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Millions of Muslims throughout the Arab world will soon see an Egyptian television drama partly based on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
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| By Ellis Shuman November 1, 2002 |
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Despite official protests by the United States State Department and condemnations by Israeli and Jewish officials, Egypt plans to broadcast a locally made television drama series partly based on the anti-Semitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The series, which portrays a secret scheme for global domination drawn up by an international Jewish movement, will be seen by millions of Muslims throughout the Arab world during the upcoming month of Ramadan.
State Department officials have lodged complaints in Cairo and other Arab capitals, expressing clear displeasure over the planned 30-part series. "We don't think government TV stations should be broadcasting programs that we consider racist and untrue," a senior State Department official said.
The broadcast of "A Horseman without a Horse" threatens to cause further strain in Israeli-Egyptian relations. "There is no way of making peace with so much hatred, bigotry, toward the Jewish people," Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Melchior said on Israeli television. "And this series, to my regret, represents the worst form of hatred that exists," he added.
Broadcast of the Egyptian series "is only the latest manifestation of an ongoing pattern of anti-Semitic incitement in the Egyptian media which reverberates beyond Egypt alone," wrote Abraham H. Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League in a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Foxman said the Egyptian government, with its control of the broadcasting industry, is responsible for the inflammatory material, which cannot be defended as legitimate free expression. "It very ironic that in the Arab world and in Egypt, whenever they want to present something that nobody likes or thinks is offensive or hateful or anti-Semitic or biased, they hide behind freedom of speech and lack of censorship," Foxman said in an interview with Voice of America.
"What this will do is give credence to that infamous forgery which has been used to fuel and feed anti-Semitism and which has resulted in the deaths of Jews," Foxman said. "This is fire that Egypt should not be playing with."
The series depicts the fictional story of an Egyptian who fights British occupation of Egypt from 1882, then in 1906 stumbles on "a plan to oppress the whole world," said Mohamed Baghdadi, one of the scriptwriters. The plan is based on the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" -- a document propagated in Europe at the start of the 20th century dismissed by historians as a fabrication designed to stir anti-Semitism.
"The serial does not try to prove or disprove the Protocols," Baghdadi told Reuters. "I found this text for sale in the shops and I don't say whether it is true or false. This is an imaginary television drama - it doesn't assume that this happened in reality."
Egyptian Information Minister Safwat el-Sherif denied the anti-Semitic nature of the series. "The drama production which has caused controversy in some media does not contain scenes or dialogue that can be considered anti-Semitic," he said, quoted in an Egyptian newspaper.
Al-Manar, Hizbullah's television channel in southern Lebanon, has been promoting the Egyptian series as one of the most important drama series ever. The series will be shown nightly during Ramadan, which guarantees a large audience because many Muslims congregate around their televisions at home after breaking the daily fast.
A rally is planned for next week outside the Egyptian Embassy in Washington to protest the broadcast of the television series. "The production of this show, which was approved by the Egyptian Ministry of Information, is in breach of the 1979 Israel-Egyptian peace accord, which calls on both sides to prevent incitement against each other," said rally organizers in a statement.
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