Antisemitic stereotypes, articles and cartoons appear, despite international protests, in both the government-backed and the Islamist media. Statements combining antisemitism and anti-Zionism clearly reflect the existence of political tensions between Egypt and Israel, particularly since the election in May 1996 of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Despite strenuous efforts by the Egyptian authorities to rid the country of militant Islamists, the latter's armed campaign against the government, launched in 1992, continues. In November 1997 over sixty tourists were murdered in Luxor by members of Gama'a al-Islamiya (GI, Islamic Group).
The Islamist movement continues to incite hatred of both Jews and Christians, and to promote the notion that Jews pose a traditional threat to Islam.
Total population: 63.7 million
Jewish population: 100 (mainly in Cairo)
Other minorities: Coptic Christian (6 million), Eastern Hamitic, Greek, Syro-Lebanese
Constitutional status: presidential democracy
Government: National Democratic Party (NDP) (since 1978), under President Hosni Mubarak, re-elected unopposed to a third six-year term in 1993
GDP: c. US$1,000 per capita
Inflation: 5 per cent
Unemployment: c. 20 per cent
Following the establishment of Ottoman rule over Egypt in 1517, the status of the Jews deteriorated, but western influence in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries improved their conditions. Before 1948 the Jewish community in Egypt numbered 65,000-70,000. During the 1948-9 Arab-Israeli war, hundreds of Jews were arrested, Jewish-owned property and businesses were confiscated and bombings in Jewish areas killed or maimed hundreds of Jews. Between 1948 and 1950, about 25,000 Egyptian Jews left, many for Israel.
In 1952 Jewish establishments were attacked, causing millions of pounds' worth of damage. After the 1956 war 3,000 Jews were interned and thousands of others were given a few days to leave the country; their property was confiscated by the state. By 1957 only 8,000 Jews remained in the country. After the Six-Day War of 1967 hundreds of Jews were arrested and tortured; Jews still in public employment were dismissed. By the mid-1970s only 350 Jews remained in the country.
The 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt enabled Egyptian Jews to establish links with the Jewish state as well as Jews from other countries. In recent years hostility towards Israel in the government-controlled media and in Islamist circles has often been combined with traditional antisemitism.
Militant Islamist groups issue warnings to foreigners to leave the country, and carry out attacks on foreign investors, entrepreneurs and tourists. Prominent among such groups are the Gama'a al-Islamiya (GI, Islamic Group) - formerly led by Sheikh Omar Abd al-Rahman who was sentenced to life imprisonment in the USA for his role in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City - and al-Jihad, the organization accused of assassinating Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981. The most serious recent incident was the November 1997 murder of over sixty tourists in Luxor by GI members.
The approximately 6 million Coptic Christians are also the target of violent assaults. Islamist militants were responsible for killing at least twenty-three Egyptian Christians, eight of whom were murdered on one night in March 1997 by three members of GI. Acts of violence against churches and Coptic-owned businesses are also reported.
Discriminatory practices against Christians within mainstream institutions include: the suspected statistical under-representation of the size of the Christian population; failure to admit Christians into schools of Arabic studies to become Arabic teachers as the curriculum involves study of the Qur'an; job discrimination and under-representation in the public sector, including the police, the armed forces and government agencies; reported discrimination against Christians in staff appointments at universities.
Given the extent of government control over the media in Egypt, antisemitism is apparently widely tolerated by the authorities (see Publications and media).
Members of the leading political Islamist factions, the banned al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun (Muslim Brotherhood) and Hizb al-Amal (Labour Party), frequently express antisemitic ideas in their speeches and publications (see Publications and media).
At their trial in October 1997 two Egyptians, charged with the killing of nine German tourists and the Egyptian bus-driver in a gun attack outside the Cairo Museum the previous month, claimed that their objective had been to attack Jews and that they were ready to 'kill 100, or even 200'. The two were sentenced to death.
Antisemitic expressions frequently figure in sermons in mosques, and Egyptian clerics publish material combining anti-Zionist and antisemitic messages in Arabic publications outside Egypt.
Within Egypt, antisemitic statements by Muslim clerics at al-Azhar University, the leading centre for Islamic studies in the country, are particularly noticeable (see Publications and media). On 1 July 1997, in a statement published in the government-backed daily newspaper al-Akhbar, Sheikh Mahmud Tantawi of al-Azhar University defended a religious ruling that sanctions the death sentence for anyone selling land to Jews. Tantawi was quoted, in an interview published on 15 December 1996 in al-Ittihad, as saying that it 'is legal to kill Jews and Israelis'.
Antisemitism is also apparent in Christian circles. On 2 May 1997, at a meeting in Syria with the Mufti of Syria, the Egyptian Coptic patriarch, Baba Shanuda, reportedly drew parallels between Islam and Christianity while disparaging Judaism: 'The Jews believe . . . that all other nations have no right to exist. It can therefore be said that they are racists, as they want only one race to rule.'
On 26 October 1997 the government-backed weekly October published an interview with the Coptic patriarch in which he is quoted as saying: 'It is illogical that the Jews should be God's chosen people. Does God act with favouritism or racism? The holy books make it clear that the Jews themselves lived in a manner against the will of God and God rejected the Jews.'
Works by the French Holocaust denier (and convert to Islam) Roger Garaudy, including a 1996 Arabic translation of Les mythes fondateurs de la politique israélienne (Founding Myths of Israeli Politics), continue to attract considerable public attention in Egypt. Many Egyptian intellectuals regard Garaudy as a cultural hero. In the aftermath of his visit to Egypt in July 1996 several writers and journalists, including employees of government-backed newspapers, expressed support for his views. During that visit the Federation of Egyptian Writers awarded Garaudy its Statue of the Egyptian Writer.
A number of American Jewish delegations to Egypt, including several from the American Jewish Committee, have protested to senior Egyptian officials over the widespread appearance of antisemitic statements and cartoons in the Egyptian media. During President Mubarak's visit to Washington in March 1997 members of the US Congress and the House International Relations Committee expressed concern about such antisemitic expressions. In response, President Mubarak and Foreign Minister Amr Moussa denied any intention on the part of the government to spread antisemitism.
Given the extent of government control over the media in Egypt - it appoints the editors and pays the salaries of employees of mainstream publications such as al-Ahram, al-Gumhurriya and October - antisemitism appears to be widely tolerated by the authorities.
In Mayo - the official publication of the ruling NDP - the editor Samir Rajab reportedly wrote in a 1997 signed article: 'I, like millions of Egyptians, cannot bear anything Jewish. The Jews are a nation famous for arrogance and fanaticism.'
Antisemitic sentiments are expressed in various Islamist publications. On 29 April 1997 the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mustafa Mashur, wrote in al-Sha'b, the weekly newspaper of Hizb al-Amal: 'It is known that the Jews are the greatest haters of the Muslims and this hostility can be seen in everything they do. Jews lived in Egypt for many years in complete freedom and even tried to take over the economy. Afterwards, they fled with money and property when the Zionist entity came into being. Today, they are trying to return to Egypt to gain control of institutions and companies.'
On 23 September 1997 Mashur was quoted in al-Sha'b as likening the goals of Theodor Herzl, the founder of the Zionist movement, to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
In the 9 September 1997 issue of al-Sha'b, one of the leaders of al-Azhar University, Sheikh Muhammad al-Khatib, said: 'Zionism stamped on the Jewish soul a feeling of hatred towards others, along with a feeling of superiority. Zionism's struggle against Islam is evident in the establishment of secret societies, such as the Freemasons and Rotary, which conspire against Islam and Muslims and are manifest in the dissemination of immoral ideas such as heresy and sexual temptation, in accordance with The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.'
Conspiracy theories invoked by the Egyptian media often include the vilification of Jewish texts. On 16 May 1997, for example, Dr Abd al-Azm al-Matani of al-Azhar University wrote in the government-backed daily al-Gumhurriya : 'The Qur'an testifies that they [the Jews] have always broken their promises. The rabbis filled the Torah with distortions and legends after they returned from exile in Babylon. In order to restore faith to their people, [they claimed] that God would destroy all their enemies, that all other nations would become their slaves and that they alone would rule the world.'
On 22 July 1997 the Islamist magazine al-Ahrar asserted: 'The Torah . . . is nothing but a story of the covenant by which the Devil became the Lord of the World. He motivated the Jews' forefathers to swerve from the path of truth and righteousness until the world was filled with evil and iniquity.' The article also claimed that Jews aim to destroy all governments 'through anarchy, terror and heresy'.
On 12 August 1997 al-Sha'b attacked those who attempt to blur the distinction between Jews, Zionists and Israel: 'There may be those who prefer using the words "Israel" and "Zionism" rather than the word "Judaism". But the truth of the matter is that . . . the criminal acts of Israel today . . . correspond to the role the Jews have played throughout history towards their prophets and the conspiracy they made with heretics against the Prophet Muhammad.' The article also referred to 'the Jews' tremendous ability in the areas of evil, crime and destruction'.
Conspiracy theories were particularly prevalent immediately prior to the November 1997 Middle East and North African (MENA) economic conference in Doha, Qatar. On 4 October 1997 an article in the daily al-Ahram claimed that Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Napoleon, Churchill and Hitler were agents of a 'world Zionist conspiracy' which 'seeks complete control over the world's treasure, natural resources and human resources in order to gain economic control of the world'. In the same edition Mustafa Mahmud, a well-known Marxist-turned-Islamist writer, stated: 'While the Jews conquer Jerusalem with an iron fist on the pretext that God promised them control over the whole of Palestine, we say, by the same token, that it is written in the Qur'an that Allah cursed the Jews and sentenced them to expulsion until the Day of Judgement . . . We are amazed that today 300 million Arabs are running after 5 million Israelis and are prepared to sit with them at the normalization conference in Doha.'
In response to the discovery in Swiss banks of so-called Nazi gold, the notion of Jewish conspiracy has been invoked. On 10 January 1997 the establishment weekly al-Musawwar published an article by Jamil Atiyah Ibrahim entitled 'The greatest political looting campaign of the twentieth century'. Ibrahim claimed that 'Jews, united in strength, and with the support of the US, are attacking weak Switzerland, which stands alone with no support as it is not a member of any regional bloc'. On 3 August 1997 al-Ahram published an article entitled 'The devil's circle' which accused Jews of exploiting the Holocaust for financial gain: 'It is precisely when the Jews try to conceal Shylock and his affinity to them that the Jewish lobby attacks the Swiss banks.' A similar article appeared on 7 December 1997 in al-Ahram : 'The end result of the campaign the Jews are waging is Jewish control over the world's economic arteries. The [November 1997] London conference [on Nazi gold] is a living example of the Jews' ability to pressure all world institutions to achieve their goals and restore their scantily proven rights.'
Articles alleging a Jewish economic plot were particularly evident at the time of the MENA conference. On 24 October 1997 the Islamist daily al-Wafd published an editorial which stated: 'Jewish fingers are behind the economic disaster which threatens the world and which began with the crisis in the Hong Kong stock exchange . . . Jews are the kings of world capital and their fingers control the banks and stock exchanges.' The next day al-Wafd denounced 'the Jews' games with money' and the 'corruption of the Jews and their crimes throughout history'. On 19 November 1997, in the establishment newspaper al-Arab al-Yom, a columnist defended Egypt's decision to boycott the MENA conference while blaming Jews for promoting terrorism. Entitled 'Jewish fingerprints in the Luxor massacre', the column suggested that the attack on tourists served 'only the Americans and the Zionists'.
References to Jews' supposed greed are frequently made. On 5 February 1997 al-Wafd featured an article by Muhammad al-Haywan that states: 'Jews love money to a dangerous degree. The idea of Israel is to concentrate all the Jews together in order to corrupt the world and extort its riches. The Jews, however, will act in the same manner even if they are dispersed throughout the world . . . ' At the end of May 1997 Muslim Brotherhood leader Mustafa Mashur (see above) published a column in al-Ahram which concluded that the 'Jews continue to worship the Golden Calf, for they are the kings of Mammon and their love of money reaches the level of worship. It is not by chance that Shakespeare chose Shylock the Jew as the symbol of love of money. Their pride and racism caused them to behave tyrannically and violate their obligations.'
Antisemitic statements in the Egyptian press occasionally stress the notion that Jews are a threat to Christianity as well as to Islam. On 15 February 1997 an article in the mainstream weekly Akhbar al-Yom condemned the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses as a 'Zionist plot in the heart of Cairo'; the author of the article asserted that the movement is funded by Jews in Brooklyn, New York who aim to distort Christianity and to corrupt young people. On 28 April 1997 al-Wafd published an article under the heading: 'Muslims and Christians accuse each other fanatically, without regard for the Jews and their malicious attitude towards both Islam and Christianity.' The author accused Jews of murdering the prophets and slandering Jesus and Mary as well as Muhammad: 'The Jews are the source of corruption and aberration because they put all their efforts into sowing dissension between Muslims. The Jews are also the source of all lawlessness, anarchy, corruption and deviation in western societies and these have all been adopted by the Arab world without our knowing their origins.'
References to classic antisemitic texts feature regularly in both the government-backed and the Islamist media. On 6 February 1997 al-Wafd suggested that a group of young Egyptians, dubbed 'worshippers of the devil' by the local media and arrested for holding a drugs party in a Cairo cemetery, were members of a secret Zionist organization. The article suggested that the sect intends to implement the goals of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. On 3 May 1997 Mustafa Mashur (see above) wrote an article in al-Ahram entitled 'The Jewish problem' in which he claimed that 'Judaism is contaminated with racial fanaticism and suffers from a complex of fear and hatred, delusions of grandeur and a desire to harm the next person and control him. Even if there are those who are convinced that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is fictitious, there remain the Talmud and the Midrash, themselves full of hatred of the world, ridicule of all religions and the plotting of intrigues against the entire world and its inhabitants.'
Modern versions of allegations of blood libel and well-poisoning also appear. On 22 January 1997 al-Ahram featured an article by Salah al-Din Hafez who stated that Israel was responsible for injecting Palestinian children with the AIDS virus. A week later the newspaper published a rare retraction, acknowledging that the story was 'deceptive'. The English-language daily Egyptian Gazette reported on 12 August 1997 that shipments of Israeli medical supplies confiscated by Egyptian police at Port Said were found to be contaminated with the AIDS virus.
Several Egyptian cultural figures were quoted in an article published on 5 May 1997 in the government-backed newspaper of the United Arab Emirates, a-Shouruq. One writer stated that he no longer travels to Sinai because 'the presence of Jews has ruined that area's beauty'. The artist Izzat Abu Awaf said that he feels 'suffocated and nauseated if I happen to see a Jew. You can't trust them. They are the enemy who will never be your friend.'
In June 1997 the dissemination by a Jewish settler in the West Bank of a leaflet that depicted the Prophet Muhammad as a pig sparked widespread media attention in Egypt. As in other Middle Eastern countries, condemnation of the incident was often combined with antisemitic allegations. Many critics claimed that Jews had plotted against Islam throughout history. Al-Wafd commented editorially on 29 June: 'The Jews . . . fought Allah's prophet Muhammad when he was alive, antagonized Islam when it was still in the cradle, attacked the benevolent prophet fourteen centuries after his departure, and abused Islam more than 1400 years later.' On 5 July 1997 the mainstream weekly Akhbar al-Yom asserted that the woman who drew the leaflet represents an 'Israeli Jewish tendency' to 'destroy every race, except for the Jewish race, and degrade every religion, except for the Jewish religion'. On 6 July 1997 Al-Wafd described Jews as 'thieves, liars, racists and the sons of rattlesnakes'. Another article in the same issue of al-Wafd described the leaflet as 'the product of the education of rabbis with long beards and wolfish eyes, who embody a dirty mixture of hatred towards all Arabs and despicable racist fanaticism'. On 11 August 1997 al-Wafd declared: 'The Jews are the lowest and most contemptible of all God's creatures and they are traitors and murderers of prophets . . . Their history is filled with expressions of hatred, evil tricks and schemes.'
On 22 July 1997 al-Sha'b reported on a protest rally organized by Hizb al-Amal at which speakers accused Jews of causing all of Europe's disasters and wars. Similar antisemitic charges appeared during the same month in a four-page supplement to the weekly journal al-Usbu. Dr Yehieh Ismail, for example, asserted: 'The Jews have not changed. They have always despised God and all the prophets. The entire nation must be prepared to fight these base creatures.' Another article in the supplement featured the reactions of Egyptian children who referred to Jews as 'barbarians who harm Islam', and claimed that Jews are 'more heretical than the devil'. Other critics of the 'pig leaflet' listed negative characteristics of Jews.
On 19 October 1997 an article in al-Wafd by Hamadi Sayed, the head of the association of Egyptian doctors, accused Jews of distorting the image of Egyptian doctors and destroying Egyptian medicine.
Both government-backed and Islamist newspapers in Egypt regularly feature cartoons depicting negative stereotypes of Jews. The most common antisemitic images are the hook-nosed, black-robed Jew, sometimes with horns, often conspiring against the Arab world, and that of the Jew as a Nazi. On 31 March 1997, in response to US protests to President Mubarak during his Washington visit against antisemitism in the Egyptian media, the Egyptian cartoonists' association staged an unusual demonstration: they displayed examples of antisemitic and anti-Zionist cartoons on placards outside the headquarters of the Arab League in Cairo.
Academic books featuring antisemitic themes are also on sale in Egypt. Among them is a book by Zakharriya Hussein, director of the Nasser Higher Military Academy, entitled 'Whither the Arabs . . .' The book's title-page features Qur'anic verses warning 'Don't take the Jews and Christians as friends', and includes an introduction by Mustafa Mahmud (see above) claiming that violence is inherent in Jewish culture.
The preface of a new book by Muhammad Sayid Tantawi of al-Azhar University (see Religious antisemitism) entitled 'The Children of Israel in the Qur'an and Sunnah' states that the book is intended 'to expose to Muslim youth especially, and to the intelligent and righteous in general, the facts about the children of Israel, their history, morals, lies and shameful deeds'.
In the foreword to the Arabic translation of 'The New Middle East', a book by former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, published by al-Ahram press in 1995, the Egyptian publisher states: '[Peres's] book confirms, so clearly that it is undeniable, that The Protocols [of the Elders of Zion] is indeed true. Peres's book is yet another step in the execution of these dangerous plots.'
Translations of traditional antisemitic texts such as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Hitler's Mein Kampf, Henry Ford's The International Jew, and the more recent 'World Zionism', translated from Russian and printed in Damascus, continue to circulate.
A large number of audio-cassettes and videotapes containing sermons by popular Islamist leaders often invoking antisemitic themes is widely available in Egypt.
Criticism of Israeli government policies is often imbued with antisemitic arguments. Particularly common are conspiracy theories that portray the state of Israel as continuing a supposed Jewish tradition of anti-Egyptian or anti-Islamic activities, such as an article entitled 'Israel and us: ceasefire or peace . . . ' in the 27 February 1997 issue of al-Wafd : 'In the period of the Pharoahs, they [the Jews] stole gold from the Egyptians, and throughout Islamic history, they broke their promises to the Prophet Muhammad. In the Middle Ages they sowed destruction in Egypt and worked for the foreigners. In the modern period, they supported imperialism.'
On 11 April 1997 al-Sha'b carried an article by a prominent lawyer, Samir Iyd, entitled 'The Jews' character leaves its mark on them: therefore beware of them'. Iyd alleged that throughout history Jews have used violence, treachery and terrorism to achieve their goals. In a curious tribute to the assassinated Israeli prime minister, he claimed that Jews 'even killed those who rose from among them and tried to lead them on the right path. The last of these was Rabin . . . Terrorism and violence . . . have taken root in the soul of the Jewish people and have become an integral part of Zionist ideology. As for the Jewish habit of violating agreements and not fulfilling commitments, this habit is stamped on their character.'
Similar antisemitic responses followed the decision by the Israeli government in March 1997 to build a Jewish settlement in Har Homa/Jebel al Ghonheim outside Jerusalem. On 25 March the weekly publication Rose al-Yusuf claimed that 'in the past Jews murdered the prophets and today they are murdering the peace'.
Institute for Jewish Policy Research and American Jewish Committee
© JPR 1998
