Egyptians have never been anti-Semitic

Charging Egyptians with anti-Semitism is always shocking. Nonetheless, Chairman of the Board of the Center for Middle East Studies in Paris Abdul Rahim Ali is not the first Egyptian to be charged with anti-Semitism.

The late president Anwar Sadat was accused of being anti-Semitic. Former minister of culture Farouk Hosni was accused of the same as he ran for the top post in UNESCO in 2009. Former president Hosni Mubarak was also accused of anti-Semitism when in November 1995 he accused at a press briefing at the presidential palace in Cairo Benjamin Netanyahu who had just won the election to be Israel's new prime minister of being a "liar".

Judaism as a religion was born in Egypt. Talmudic schools were founded during the Fatimid era. Ya'qub ibn Killis became the prime minister under al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah. Moses ben Maimon, commonly known as Maimonides, arrived in Egypt at the time of Saladin, settled in al-Fustat and gained fame as a medical doctor.

During the 1919 revolution, demonstrators carried Egyptian flags on which the cross, the crescent and the Star of David were drawn, according to modern history books.

Jacques Hassoun authored the book "History of the Jews of the Nile". The book was translated into Arabic from Hebrew by the Egyptian Jewish lawyer Youssef Darwish al-Masri, the grandfather of famous Egyptian actress, Basma. In his book, Hassoun dwells on the social and economic life of Jews and the fact that they worked in all professions, including street hawking which helped them move to all Egyptian cities and villages. Jewish traders introduced installment payments to Egypt's commercial dealings.

Hassoun tells of Jews holding their prayers at mosques when they could not find a synagogue nearby at prayer times. Muslims praying at the mosques never objected, according to him. There was a Jewish court in the northern coastal city of Alexandria until the 1950s. When the July 1952 revolution erupted, Mohamed Naguib, the first president of the Egyptian Republic after the revolution, congratulated the members of the Jewish community on the New Jewish Year. Naguib considered Jews to be an inseparable part of the Egyptian social fabric. He assured them that ongoing developments in Israel then would not affect them in any negative manner.

In 1959, the number of Jews in Egypt reached 80,000. They launched a number of newspapers, including the "Man with Sunglasses", which was launched by Yacub Sanu in 1887. Over 80 years, the number of newspapers and magazines published by Jews reached 30. "Frankness" was the last newspaper to be published by them in 1950. The famous musician Dawood Hosni used to contribute articles to Egyptian newspapers. His son, Badie, worked for the Egyptian radio.

Like its people, Egypt cannot be accused of anti-Semitism. But this does not mean that the same state and the same people cannot be anti-Zionist.

Al-Ahram was first Egyptian paper to ring the alarm about Zionist activities in Egypt. Egyptian Jews were divided on this activity. Some of them rejected them, but others backed them. These enthusiasts sent then finance minister, Moses Qattawi Pasha, to the Zionist Conference in London in 1918. Accompanying him was a delegation whose members were elected in Alexandria, the same city that witnessed the publication of the first Zionist weekly newspaper. The newspaper was published in French every Thursday.

This newspaper published the first declaration of intent of the homeland of the Jews. It said the homeland would be a central point for reviving the Hebrew language and traditions and also regaining the holy land.

Egypt used to be a very important country for the Zionist movement whose activities caught the Ottoman caliph, sultan Hussein Kamel and king Farouk completely off guard. The first newspaper carrying the name "Israel" was published in Egypt in 1932.

The Egyptian government did not object to Zionist activities before 1948. Theodor Herzl, the father of modern political Zionism, was given an official reception when he visited Egypt in 1904. At the end of the 18th century, exactly in 1897, the Zionist Movement took the first action in Egypt when Joseph Marco Baruch established the first Zionist society. The society was made up of a group of Ashkenazi Jews who had arrived from Europe. It was called the Baruchian Zionist Society.

The society was active in rallying up support for the Zionist Movement. It had branches in Alexandria; Port Said; Tanta, and Mansura. The Egyptian government did not object to the presence of these branches. A rise in the number of Zionist societies in Egypt was noticed after Herzl's 1904 visit to the country. After the visit, the most dangerous Zionist society was established, namely "Son of Zion". The society was founded in Alexandria in 1908. It adopted the program of the Zionist Conference which was held in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897. The conference called for establishing the state of Israel. In 1917, there were 14 Zionist societies in Egypt.

These societies succeeded in convincing Egyptians that there was no contradiction between loyalty to their country, Egypt, and loyalty to the Zionist Movement.

When Chaim Weizmann visited Egypt in 1918, leading a Zionist delegation on a journey to Palestine, he was received warmly by the members of the Zionist Organization. The Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Sheikh Mohamed Abul Fadl al-Gizawi, also received him. Al-Gizawi even donated 100 Egyptian pounds to the Zionist Organization. All this took place with blessings from the Egyptian government.

The government realized the dangers of these movements only late, even as a number of Jewish youth opposed the Zionist ideology early on. The activities of the Zionist societies were banned at the end of the 1940s after the Palestinian Nakba. Only then, everybody started to realize the dangers of this ideology.

There is a record of the Lavon Affair as well as the many other scandals of Zionist organizations in Egypt. Nonetheless, nothing is mentioned about the campaign staged by Egyptian Jews against Zionism at the time. Qattawi Pasha was at the forefront of these campaigns. Egyptian socialist Jews also played an important role in campaigning against Zionism. These socialist Jews included Youssef Darwish; Shehata Haroun; Rimon Duweik, and others.

Public opposition to the Zionist Movement forced the government to ban Zionist activities after the Palestinian Nakba. On March 3, 1946, Jewish students issued a statement in which they rejected the presence of all Zionist organizations. They said they would be in the forefront of the Egyptian people's battle against these organizations. The statement was signed by Farag Nassim, a Jewish medical school student. It was also signed by Leon Krawmar, a student of the School of Arts, and Rubeir Shaoul, a student of the School of Engineering.

The statement read as follows:

"Zionism had deceived millions of workers and farmers, promising them the land of fathers and forefathers. It used sweet slogans to claim that Jews will be victimized and will only be rescued in the so-called Promised Land. This deception only aims to put a colonialist plan into effect. As highly-educated Jews, we warn against the dangers of Zionism. We will not allow Zionism to divide the people of Egypt. The Muslims, the Christians and the Jews will be united against colonialism. They will fight side by side with other Arabs for liberation from colonialism and Zionism and for the liberation of Palestine. We, Egyptian Jews, will descend on squares together with our compatriots to protest against Zionist colonialism. Egypt will continue to be independent and free. Palestine will be independent and free too."

It was no surprise then that the personal secretary of Saad Zaghloul was a Jew. He owned one of the Zionist societies of the time that was not banned by the Egyptian government.

Jews were granted driving licenses. There was an Israeli hospital. The Interior Ministry was given clear instructions for treating Jews like the adherents of all other religions in Egypt.

We found numerous photos that capture scenes from the daily life of the Jews in Egypt. It is not easy to differentiate between the Jews and other Egyptians in these photos. Jews did not look differently as the post-952 revolution cinema tries to tell us.

This is why there is a need for drawing lines of demarcation between Judaism and Zionism. We have never been enemies of the Jews. On the contrary, they had a wonderful life in Egypt.

Nonetheless, after the Palestinian Nakba, we became enemies of the racist international Zionism Movement.