Anti-Semitism in the Arab Press: Expressions of Anti-Semitism in the Arab Press

In recent months the Arab press, especially in Egypt and Jordan, has published many abusive articles and caricatures against Israel, the Jews and Zionism, following the violent October 2000 incidents in the Territories and in Israel. This unusual outburst of virulent articles was published in the Arab press (mainly in Egypt), when it became clear that Ariel Sharon had been elected the next Prime Minister of Israel.

These articles and caricatures compared Israeli actions to Nazism, and Barak and Sharon with Hitler, they identified Jews and their leaders with impure animals, accused the Jews of striving to rule the world and indulged in Holocaust denial. Establishment newspapers identified with the authorities, as well, did not hesitate to resort to expressions unprecedented in their venom.

- Egypt
- Jordan
- Palestinian Authority
- Syria
- Morocco

Egypt

From October 2000 until the present, 'Al-Gomhouriya', 'Al-Ahram', 'Rose al-Yusuf' and 'October' have published many caricatures presenting the candidates for the prime ministerial elections in Israel as Nazis and the Israeli flag with a swastika in the center of a Star of David. The press has also presented the Jew as the stereotype depicted in the antisemitic German “Sturmer” newspaper from the Holocaust period and identifies him as an impure animal (rat, cockroach, or poisonous snake). An additional feature appearing in the Egyptian caricatures and based on the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" presents the Jew as striving to rule the decision making foci in the world as well as world media. In such caricatures we see, for example, President Clinton, entering his office accompanied by a “characteristic” Jew (with a large nose and hat, black suit and a beard) or a television news anchor as a marionette controlled by a hand with a Star of David on it.

Strongly anti-Jewish articles appeared in late October and early November 2000 in 'Al-Ahram'. One article emphasized that 'the reason that the soldiers of the Israeli occupation ruthlessly kill Palestinian children is that deep in their hearts they believe, in accordance with the Talmud, that they are not killing human beings but animals'. According to the author of the article: 'Many Arab children disappeared in the Palestinian territories and their bodies were later found dismembered and drained of blood. Quite likely their blood was mixed with the flour of radical Jews, thereby creating dough from which the Passover matzos are baked'. One article in the same newspaper described Israel as 'Satan and the plague' and another described Israel as 'a failed reproduction of the Nazi model'.

In the 26 November, 2000 edition of 'October', an article written by Hassam Sawilam appeared giving distorted examples from history where the Jew is evil and base. According to Sawilam, in the course of history the Jews were involved in dangerous conspiracies, including control of the economy. They were therefore deported from or massacred in the countries where they lived.

In the 'Book of the Week' column in 'October' of 28 December, 2000, Mahmud Abd al-Shakur reviewed the book 'The Jewish Joke', written by the Egyptian author and journalist Aadel Hamuda. Among other things, the book states that Judaism requires the woman to obey her husband and that the Talmud even describes the status of the woman in the eyes of her husband as a 'piece of meat that he bought from the butcher and of which he can eat as much as he wishes'. He adds that the image of the Jew is associated with negative elements by many nations. Zionist circles, however, began intensive campaigns in recent years to change this image, through Hollywood films. Afterwards they even attached to the Arabs almost all the characteristics attributed to the Jews, to the extent that the Arabs became the symbol of evil in many films.

Osama Al-Baz, Mubarak's political advisor, made several strong statements against the Jews and Judaism. According to the 18 January, 2001 edition of 'Al-Itihad', in a lecture delivered in Dubai, he called the Jews 'rabble' and the 'sons of dogs'. In an interview for Egyptian television on 23 November, 2000, he said 'the Israeli personality is dreadful. In the same person you can find a mixture of superiority and coercion, and you can also find that he is a coward, emotionally disturbed and faint-hearted'. In another interview granted to 'Al-Arab Al-Yom', he said that 'the history of Israel, folk tales and legends, is the foundation of the Zionist entity, according to which the Al-Aqsa mosque will be destroyed, the real Messiah will arrive and bring the end of the world. These myths are a further aspect of the state which does not implement international laws and decisions'.

In 'Al-Ahram' in February, 2001 Anis Mansour, one of the prominent publicists in the Egyptian establishment press and member of the Shura Council and the Supreme Council for the Press, published that 'in the future it will become clear to the world that there was justification for what happened to the Jews of Germany, Poland and Russia. It is not true that all the Jews are peaceful people. There is among them a group of suicidal persons who do not want to live and arouse the hatred and antagonism of people. As a result people turn against them. Despite the very many clever people among them, they use their wisdom to generate new types of hatred and groupings against them everywhere. The feeling of superiority prevails among the Jewish people and they do not bend their heads so that they may live … they rather prefer to appear behind the 'wheels' of the U.S. and Europe, while continuing to arouse sympathy ... because they were in the shadow of or among the last of the oppressed, before the establishment of the State of Israel. They prefer Israel to be surrounded by all the enemies, like in a ghetto'. In another article which appeared in November, Mansour claimed that 'the mad Jews believe that they are the creation of God and a Chosen People and the rest of the people are like pigs'. For this reason, he claims, 'the fanatic Jews believe that if a Palestinian Jew dies it is of no consequence, whereas if an Israeli dies it is a terrible loss'.

In late February, the establishment weekly 'October' published a caricature showing the prime minister elect as jumping into an open coffin decorated with a swastika. Sharon is shown with bandaged hands and supported on crutches, one of which supports him while he makes the Nazi salute.

Jordan

On 13 November, 200, the 'Al-Dustour' daily published a blunt caricature against Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon as a two-headed snake. The snake's body was covered with Stars of David. In mid-December, 'Al-Hadith' and 'Al-Ra'i' published two caricatures showing Prime Minister Barak in the image of Hitler.

An article was published by Yusuf Khishan on 24 January, 2001. He wrote that: 'even their pigs cross the border and attack our fields in the area of the King Hussein Bridge and no one can deter them or even curse them on look at them with loathing ... they are pigs with international immunity according to the Wadi Araba agreement. Their pigs are holy like the Golden Calf, their racism and their matzos are baked with the blood of children'.

In late February 2000, the establishment daily 'Al-Ra'i' published a blunt article on Zionism which stated that 'as time passes the truth becomes clear about Zionism and its ties with Nazism. Zionism and Nazism are two sides of the same coin in everything connected with hatred of the other races in the world, not only from the theoretical aspect, but from the practical aspect as well. Zionism was the main source for Nazism as it the epitomizes the call for racism and racial prejudice. It is far more dangerous to humanity than Nazism as Nazism is based on racial principles and political goals, whereas Zionist racism has a religious, racial, and political basis. The real reason for the struggle between German Nazism and Jewish Zionism may be the strong competition between them. If the Zionists in Germany had been stronger than the Nazis, they would have built the crematoria. German racitook place on German territory, but Zionist racism takes place on the land of their fellow man and tries to become a means to destroy man and take over his land. This is a higher level of Nazism.

Palestinian Authority

As part of the program 'Pages from Our History' shown on Palestinian television, the statements of Dr. Isam (Sisalem), history lecturer at the Islamic University, were broadcast. In an interview he denies the Holocaust and maintains: 'neither Dachau nor Auschwitz were death camps. They began to publish in the media claims that they were persecuted, murdered and destroyed. In the Baltimore Conference held in the U.S., the Zionists understood that the U.S. would fulfill the central role and began to ride its wave and we suffer from this till today. The investigation commissions were set up to establish this entity, the entity which was planted as a cancer in our land'.

Syria

'Tasrin' of 21 January, 2001 accused Zionism of fabricating the Holocaust and defines Israel as a Nazi plague which conducted a Holocaust in the Golan Heights, South Lebanon and Palestine. Tasrin expresses declared support for Holocaust deniers and calls on the world to speak out against the new Nazi plague which has settled in Israel and spreads its poison everywhere. This is a 20^th century plague which has passed on to the Third Millenium. The Zionists strive to suffocate the voice of the British historian David Irving who proved that the Holocaust was actually an illusion, the product of the Zionists' developed imagination'.

Morocco

Several articles were published during February against the election of Ariel Sharon as Prime Minister. In 'Albayan' an accusing article was written comparing Hitler and Sharon which claims that both were elected democratically and the whole world, including the Jews, paid a heavy price for the deeds of the Nazis. The writer of the article also warns that Jewish and Muslim women and mothers may pay a high price for this Israeli choice. In 'Al-Itihad' an article was published which asks what Milosevic of Yugoslavia did more than Sharon, and calls on the international community to act quickly before the situation deteriorates.

Sources: Israeli Foreign Ministry