Sisi calls for museum documenting Port Said’s wartime struggles

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi called on Wednesday for the establishment of a museum documenting the struggles and bravery of Port Said governorate during various wars and conflicts in Egypt’s modern history.

In a speech during the inauguration of several projects in the governorate, El-Sisi called on the government to establish the museum in a way that correctly chronicles the struggles during the tripartite aggression by Israel, France, and Britain in 1956, during the Suez Canal crisis, and the 1967 War with Israel.

Residents of Port Said and other cities of the Suez Canal have been praised throughout history for their popular resistance against the tripartite war in 1956 and the 1967 Six Day War with Israel. All these wars led to massive displacement and deaths among city residents.

“Port Said has shown a lot of resistance,” said the president. “Has this been documented? Not only Port Said, but also Ismailia and Suez. We want to form a committee that would document this work and what Port Said went through in the era between 1956 and 1967,” he added.

“We should construct a national committee to log this,” El-Sisi said, addressing Port Said’s governor and former army general Adel El-Ghadban and other officials in the governorate.

El-Sisi also announced that by mid-2017, Port Said would be the first governorate in Egypt with no informal settlements.

“I will not accept such settlements in all Egyptian governorates,” El-Sisi said.

Egypt has moved forward with efforts to combat informal settlements, also referred to as slum areas, through recently constructed housing projects.

The phenomena of informal settlements made media headlines in 2008 following the collapse of a rock face on the edge of Cairo’s Moqattam area that led to the deaths of dozens and the injury of scores more living in the Doueyka area. The incident reminded people of the urgency of addressing housing challenges.

According to a governmental report in recent years, informal settlements in Egypt constitute around 40 percent of urban areas around Egypt.

Source: Ahram Online