This House believes that Egypt's peace treaty with Israel has been a failure

A narrow majority of young Egyptian students, activists and professionals voted for a motion that their country’s peace treaty with Israel had failed. Fifity-one point three percent of the audience favoured a revision of the 1979 peace treaty at the New Arab Debates in Cairo on 31st March 2012.

There was a significant shift of opinion during the debate. In a vote taken before the event began, only 46 percent of the audience supported the motion ‘This House believes that Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel has been a failure’.

Speaking for the motion, political activist, Alaa Abdel-Fattah, said the peace treaty failed because “just, comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East has not happened”. He added that “this treaty may be one of the very few peace treaties that has led to more bloodshed”. Speaking against the motion, the retired General Sameh Seif Elyazal said the treaty allowed Egypt to move from a war economy where civil society was suffering from neglect to a normal economy. He said: “ninety percent of the budget was directed to the civil life of Egyptians and started to see more improvements in streets, hospitals, transportation, telephones which really suffered before”.