Exodus BACK to Egypt!
This photo is the cover of El mogtama' magazine (Society Magazine) in 31 - 05 - 2008, a magazine centered in Kuwait.... The cover hold the name (Jews are looking for their golden age in Egypt) the article was published in comment about the canceled third conference of Jews in Egypt which had quite larger publicity here in Egypt in comparison to the previous 2 conferences... yet still wasn't mentioned in almost all Egyptian newspapers.
The most popular channel that paid too much attention to the canceled conference was Dream TV in the same program that caused intense reaction between Egypt and Israel few months ago when it discussed the situation of the thousands of Egyptians who live and work in Israel and even those who have an Israeli nationality and their children.
It was very predictable that media will attack the conference very vigorously and call it an Israeli trial to interfere in the Egyptian internal affairs.... to the extent that Mr Adeep ( A very famous Egyptian Host) called the Egyptian government to stop this conference and to make its best effort to oppose for Jews and their desire to return to Egypt or even to have the right to call for compensations for their lost belongings and money when they left Egypt.
on the other side, in Dream TV. the coverage was a little more reasonable and for the first time in half century Egyptians heard an Egyptian Jewish voice on an Egyptian TV cable channel... Mr Elee who migrated to USA 60 years earlier was the caller and his Arabic was excellent as if he never stopped talking in it!
But Mr, Wael el Ebrashey wasn't so sympathetic with the case and of course he had to ask the expected question to Mr Elee about his Allegiance and the response wasn't really smart when Elee said that his allegiance is for no side... and here Mr Wael asked again, what about your allegiance during the war of the six days and the answer was just a laugh which was enough to destroy the whole case for any Egyptian viewer who didn't follow the case, and his laugh was used by Mr Wael excellently...
As for my point of view.... If asked the same question I would have answered as the following:
I was passing by the worst time in my life in Egypt, I was unsafe, afraid and very confused between religion and politics... I was suspected by police just for being a Jew and I was terrified from my life so I left Egypt just for my life.
And you ask me now what was my allegiance then!!! put yourself in my shoes and tell me what would you do...
Besides, Mr Wael's question shows already his bad intention... if he was 1% sympathetic for the case he would have asked about his allegiance in the present time,,, not 60 years ago!!! also about why would he like to return to Egypt in steed of living in the USA.. the question was just to destroy the Jewish image,
But at least he gave a Jewish man the right to speak for the first time ... this is in his side.
So what is this all about.... just follow the link!
Three years ago a new group was formed from Egyptian Jews who fled out of Egypt in the past century, some of the sons and grandsons of Egyptian Jews who died outside Egypt... Their aim was different between asking for compensation for their stolen money and belongings they left in Egypt while migrating and returning to Egypt again with their rights as Egyptian citizens... to reopen the closed temples and return to their homelands.
The participants were from different countries; USA, France and Israel... and they were less than one hundred.. they asked the Egyptian government to host their conference as Egyptian citizens in their homeland, but of course their request was faced by refusal.
so the conference was held in Haifa city in Israel mainly hosted by the Association of Friendship between Egypt and Israel which is an organization centered in Tel Aviv and it was attended by the participants in addition to some Human rights activists.... and it came with some recommendations to the Egyptian government mainly about paying compensation to the Jewish immigrants for their stolen money..
There was no response from the Egyptian government as expected. the government's only response to the conference was to do nothing as if it never heard. only there was a very vigorous attack by the minister of foreign affairs on Israel for what he called its interference in Egypt's internal affairs. Israel replied that the conference is mainly made by civilian organizations and Israeli Laws don't give the government the power to stop it. yet the Egyptian government continued ignoring the conference's recommendations thinking it is insignificant!
But to the surprise of the Egyptian government, the conference was followed by the US government, and even its results were admitted and a paragraph about it was included in the American Report on Religious Freedom in the world in 2006, which criticized Egypt badly (AS USUAL!)
There was a refusal by the Egyptian minster of foreign affairs Ahmed Abu el Gheit about the Report when he met some of the congress members in Cairo, but he was surprised that they brought him a list of the whole Jewish Egyptian citizens' belonging and a study that estimated the amount of required compensation by 5 Billion Dollars!
This wasn't the only time Egypt's government face such a situation, it is known that there are so many cases fired against the Egyptian government by Jewish citizens especially in the USA. but such cases were totally insignificant because they are outside the Egyptian land so whatever the court decides, the government isn't obliged in anyway to even recognize the decision also because the Government of the USA is already in a tight spot in the middle east and it isn't ready to loose one of her rare and strong friends in the region for few cases with 5 billion $ only!
Even the report isn't anything in a practical point of view, so the Egyptian government ignored it too.
Then the next year came and the conference was to be held again, the Egyptian government received a request to host the conference and this time it didn't say no for many reasons..
First: because it wanted to improve its image especially in front of the USA... (this was before the famous decision was made by the congress to reduce military aid to Egypt, which made the relationship between both countries the worst since Sadat's time!!!)
Second: because the government was convinced that the heavily covered conference by western media can serve tourism especially that they participants wanted to visit some holly Jewish places in Egypt also to visit the old Jewish temples in Cairo, so it was a good chance to advertise for Cairo as a famous place for Jewish tourism in addition to Christian, Islamic and Pharaonic sites of attractions in the city.
So the second time the conference got held here in Egypt. and it reached the same recommendations just like the first conference, but with the advantage of having better coverage, more participants and the brilliant chance of being held in the mighty Cairo in Egypt.
But last year's recommendations weren't luckier than the previous ones ... they were totally ignored and the conference was totally ignored allover the Arabic media even with no news in the most liberal channel in the region (Al Jazeera)
the only thing that increased the next conference in addition to the number of participants was the tension between Egypt and USA which was for many reasons other than the Jewish case, In fact I can say that the Jewish case seems a secondary case in the series of crises in the relationship between both countries. mostly because USA knows that if it pressed too much for Jewish compensations, Egypt will insist on compensating the Palestinian refugees whose number became near a million!
Yet in the third year, things were quiet different:
The conference organizers asked the Egyptian government to host the conference in Cairo like the last year, there was no answer like the second time which is mainly a sign of acceptance, the whole participants arrived to Cairo and even had reservations in the Marriott hotel.
then they received a note from the Egyptian government telling them that the conference can be held in Cairo this year because of safety measures...
also the group was very surprised when they arrived in Marriott that the hotel can't find enough rooms for the group because of the tourism season although they already made the reservation.
and to their large shock, no hotel in the whole Cairo accepted to host the conference for the same excuse!
So after one day, the conference was canceled with the following note
(Because of the Egyptian government's refusal, the conference this year will be canceled!)
What will happen latter!!? Will the conference be held again? will the case develop!! Will Jews return to Cairo and to their country, Will time correct the historical mistakes!! I hope so but this is gonna take much more than wishing!
MY Personal Mind!
I know that the conference is supported by certain political groups in USA and that it has a very large political significance and it maybe a card in the hands of the USA just to press on Egypt
I know that there are too much sides, too much interests and that there could be no chance to differentiate who is honest and who is not!
But there is a cause, Really there is a cause!
I know that this is not the only cause in the middle east.... I know that we all must be committed to the case of Palestinian refugees and to help and compensate them
and I know also that I am an Egyptian citizen, I know that, and I know that my only allegiance is for Egypt any time and anyhow... and I know that I am Muslim and I know that I am gonna shock lots of people if they read all of that,,,
But I remember a say by the prophet Mohamed saying( support your brother whether he was downtrodden or oppressive!!
so his friends answered: Oh messenger of Allah, we can help our brothers when they are downtrodden but how can we help an oppressive
so the prophet replied saying,( By stopping his injustice...)
so I am helping Egypt, by stopping the injustice, and I am following the prophet of Islam by defending fellow Jewish citizens...
I know there is a cause.... a cause of citizens who had to undergo the worst forms of persecutions... I know there is a cause...
To all Jewish Egyptian citizens. I know your cause and I support it... and you have a friend.