Insurgency or Terrorism? A New Front in Sinai

Although this territory was presented as a land of opportunities, since the Israeli withdrawal from the Peninsula in 1982, Egyptian authorities perceived Sinai only as a buffer zone useful to ensuring peace and stability between Egypt, Israel and the Gaza Strip. The historical pledges of developing projects – in particular, for the tourism industry in Sinai’s south – remained empty promises and local communities were isolated and excluded from the socio-economic developmental processes. In just a few years the Peninsula has become a lawless territory, with deep inequality and critical conditions of social, economic and political marginalizatin, in particular towards local minorities (Sinai Bedouins and Palestinians) and its youth population. All of these factors have favored a growing radicalization of its inhabitants, a deep proliferation of forms of illicit business (human trafficking and arms/drug smuggling) and an increasing inflow of Salafi-jihadist groups that promote an upsurge of violence/conflict against Cairo’s central authorities