WASHINGTON (JTA) – Political and civic leaders largely turn a blind eye to flourishing anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment in Egypt, a new report said.
The Anti-Defamation League’s "Report on Anti-Semitism in the Egyptian Media," delivered last week to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and being distributed this week to members of the Obama administration and the U.S. Congress, says the Egyptian government regularly allows “alarming manifestations of anti-Jewish attitudes.”
“President Mubarak’s government continues to engage in business as usual when it comes to blatant expressions of anti-Semitism in the media,” said ADL National Director Abraham Foxman in a statement Monday. “These alarming manifestations of anti-Jewish attitudes undermine the attempts by the U.S. administration to deliver on the promise of better relations between the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds.”
The report cites Egyptian daily newspapers and television shows as routine offenders, portraying Jews “as stooped, hook-nosed and money-hungry, fighting for world domination.” It says the Egyptian media regularly attempts to diminish the history of the Holocaust, compares Israeli leaders to Nazis, and claims Israelis and Americans rape Palestinian and Iraqi girls.
In a letter to Mubarak accompanying the report, ADL said the Egyptian government rarely censures anti-Semitic expression in the press, despite “numerous” meetings between ADL representatives and government officials, including Mubarak.
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