of Palestinians seeking food. The team also produced a controversial financial model that included incentives for Gazans to relocate abroad, which critics likened to ethnic cleansing.
The fallout has seen partners fired, senior executives demoted, and employees in the Middle East openly voicing shame and anger, with some walking out of a July town hall meeting with CEO Christoph Schweizer. BCG has since tried to contain the crisis, but tensions remain high across its offices.
Beyond Gaza, BCG is one of the consultancy firms contracted by the Egyptian military to restructure and privatize parts of its sprawling civilian economic empire, under conditions tied to Egypt’s agreement with the IMF.