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

The events in the Territories and in Israel have been the basis for a wave of anti-Semitic publications in Egypt. The most severe of all the publications is a detailed article in the establishment Al-Aharam newspaper giving the 'historical' background of the blood libel tradition while accusing Israel of using the blood of Palestinian children to bake matzos up to the present time (see detail in paragraph 5). Although the Egyptian press has a long history of anti-Semitic publications, this article is unusual in its intensity. Anti-Semitic articles were also published in Jordan following the events. In Syria many anti-Semitic articles were published, even before the outbreak of the events.

Many of the propaganda articles deal with denial of the Holocaust, its 'exploitation' by Zionism, and a comparison of Zionism and Israel to Nazism.

- Egypt
- Syria
- Jordan
- Morocco

Egypt

On 13 October, the editor-in-chief of the establishment daily 'Al-Aharam' published that the 'Israel's barbaric policy against the Palestinians surpassed the policy of the Nazis in the Second World War and emphasized the extent of racism in Israel's policy and its inability to shake off the principles of repression, expansionism and aggression'. In the 14 October edition of 'Akbar Al-Yom', Ibrahim Saadeh wrote that it makes no sense now to talk about the chances for making peace with the Nazi Zionist country called Israel.

In the 23 October Internet edition of 'Al-Aharam', Dr. Suleiman Abd Al-Naam wrote in an article that 'the current Arab wrath towards the Nazi measures taken by Israel in occupied Palestine are a rare historic opportunity for an Arab awakening and the development of a new Arab awareness'. In his article he also calls for reviving the Arab boycott of Israel and modernizing it. 'This effective and clever boycott is the only appropriate reaction to Israel's barbarity and arrogance'.

Aadel Hamuda wrote an article in the 28 October edition of 'Al-Aharam' which is unusual in its severity and revives the traditional blood libels. Entitled, 'Jewish Matzo Which Is Made from Arab Blood', it says: 'Every time I see the stone children in Palestine bleeding, I recall my grandfather who used to gather the neighbourhood children in the garden of his home in Alexandria and tell them the story of the Jew who slaughtered a child and prepared from his blood the Passover matzo and afterwards ate it with great appetite. At the time I thought that this story was just a fairy tale but when I grew up I discovered that the story of the Jewish matzo made of blood was a true story which actually happened and it is documented in the Sharia' court in Aleppo, Hamat and Damascus from 1840. The amazing thing is that the rabbis who committed this terrible crime felt no remorse and the explanation for this is in the Talmud which describes the souls of non-Jews as satanic souls similar to those of animals. They believe that non-Jews are compared to dogs and donkeys and their lives have no value and it is therefore permitted to slaughter them, rape their women and despise them and their possessions are even public property. All this explains the scenes we see on television where soldiers of the Israeli occupation kill children without mercy and chew gum at the same time, as if they were on an excursion. The reason for this is that deep in their heart they believe that, according to what it says in the Talmud, they are not killing human beings but animals. He continues and says that the police reports in many of the Palestinian territories have documented the disappearance of Arab children whose bodies were later found dismembered and without a single drop of blood in them. It is quite likely that their blood was mixed with flour of the Jewish radicals. This is how the dough is made from which they bake the matzos that they eat on the Passover holiday.

In an additional article published in 'Al-Aharam' on 2 November, Al-Sid Yassin writes that Israel is today a colonial imperialist state. In its aggressive policy towards the Palestinian people and the massacres it conducts against its sons it is truly an unsuccessful 'revived production' of the Nazi model: a racist ideology, which is Zionism, a country which builds its strategy on the basis of continued expansion at the expense of the Palestinian people and the Arab nations.

On 12 October, the establishment weekly 'Al-Aharam Weekly' (published in English) printed a caricature showing Prime Minister Barak shooting with pistols in both hands, one directed at the boy Muhammad Al-Dura, who is taking refuge behind his father. Behind Prime Minister Barak is Knesset Member Sharon, drawn like a bully, with a grenade in his hand ready to be thrown. Behind this is the proud figure of Hitler who makes the Nazi salute.

Syria

On 13 July, 'Tasrin' published an article accusing Israel of abusing the use of the Holocaust and asks how long the West will continue seeing things in one perspective, which is Israel's perspective. The latter has for fifty years exploited the lie of the Nazi Holocaust in order to destroy every author or historian who tries to examine the matter of the Holocaust from a scientific and objective point of view which is supported by documents. Israel pours out its wrath and the wrath of its supporters on such historians. This is to such an extent that the accusation of anti-Semitism is compared to a monster which causes every author to think carefully before he stretches out his hand to delve into the 'hornet's nest'.

Another article published in 'Tasrin' on 10 August says 'Zionism is the ugliest side of racism. The accusing racist declarations of the Zionist Rabbi Ovadia Yosef are part of the extreme racist stands the Zionist rabbis take against the Arabs and Islam. The stands of the Zionist rabbis were meant to justify the long series of racist actions, killing, expulsion, mass slaughter, murder of children and organized destruction carried out by the Zionist gangs in the forties and fifties of the twentieth century. The army of Zionist aggression has followed in the footsteps of these gangs in later years by fulfilling its aggressive role against the Arab nation. This is in addition to the Zionist intelligence apparatuses which killed and tortured thousands of Arabs in the occupied Arab countries and outside of them.

In the 'Syria Times' of 4 September an article appeared written by Muhammad Daoud entitled 'The Holocaust Again??!' According to him, one of the famous myths is the 'so-called' Holocaust. Since the creation of the world the Jews have been living on this myth, and blackmail the world by using it. Under this pretext, the Palestinian people has been exposed to the inhuman behavior of the Israelis towards them. The Holocaust exists only in the minds of the terrorist Yitzhak Shamir, Ovadia Yosef and others. Chaim Weizmann, Moshe Sharett, David Ben Gurion, Yitzhak Shamir and others cooperated with the Nazis. Among the Zionist Jewish leaders there were those who helped send Jews from Czechoslovakia to the ghettoes. Adolf Eichmann was among the most important friends of the Jews. The writer of the article quotes other Holocaust denying historians who claim that the Germans burned bodies in the camps not as a means of destruction but to prevent the spread of diseases. The gas chambers were used for disinfecting clothing and personal affects. They also used the gas chambers to disinfect the clothes of German soldiers who returned from the Russian front. The gas chambers were never used to kill Jews. The writer of the article claims that the gas chambers exist only in the mind of the terrorist 'snake' Ovadia Yosef.

In another article published on 4 September in the 'Syria Times', Patricia Wickham-Samara writes under the title 'The Master Race' that during the years before and during the Second World War, Zionism and Nazism were connected with each other. Zionists with power financed Nazi Germany led by Hitler with millions of dollars… the goal of the Nazis was to control the world by means of the master race. The Zionists also advocate this goal, with 'control' their key word. Now that the U.S. elections are approaching, it is impossible not to wonder what the results will be if Al Gore wins and Joseph Lieberman will be vice president. The two - both of whom are of Jewish origin – will rule over the strongest country in the world. The question is, however, who will have the last word?

In the magazine of the Arab Writers Association, 'Al-Usbua' Al-Arabi', which was published on 14 October at the Association's Internet Site, an article appeared by Abd Al-Rahman Ghanim which said that Rabbi Ovadia Yosef described the Holocaust victims, which the Zionists falsely claim, and who number six million, as 'the reincarnated souls of Jewish sinners whom God chose to die in order to redeem the people of Israel'. The Zionist Jews have not learned the lessons of the 'Holocaust' (sic). They have rather exploited the 'Holocaust' in a direction which could lead them to a greater disaster. Maybe Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's attempt to explain the Holocaust will help the Jews and help him understand the fact that only a just and lasting peace can save the Jews from a fate similar to that of the 'Holocaust', or even worse. Purification from sins through the adoption of the values of justice is the only way to receive forgiveness from the Creator for the crimes of aggression and robbery, which can only bring down revenge on their perpetrators.

Jordan

In an article which appeared in the 'Al-Ra'i' newspaper on 13 November, Dr. Muhammad Al-Kasah wrote that it is more than 50 years that Israel has been focusing on the Holocaust during which, according to it, Hitler put millions of Jews into crematoria but there is no proof that this did happen. Garaudy wrote in his book 'The Zionist Myths' that Israel exaggerates regarding the numbers. The Holocaust is what our people have been experiencing since the beginning of the century and what they have undergone until today in all parts of the land of Palestine, Lebanon, the Golan, Jordan and Sinai. We do not forget the cluster bombs and the daily massacres that do not differentiate between a child and an old man. The Holocaust is of the Palestinian people and Israel uses it to implement the scorched earth and political assassination policy, it strikes and kills without mercy, burns homes and carries out unprecedented racist actions. This policy emphasizes Israeli barbarity against innocent people and children and proves again and again its mentality and belief. The Arab memory cannot forget the policy of murder and slaughter put into practice since the occupation of Palestine and until today. If a country thus executes a policy of murder and terror and tries to claim throughout the world that it is the Arabs that perpetrate terrorism against it, then there is a need for Arab decisions that will put Israel in its place. The world should support these decisions, against the arrogance, exploitation, murder and burning, and put on trial all the Jewish criminals demanding that they pay compensation for the rivers of blood they spilled in Palestine and in other places, like compensation for the Nazi crematoria. How can one compare the myth of the Jewish Holocaust and the Palestinian Holocaust? Who will pay compensation for the real Holocaust, which has already been going on for a hundred years?

In another article in the 'Al-Ra'i' newspaper, of 15 November, Tareq Masarwa writes that in Europe there is much talk of Christian-Jewish culture, but no such culture exists, since Judaism is a religion that denies the others. The real culture is the humane culture of Islam and Christianity, since Islam does not deny other religions but rather integrates into them and complements them.

Morocco

The Moroccan daily 'Al-Alam' wrote on 3 November that the tomato seeds imported to Morocco from Israel contain viruses. This is in order to harm the Moroccan tomato export market against Israel. The accusations of introducing viruses into agriculture have already appeared in the past.

Sources: Israeli Foreign Ministry