ILAN GRAPEL, an Israeli-American who was jailed in Egypt in June, will be released tomorrow in exchange for 25 Egyptians imprisoned in Israel.
The Israeli security cabinet yesterday voted unanimously to approve the deal under which Israel will release 25 Egyptians convicted of criminal offences such as drug smuggling and crossing the border illegally.
The names of the 25 inmates were released last night and 48 hours has been given for appeals to the high court.
Mr Grapel (27), an Arabic graduate, was arrested by the Egyptian authorities in June. He was initially charged with espionage, although the charges were later changed to incitement, insurrection and damaging a public building during the protests in Cairo against former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
Israel and Mr Grapel’s family denied he was a spy and claimed he went to Egypt to work for a non-profit organisation that helps refugees.
They pointed out that he had posted photographs on his Facebook page of his trip to Egypt, which included images of the pyramids as well as the protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
Mr Grapel’s mother said at the time of his arrest that her son, a law student in the US, was working for Saint Andrew’s Refugee Services in Cairo.
His father, Daniel Grapel, said he did not know when his son would be freed.
“I think it should take place soon. But the time and hour I will know only once it has happened,” he told Israel’s Channel 2 television station.
Mr Grapel served in the Israeli paratroops and was wounded in the second Lebanon war in 2006.
Top-level contacts between Cairo, Jerusalem and Washington have been ongoing since June in an effort to conclude a prisoner swap. But the deal was only finalised after last week’s release of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier held by Hamas in Gaza, in return for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. That deal was brokered by Egypt.
There was some criticism in Israel that Egyptian criminals were being released for an Israeli who was imprisoned on allegedly trumped-up charges, and that an Israeli Bedouin, Ouda Tarabin, who was arrested by Egypt 11 years ago, was not included in the deal.
Mr Tarabin crossed into Egypt illegally and was convicted of being a spy, but Israel denied the charges.
Commentators hailed the deal to bring Mr Grapel home as further proof that bilateral ties remained strong despite the Egyptian regime change and the attack on the Israeli embassy in Cairo last month.
Earlier this month, in a move Egyptian sources said paved the way for this week’s prisoner swap, Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak apologised for the killing of five Egyptian security officers in August when Israeli troops pursued militants across the border following an attack inside Israel in which eight people were killed.
Egypt was the first of two Arab countries to sign a peace agreement with Israel, in a deal concluded in 1979. The US-brokered treaty was long a mainstay of US policy in the region, with both countries topping Washington’s list of foreign-aid recipients.
Jordan signed a treaty with the Jewish state in 1994. – (Additional reporting: Reuters)