Israeli man jailed in Egypt released after two years

An Israeli citizen who was incarcerated in Egypt for the past two years was released from prison and repatriated on Saturday.

Andre Pshenichnikov was arrested in the Sinai Peninsula in January 2013 after crossing into Egypt with no identification. A month later he was sentenced by a court in the town of Nuweiba to two years in prison.

At the time, unnamed Egyptian security officials said Pshenichnikov was stopped after filming security installations in Sinai and asking drivers for information. The security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said he was trying to reach the Gaza Strip through Sinai.

Pshenichnikov’s friends and family claimed that the Foreign Ministry didn’t do enough to press Egypt for his release, but the Foreign Ministry dismissed the claims and said it repeatedly asked Cairo to release the man.

Pshenichnikov, who immigrated to Israel with his family from Tajikistan 13 years ago, caused a stir in 2012 when he declared that he wished to renounce his Israeli citizenship and adopt Palestinian citizenship.

“I hate Zionism,” he told the Associated Press in June 2012. “I want to be part of the Palestinian resistance.”

Pshenichnikov, who served in the IDF for three years, began to question Israel’s relationship with the Palestinians during or after his military service. He moved to the Deheishe Refugee Camp near the West Bank city of Bethlehem and worked as a waiter in a Bethlehem hotel and as a construction worker in the camp.