The 2016 island protests have shown that potential challenges for Sissi’s rule not only stem from mass uprisings with hundreds of thousands of participants. As scholars have highlighted in the wake of the 2011 uprisings, there is significant power in “the subversion of the very images that the rulers have tried to project as evidence and instrument of their dominion.” The Tiran and Sanafir island controversy undermined the regime’s nationalist image. Egyptian authorities had seriously underestimated the emotional bond between the Egyptian people and their homeland, strengthened through fights against colonialism and military and diplomatic battles over Sinai with Israel.
The Washington Post, 15.04.2018: Two years ago nationalism sparked massive protests in Egypt. Could it happen again?