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12. Remarks by Foreign Minister Dayan at El Arish, 23 May 1979.
The formal date for the commencement of the normalization of relations between Israel and Egypt, as provided for in the peace treaty, was set for 25 January 1980, once the first phase of the Israeli withdrawal from Sinai was concluded. Israel, in a good-will gesture, made preparations to return El Arish a day before the 26 May 1979 meeting of Prime Minister Begin and President Sadat in that town. On 23 May Foreign Minister Dayan met, in El Arish, with Egypt's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Butrus Ghali, to discuss various aspects of the opening of the borders, fishing rights and in general the normalization process. Following are excerpts from the statement made to the press at the conclusion of this meeting:
"The question of fishing (rights) came up, as did that of the vegetable garden, within the framework of the general issues. What is the problem? The question is whether, after the 25th of this month, the Ras Muhammad-El Arish line will be closed, as a result of which, until normalization comes into effect in accordance with the peace agreement - that is, eight months from now - until then, residents from one side will not be able to cross to the other side. This means that the Neot Sinai settlers would not be able to cultivate their vegetable garden. There is one exception to this: The laundry matter, which has been agreed on by the sides.
"The Israeli fishermen, where the matter has to do with Egyptian territorial waters, will not be able to continue fishing in the Yamat Bardawil waters, and the Egyptian fishermen will not be able to continue fishing in the territorial waters of the Gaza strip, as they have until now. The same applies to the workers: Workers from El Arish will not be able to work in Israel, and Egyptian landowners, residents of El Arish, who cultivated their own private land - land on the eastern side of the Ras Muhammad-El Arish line - will not be able to cultivate those lands unless they take up permanent residence there. But they Will not be able to live in El Arish and at the same time cultivate land there, just as Israeli fishermen will not be able to live in Israel and fish (on the other side).
"All this on condition that there is in fact no change in what the peace agreement states, and the normalization is not moved up, as Prime Minister Begin not only desires as we all do - but, as he says, that this was promised him by President Sadat. Should it emerge, of course, that President Sadat and Begin have reached agreement that the normalization is to be moved up, then all the arrangements we have made today will not take effect, and we will have to determine other arrangements - not for a closed border but of the method for the border-crossing: of permits, control, visas, etc. At this time we have based ourselves on the assumption of how to arrange things so that if the border is in -fact closed on the 25th individuals will not be adversely affected, and that the cooperation which is supposed to take place between the countries - such as between the health departments, in order to prevent spread of disease - will in fact transpire."
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