HUCKSTEP INTERNMENT CAMP
On July 21, 1949 then Prime Minister and Military Governor, Ibrahim Abdel-Hadi Pasha17 ordered the arrest of Eltaher and his imprisonment in Egypt because of his writings exposing Arab and Palestinian leaders he accused of being behind the loss of Palestine. He was led by police from his apartment on Shoubrah Street to Rod El-Farag police station, then to the Huckstep18 internment camp the following day.
Eltaher was eventually released on August 11, 1949 by order from Hussein Sirri Pasha who followed Ibrahim Abdel-Hadi Pasha as Prime Minister. The details of his incarceration were told in his book “Moataqal Huckstep” (i.e. Huckstep Internment Camp) which was published in Cairo in 1950. The book includes an illustrated account of the daily life of the political prisoners, many of whom being nationalists from the Egyptian Brotherhood, some members of the Egyptian Communist Party (the Democratic Movement for National Liberation, known by its Arabic acronym ‘Hadeto’), and others. In this book, Eltaher also details the reasons behind his imprisonment until he was released, and included numerous observations related to the political situation in the Arab World and the state of the Arab League.
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| Huckstep internment camp in 1949 |
The camp officials, one must underline, dealt with political detainees with deference, and refrained from abusing them. Eltaher's family was allowed to visit him once. But when the camp commander knew that Eltaher's young son Hassan, who was six years old, was going to be among the visiting party, he invited the visitors to meet with Eltaher in his own office so that the visiting child does not see his father in the holding shack!
