A friend once asked me: When do armies lose their military honor?
I answered without hesitation: When they turn their weapons against their own people.
Today, I write this article on a tragic anniversary, March 9, 2011, when the Egyptian military police arrested 18 women from Tahrir Square. They were beaten, electrocuted, and subjected to degrading "virginity tests" under the threat of prostitution charges. That incident shocked the human conscience, but it was just one chapter in a long series of crimes that revealed the true face of the Egyptian army since the outbreak of the January 25, 2011 revolution.
Let us review some (not all) of the bloody milestones that paint an accurate picture of this army, supposedly the guardian of the nation that turned against its own people.
Stations of Blood and Repression
Maspero Massacre (October 2011): The army ran over Coptic protesters with armored vehicles and opened fire on them, killing 28 people and injuring dozens.
Cabinet Events (December 2011): A brutal crackdown on a peaceful sit-in left dozens dead, with shocking footage of women being stripped and beaten in the streets. I was there, in the heart of the event, and I could have been one of the young people killed simply for dreaming of a better homeland.
Sinai Campaigns: Under the pretext of "fighting terrorism," the army bombed entire villages, displaced thousands of families, demolished homes, and even documented field executions on video. Not even ancient trees were spared from this brutality.
Operation Sirli (2016): A military collaboration with France to combat smuggling ended in horrific massacres of large numbers of Egyptian civilians in the Western Desert. The case remains open in French courts to this day.
Crushing the September 2019 Protests: The army descended to support the police in crushing demonstrators, with mass arrests and brutal torture inside military prisons.
An army that monopolizes the state
The Egyptian army didn't stop at repression; it seized control of 90% of the national economy, confiscated lands, nationalized resources, and became both the judge and the adversary. The ordinary citizen found themselves in an unequal war over resources against an army armed with tanks and fighter jets. Even a dispute over traffic priority could end in tragedy as happened in Suez, where a citizen was coldly killed over a verbal altercation with an army officer.
In Sinai, the issue doesn't end with military operations. There have been observed preparations and refurbishments of emergency military roads once used in previous wars. These movements raise serious questions about the army's future intentions, especially with the rising hostile rhetoric toward Israel following the October 7, 2023 attack.
All Egyptian institutions raced to escalate tensions, to the point where President Sisi himself intervened, saying just days ago: "Jerusalem is a symbol of our identity and our cause."
A statement eerily reminiscent of the rhetoric of the Muslim Brotherhood's supreme guides a group that was one of the main reasons behind the destruction of Middle Eastern nations.
Can this army be trusted as a peace partner?
The fundamental question remains: How can an army with such a bloody mindset be a reliable partner in a peace agreement with Israel?
Especially after its involvement in supporting Hamas through tunnels in Sinai, which facilitated the execution of Black Saturday's deadly attack. Among the most prominent testimonies expressing these concerns are the following: Yehiel Leiter (Israeli Ambassador to Washington): Warned that the Egyptian army's activities in Sinai exceed the limits set by the agreement; Aviv Kochavi (Former IDF Chief of Staff): Confirmed that some Egyptian operations were carried out without any security coordination with Israel; Tzvi Hauser (Former Knesset Member): Revealed security reports indicating that the Egyptian army turns a blind eye to arms smuggling into Hamas.
The reckless arms race
According to the latest reports from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Egypt ranks eighth globally among the largest arms importers despite the fact that most of its population lives below the poverty line, and the country ranks among the lowest in global indices for education, health, and quality of life.
What's more alarming is that this militarization occurs alongside an inciting discourse against Israel within military units. Conscripts are indoctrinated to believe that Israel is the primary enemy, and that the peace treaty is nothing more than a temporary truce that could end at any moment.
The incident on June 3, 2023, in which three Israeli soldiers were killed at a border post, was a direct result of this incitement. The soldier Mohamed Salah whom I describe as a terrorist carried out his attack under the influence of the hostile ideology the Egyptian army plants in the minds of its soldiers.
A call to criminalize arming the Egyptian military
Military honor is not an empty slogan but a responsibility that should protect human lives, not crush them. When armies lose their honor, halting arms sales to them becomes not just an option but an urgent moral obligation.
I say it plainly: Arms sales to the Egyptian army must be criminalized until it is held accountable for its crimes and ceases to threaten regional stability.
I conclude with a quote from Montesquieu that encapsulates this tragedy: "An army without morality is a beast without restraints."
Mohamed Saad Khiralla
The writer is a political analyst specializing in Middle East affairs and Islamic movements, an opinion writer, and a member of the Swedish PEN Association. He lives in Sweden.
