CAIRO — On March 22, Sayed Farag, an Egyptian member of parliament representing Cairo's Hadayek el-Qubba district, announced an initiative to form a parliamentary delegation that would visit the Israeli Knesset to discuss pending issues between the two countries. Farag was inspired by former President Anwar Sadat, who spoke in the Israeli Knesset on Nov. 19, 1977, and discussed the problems facing both countries at the time.
As soon as the media published the news, many members of parliament objected and considered the initiative a form of “normalization” with Israel that should not be accepted under any circumstances.