EGYPT

Egypt Through the Ages

Sadat's Assassination

 

The rest of the Arab world denounced Egypt for making a separate peace with Israel, and some of the more “hard-line” Arab leaders branded Sadat a traitor to the Arab cause. The Sinai was gradually restored to Egypt, but later Egyptian-Israeli talks on a settlement of the Palestinian issue made little progress. Egypt was expelled from the Arab League in 1979 because of the peace treaty, and the league's headquarters were moved from Cairo to Tunis, Tunisia. In 1989 Egypt was readmitted to the league; the headquarters were moved back to Cairo the following year.

By 1981 Sadat was meeting increasing opposition within Egypt itself, especially from Muslim fundamentalists, who opposed any accommodation with Israel. Sadat responded with a crackdown, arresting and jailing hundreds of his opponents, and placing restrictions on the press. In such an atmosphere he was assassinated by religious fanatics within his own army on October 6, 1981, during a military parade commemorating the Yom Kippur War.

 

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