Egyptian MP calls on all Arabs to teach their children to reject Israel
"Regardless of what happens, the Zionist entity will come to an end,” he said.
By DONNA RACHEL EDMUNDSA Palestinian woman waits before leaving Rafah border crossing with Egypt, which was reopened for the first time since it was closed in March over Covid-19 concerns, in the southern Gaza strip August 11, 2020.(photo credit: IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA / REUTERS)
All Arabs should teach their children that "regardless of what happens, the Zionist entity will come to an end,” an Egyptian MP has told Palestinians on official PA TV.Despite Egypt's longstanding peace treaty with Israel, Mustafa Bakri rejected completely Israels right to exist, telling viewers tuning in to a news broadcast on PA TV that all Arabs must teach their children to reject Israel.“[I say to] every Arab person: Teach your children that Palestine is Arab, that Jerusalem is Arab, and that the enemy who occupied this land will not be able to continue doing so," Bakri said during the October 30 news report, according to a translation by Palestinian Media Watch."Teach your children that the settlements are a satanic act whose fundamental goal is to destroy the land and take control of it," he added. "Teach your children that regardless of what happens, the Zionist entity will come to an end.”Bakri is a member of Egypt's House of Representatives, in addition to being chief editor of the El-Osboa newspaper. He also has his own regular show on PA TV.Itamar Marcus, founder and director of Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), said that despite the peace treaty, this sort of rhetoric from Egyptian officials was nothing new."The fact that a respected member of Egyptian Parliament rejects Israel’s right to exist is not surprising," he said."The Egyptian and Jordanian peace treaties for the most part stayed at the leadership level and did not trickle down to the people. I assume that a much higher percentage of the UAE population already now support peace and normalization with Israel then the percentage of Egyptians and Jordanians who support peace with normalization."In fact, so deeply embedded is antisemitism within Egyptian society, that Itamar explained how one of PMW's translators who grew up in Alexandria until the age of 16 rejected her Jewish identity as she was ashamed."Due to the hatred for Israel and Jews, her parents were afraid to tell her and her siblings they were Jews," he recounted. "When it was discovered that they were Jews, the children lost all their friends, were hated by their neighbors, and the family had to immediately flee to Israel. This was just 10 years ago.
"The antisemitic and anti-Israel indoctrination that this young woman had undergone her whole childhood in Egypt was so successful that after discovering that she was a Jew and then running with her family to Israel, instead of rejecting the hateful demonization of Jews / Israelis she applied it to herself, and for a number of years actually felt distressed about being an Israeli Jew," he said."This is the world of hate that Egyptian children are growing up with, in an Egypt that has “peace” with Israel."
