MESSAGE
| DATE | 2002-10-29 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] Proticals of Ziob
|
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/26/international/middleeast/26CAIR.html?pagewanted=print&position=top
October 26, 2002 Anti-Semitic 'Elders of Zion' Gets New Life on Egypt
TV By DANIEL J. WAKIN
CAIRO, Oct. 25 -- The images flash quickly across the television
screen. They show a bloody face, Victorian men and women in a drawing
room, soldiers wielding rifle butts. And a man in black hat with side
curls and long beard.
An Egyptian satellite television channel has begun teasers for its
blockbuster Ramadan series that its producers acknowledge incorporates
ideas from the infamous czarist forgery "The Protocols of the Elders
of Zion." That document, a pillar of anti-Semitic hatred for about a
century, appears to be gaining a new foothold in parts of the Arab world,
some scholars and observers say.
The series, "Horse Without a Horseman," traces the history of the Middle
East from 1855 to 1917 through the eyes of an Egyptian who fought British
occupiers and the Zionist movement.
It is divided into 41 episodes and will be shown nightly through the
Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which begins in about two weeks and
guarantees maximum viewership because many Muslims congregate at home
after breaking the daily fast.
With Egyptian state television and other Arab channels also broadcasting
the series, the potential audience numbers in the tens of millions.
A historical epic with a pulpy look, judging from the commercials,
the series is the first production of one-year-old Dream TV.
The channel is one of the country's first two private stations, and has
a somewhat freewheeling format compared with state television. It is
controlled by Ahmed Bahgat, a prominent Egyptian businessman.
The "Protocols," which purports to depict Jewish leaders plotting world
dominion, has long been recognized as a fabrication by the czarist secret
police. It was used in early 20th-century Russia and in Nazi Germany as
a pretext for persecution of Jews. Still, the show's backers say they
are keeping an open mind about its authenticity. They say that in any
event, reality seems to bear them out, in that Israel controls part of
the Middle East.
"In a way, don't they dominate?" said Hala Sarhan, Dream TV's vice
president and feisty personality on the air. "Of course, what we read
from the `Protocols,' it says it's a kind of conspiracy. They want to
control; they want to dominate. I represent everybody in the street. We
will see whether this happened throughout history or not."
Ms. Sarhan is quick to point out that the material about the "Protocols"
is only one aspect of a sweeping television panorama. But others who
have seen the entire program say that a Zionist conspiracy to control
Arab lands is one of the themes running through the series.
At one point, men in the Arab anti-British resistance movement find
the "Protocols" and have it translated, said a co-writer, Muhammad
Baghdadi. "They discovered that many things in this document were
happening in reality," Mr. Baghdadi said, "whether they were written by
the Jews or not."
The underlying focus of the drama "is how the Zionist entity was planted
in Palestine and in the Arab world," he said. Mr. Baghdadi said the
series respected Judaism as a religion. "We only criticize the Zionist
movement," he said.
Nevertheless, the program has troubled the United States as well as
Israel. American Embassy officials say they raised their concerns with
the Egyptian government but received a noncommittal response.
The series is closely associated with Muhammad Sobhi, a popular Egyptian
screen and stage actor who is not shy about courting controversy and
whose previous works have sometimes poked fun at Arabs. He co-wrote the
script and plays the main character.
Mr. Sobhi declined to be interviewed, but earlier this year he told Al
Jazeera television that whether or not the "Protocols" was authentic,
"Zionism exists and it has controlled the world since the dawn of
history."
He said that many of the book's predictions had been borne out and that
it would be "stupid" not to consider the possibility that the book was
true, even if the chance was "one in a million."
Commentators, like David I. Kertzer, a professor of anthropology at Brown
University, have noted an increase in anti-Semitic imagery more typical
of Western societies cropping up in the Arab world since the Sept. 11
attacks, along with the canard that Jews were warned of the attacks.
Michael A. Sells, a professor of comparative religion at Haverford
College, said, "With each new wave of war and anger, the European-imported
brand digs itself deeper into society."
Indeed, the "Protocols" lately appears to be gaining more attention
in the Arab media and more space on bookshelves. Yet the extent of
its impact in Egypt is questionable. Egyptian observers say that most
people in this country of limited literacyhave not heard of the book,
although those who have probably accept it as real.
"Once it goes on television it enters everyone's living room, and that's
where the danger is," said Samir Raafat, a writer and chronicler of
Cairene life who is critical of the series. "You are spoon-feeding them
more hate propaganda. This is not conducive to tolerance of the other
or knowing the other. There's a price going to be paid."
The "Protocols" spread through Europe in the 1920's, and has had
a presence in the Middle East for decades, said Abraham H. Foxman,
national director of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith.
He said he had asked European governments and the United States to press
Egypt to ban the broadcast.
Mr. Foxman and experts say anti-Semitic writings and images are on the
rise in the Arab world. Some here say anger at Israeli actions against
the Palestinians is being expressed in anti-Jewish terms, with the line
sometimes blurred. Perhaps that is not surprising when the words Jews,
Zionists and Israelis are often interchangeable in the Arab media and
official discourse.
Scholars of the Islamic world, which historically has had a closeness
with Judaism, say demonization on both sides is inevitable after such
long conflict in the Middle East.
An Egyptian government spokesman, Nabil Osman, rejected criticism of
"Horseman Without a Horse." "It's the same old gimmick, to raise the
issue of anti-Semitism when it's convenient," he said. "To prejudge
something you didn't see underlines some ulterior goals, which I'm not
in a position to decipher."
Mr. Osman disputed that there was an increasingly anti-Jewish strain
in Egyptian society. "There is a world of difference," he said, between
anger at Israeli policies and anti-Semitism.
He said the program had been reviewed by the government broadcasting
committee, which vets all television programs for things like
pornography or the "desecration of religion." It was approved,
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