MEMRI has uncovered that Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi evidently stated, “One American president after another – and most recently, that Obama – talks about American guarantees for the safety of the Zionists in Palestine. Obama was very clear when he uttered his empty words on the land of Egypt. He uttered many lies, of which he couldn’t have fulfilled a single word, even if he were sincere – which he is not.”
Morsi continued, “Dear brothers, we must not forget to nurse our children and grandchildren on hatred towards those Zionists and Jews, and all those who support them. They must be nursed on hatred. The hatred must continue.” Morsi furthermore declared, “Who is our enemy? The Zionists. Who occupies our land? The Zionists. Who hates us? The Zionists. Who destroys our lands? The Zionists. The land of Palestine will not be freed except through resistance.”
These above statements proves yet again why Israelis find it very difficult to trust that a Muslim Brotherhood dominated Egypt will honor the peace treaty and why many people are opposed to the United States sending advanced weapons to Egypt at this time. Indeed, this latest revelation from MEMRI follows the publication of another anti-semitic statement by Morsi, where he declared, “These bloodsuckers who attack the Palestinians, these warmongers, the descendants of apes and pig,” in a reference to the Jews of Israel. In the past, Morsi has also compared Zionists to Dracula’s and vampires, another clearly anti-semitic imagery.
The revelation of all of these anti-semitic statements follows an increased atmosphere of repression within Egypt, where minority groups, women’s rights activists, liberals, and any one else opposed to the Muslim Brotherhood is facing difficult times. History has demonstrated that how a society treats the Jews is often a litmus test for how other groups of marginalized people are treated. Given this, the fact that almost all of Egypt’s Jews have been expelled, that the few Jews who remain in Egypt live in fear, should be taken as a warning sign for other oppressed groups in Egypt.
As Egyptian-American human rights activist, and founder of Arabs For Israel, Nonie Darwish, once stated regarding the situation in Egypt, “Minorities have left or been pushed out of Muslim countries. Today the Copts of Egypt are departing in large numbers. It’s reminiscent of the time when close to 900,000 Jews were driven from Arab countries, a terrible loss. I know from personal experience that the culture of Egypt was never the same. Israel is the only non-Muslim state in the Middle East. That’s why it’s a target; many Muslims want the Middle East to be exclusively under Muslim control.” Nonie Darwish, as a strong advocate for religious diversity, sees a connection between the persecutions of Egyptian minority groups and hatred for Israel. Indeed, the same people who hate Israel often mistreat non-Muslim minority groups and other repressed peoples within the Middle East.
By Rachel Avraham