Israel empties contents of Cairo embassy

CAIRO/JERUSALEM – Israel is flying out furniture and other contents of its Cairo embassy, officials on both sides said Wednesday, highlighting the deterioration in ties since Hosni Mubarak was ousted last year.

Israeli officials said diplomats were staying on and there was no change in ties, but a delay in finding new premises after the embassy was stormed in a protest last year had prompted the decision to remove the contents from Egypt, which in 1979 became the first Arab state to make peace with Israel.

The Israeli ambassador was evacuated in September after demonstrators stormed the embassy during a protest over a deadly border shooting in August. Israeli diplomats are now working mainly from the ambassador’s residence in a Cairo suburb, an Israeli official said.

Last week, a parliamentary committee issued a statement in the wake of Israeli raids on Gaza demanding the Israeli envoy be expelled and seeking a review of ties with the Jewish state.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Yigal Palmor said Israel had decided not to return to the old embassy premises in an apartment block next to the Nile.

“We are looking for a new place, and meanwhile (the contents) have been standing unused, and finding a new office will take a while,” he said.

Many Israelis have worried that ties with Egypt, which in 1979 became the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with the Jewish state, could be threatened by the rise of Islamists in Egypt after Mubarak’s overthrow in a popular uprising last year.

Anti-israeli sentiment in Egypt was muted before U.S. ally Mubarak was toppled but has since become more vocal. But the Muslim Brotherhood’s political party and others have said they are committed to Egypt’s international treaties.