Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Scrutiny of Government Waste Committee) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to raise an issue relating to quite a disturbing event that has taken place in recent weeks in Egypt. Earlier this year, the world watched on as the Egyptian people stood up for their own freedom in the early part of what has been described as the Arab Spring. They were momentous events that many of us in this place watched with great interest, and that were watched across the world with great interest. Particularly to those who believe in the cause of freedom, they were events that we should be celebrating.

Egypt of course has played a significant historic role in world history and for the past 30 years has played a genuine stabilising role in the Middle East. We, of course, want that role to continue into the future. Some of us have been concerned, and many people of sound mind across the world have been concerned, about the potential for the vacuum which has been created in Egypt to be filled by people who wish to install a new type of vicious dictatorship rather than a free and open society, which we would hope could come from the events earlier this year. This is a similar outcome to what happened in Iran's revolution in 1979. In this respect, I raise the circumstances of a young American university student, Ilan Grapel, a dual US-Israeli citizen studying law in the United States. His family are in the United States and he was a former congressional intern. Mr Grapel has an Australian link, working for some time with Colin Rubenstein as an intern at the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council just a couple of years ago. Disturbingly, Mr Grapel was arrested by Egyptian state security officers early this month. He remains in detention. He was alleged to have been involved in espionage and fomenting sectarian strife in Egypt. These allegations at best seem far-fetched and when you consider that Mr Grapel is a regular visitor to the Middle East and had entered Egypt under his own name on his own passport and was posting daily messages on Facebook, the allegations do raise significant concerns.

This is similar, sadly, to the five-year anniversary of the detention of Israeli citizen Gilad Shalit, who has been held by Hamas since 2006. I call on our Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kevin Rudd, to make representations to the Egyptian ambassador. This is not the path that the world wants to see Egypt follow. We want Egypt to become a tolerant and open society that respects the rule of law. This does not indicate that path. (Time expired)

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