In fact, my own grandparents were persecuted by the Nazis in Italy only about sixty years ago. One then can imagine that I was less than pleased upon seeing a cartoon of Ariel Sharon sitting on a throne with a Jewish star engraved with a swastika inside it in a recent copy of a local newspaper in Cairo during my travels to the pyramids. Shockingly, the cartoon resembled something one might’ve seen during pre-Holocaust Europe.
During my travels throughout Jordan and Egypt this winter break, I was careful to avoid religion and politics, but the inevitable doom they carry over all of us didn’t seem to elude me. Luckily, their presence in the Islamic Middle East enlightened me somewhat regarding the situation I observe everyday in Israel; however, their affect on the Muslim world unfortunately is paramount and inexorable.
Most of my experiences with Jordanian and Egyptian Arabs were more than pleasant. As people on the whole, they were unconditionally hospitable and tourist-friendly. Constantly offering my friends and me tea as a sign of their hospitality, they were eager to help us in our travels and seemed glad to see us there. Traveling with Canadians, I couldn’t escape the friendly “Canada Dry” shouts everywhere we went. It was clear to me that they too, were normal people simply trying to live their lives in comfort and peace.
It was for this reason that my incessant interaction with the Arab media was all the more bothersome. Everywhere I turned, there was anti-Israel/Jewish diatribe being spewed in my face. In my few related interactions with Arabs, the response was unfavorable, my felucca (Egyptian boat) captain even comparing the Israeli Prime Minister to Osama bin Ladin. I couldn’t help but wonder why it was all necessary; to infiltrate hatred upon a people who would otherwise be apathetic.
Egypt made peace with Israel almost thirty years ago – why all the hostility? The Israeli attitude is quite the opposite; in fact, many of my Israeli friends have traveled for their vacation to the formerly Israeli-possessed Sinai Peninsula, where they are distastefully tolerated.
In response to the continuous onslaught of anti-Semitic cartoons in Egypt, the anti-Defamation League issued a poster which read “You have the power, President Mubarak, to stop the anti-Semitic hate in Egypt. Use it.” What I gathered through my travels was the sad reality that Arabs in the Middle East are puppets of anti-Semitic propaganda. I made many Arab friends, but I still feared disclosing my religion to them. If all you know is Al-Jazeera and Sawa Radio, without even the ability to gather your information from other sources, why would one think any differently than what he/she is told?
While visiting the brilliant ruins in Petra, my friends and I sought refuge from the pouring rain and cold in a small Bedouin tent. We were warmly welcomed by many men all garbed in red and white kafiyyahs, a campfire, and tea. We sat for a while; I practiced my Arabic, and was even interviewed in Spanish by fellow tourists filming for a television program in Argentina. We must’ve been staying there for half an hour just laughing and having a good time, when one of the larger men got up from the circle and went to the entrance of the tent with his back facing us. I shuddered when, to my alarm and horror, he screamed to the outdoors “Yahuud,” (the word for Jews in Arabic) and all eyes quickly shifted on us. Luckily we managed to woo the crowd back to laughter, but the moment alone provided me with enough angst for the rest of the day.
Director of Television Studies at the American University of Cairo and former NBC bureau chief, Abdullah Schleiffer made reference to the Egyptian attitude in a BBC News interview. “But they know nothing, they don’ t understand Israel or the Jews because they don’ t read or study, so you get all this ludicrous stuff.”
ADL President Abraham Foxman proposed allocating $100 million as US aid to Egypt this year to be put it into an escrow account until a responsible authority in Egypt begins to speak against anti-Semitism in the Egyptian press.
The situation here in the Middle East is sad and unfortunate. I honestly wish I had a solution up my sleeve to circulate throughout the region, but the fact is, the core of the problem is something so deep and resonant that it will take at least generations of re-education, if that, to turn the sentiment around. It is imperative that we, as educated Americans, spread our knowledge of the situation to everyone we know and urge our government leaders to work on the shift in education in the Middle East to a one of a positive and peaceful outlook toward all peoples, regardless of religion, race or creed.
Leah Vitale is a Collegian columnist that spent time in Jordan and Egypt over winter vacation.
