Egypt Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === United Arab Republic (1958โ1971) === [[File:Port Said from air.jpg|thumb|Smoke rises from oil tanks beside the [[Suez Canal]] hit during the initial [[Suez Crisis|Anglo-French assault]] on Egypt, 5 November 1956.]] In 1958, Egypt and [[Syria]] formed a sovereign union known as the [[United Arab Republic]]. The union was short-lived, ending in 1961 when [[Syria]] seceded, thus ending the union. During most of its existence, the United Arab Republic was also in a loose [[confederation]] with [[Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen|North Yemen]] (or the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen), known as the [[United Arab States]]. In the early 1960s, Egypt became fully involved in the [[North Yemen Civil War]]. Despite several military moves and peace conferences, the war sank into a stalemate.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Orkaby |first=Asher Aviad. |date=2014 |title=The International History of the Yemen Civil War, 1962-1968 |url=https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/12269828/Orkaby_gsas.harvard_0084L_11420.pdf?sequence= |journal=Doctoral Dissertation, Harvard University}}</ref> In mid May 1967, the Soviet Union issued warnings to [[Gamal Abdel Nasser|Nasser]] of an impending Israeli attack on Syria. Although the chief of staff [[Mohamed Fawzi (general)|Mohamed Fawzi]] verified them as "baseless",<ref>{{cite book |last=Aburish |first=Said K. |author-link=Said Aburish |title=Nasser, the Last Arab |year=2004 |publisher=[[St. Martin's Press]] |location=New York City |isbn=978-0-312-28683-5 |page=252 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780312286835 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Kandil |first=Hazem |title=Soldiers, Spies and Statesmen: Egypt's Road to Revolt |year=2012 |publisher=[[Verso Books]]|location=Brooklyn |isbn=978-1-84467-962-1 |page=76}}</ref> Nasser took three successive steps that made the war virtually inevitable: on 14 May he deployed his troops in Sinai near the border with Israel, on 19 May he expelled the UN peacekeepers stationed in the Sinai Peninsula border with Israel, and on 23 May he closed the [[Straits of Tiran]] to Israeli shipping.<ref>Shlaim, Rogan, 2012 pp. 7, 106</ref> On 26 May [[Gamal Abdel Nasser|Nasser]] declared, "The battle will be a general one and our basic objective will be to destroy Israel".<ref>{{cite book|author=Samir A. Mutawi|title=Jordan in the 1967 War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g9bBJusRJIMC&pg=PA94|year=2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-52858-0|page=95|access-date=20 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906091253/https://books.google.com/books?id=g9bBJusRJIMC&pg=PA94|archive-date=6 September 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> This prompted the beginning of the [[Third Arab-Israeli War|Third Arab Israeli War]] (Six-Day War) in which Israel attacked Egypt, and occupied [[Sinai Peninsula]] and the [[Gaza Strip]], which Egypt had [[Occupation of the Gaza Strip by Egypt|occupied]] since the [[1948 ArabโIsraeli War]]. During the 1967 war, an [[Emergency law in Egypt|Emergency Law]] was enacted, and remained in effect until 2012, with the exception of an 18-month break in 1980/81.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Emergency Law in Egypt|url=http://www.fidh.org/THE-EMERGENCY-LAW-IN-EGYPT|work=International Federation for Human Rights|access-date=2 February 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110201210318/http://fidh.org/THE-EMERGENCY-LAW-IN-EGYPT|archive-date=1 February 2011|url-status=live}}</ref> Under this law, police powers were extended, constitutional rights suspended and censorship legalised.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Egypt โ Emergency Law No. 162/1958. |url=https://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex4.detail?p_lang=en&p_isn=111245 |access-date=2022-05-07 |website=www.ilo.org}}</ref> At the time of the fall of the Egyptian monarchy in the early 1950s, less than half a million Egyptians were considered upper class and rich, four million middle class and 17 million lower class and poor.<ref name="Tarek Osman 2010, p. 120">''Egypt on the Brink'' by Tarek Osman, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 120</ref> Fewer than half of all primary-school-age children attended school, most of them being boys. Nasser's policies changed this. Land reform and distribution, the dramatic growth in university education, and government support to national industries greatly improved social mobility and flattened the social curve. From academic year 1953โ54 through 1965โ66, overall public school enrolments more than doubled. Millions of previously poor Egyptians, through education and jobs in the public sector, joined the middle class. Doctors, engineers, teachers, lawyers, journalists, constituted the bulk of the swelling middle class in Egypt under Nasser.<ref name="Tarek Osman 2010, p. 120" /> During the 1960s, the Egyptian economy went from sluggish to the verge of collapse, the society became less free, and Nasser's appeal waned considerably.<ref>{{cite book|author=Jesse Ferris|title=Nasser's Gamble: How Intervention in Yemen Caused the Six-Day War and the Decline of Egyptian Power|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UC4_aVRh7MgC&pg=PA172|year=2013|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-15514-2|page=2|access-date=20 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906085333/https://books.google.com/books?id=UC4_aVRh7MgC&pg=PA172|archive-date=6 September 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. 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