In essence, the peace between the Arab world's largest country and the Jewish state is a peace which subsists between two governments, but not a peace between two peoples.

A reminder of just how precarious this peace is was demonstrated this week when an Egyptian film festival decided to boycott a film produced by an Israeli director.

The Cairo International Film Festival blacklisted "The Band's Visit," a film about an Egyptian police band getting lost in the Israeli desert. And the Abu Dhabi Film Festival dropped the film after the Egyptian Actors' Union threatened to boycott the festival.

These actions serve as a reminder that the unsolved Palestinian-Israeli dispute continues to contribute to an ongoing sentiment of animosity against Israel among the general public in much of the Arab world, regardless of whatever documents their governments sign.

Yes, Egypt and Israel have been at peace since 1978; or perhaps a more appropriate term would be to say they have not been at war since signing the peace treaty.

But this is far from a real peace. Peace between nations is solidified by cultural and academic exchanges and by encouraging travel to each other's country, among other activities. Those have been completely absent in Arab-Israeli relations.

What transpires from such incidents as the boycott of an Israeli film in an Egyptian festival is a not so subtle message from the Arab street that despite peace treaties signed by their governments, peace - real peace - is yet to be achieved between the people of Israel and the people of the Arab world. This is the peace that counts.

Such incidents also are reminders that so long as the issue of Palestine remains unresolved, it will continue to provide fodder for anti-Israeli sentiments in the rest of the Middle East.

In the 20 years since the signing of the Egyptian Israeli peace treaty, a large number of Egyptians still regard Israel as the enemy. True, there has been an absence of war during those 20 years, but at the same time there has also been an absence of a real peace.