March 13, 2013, - 1:35 pm
Your Day in Liberated Democratic Egypt: Egypt Govt Stops Screening of Film on Egypt’s Jews
Once a large community numbering tens of thousands, there are now less than 100 Jews still living in Egypt because of the persecution, pogroms, murders, and rapes they suffered at the hands of Egypt’s Muslims AND Coptic Christians. And, now, the post-Mubarak “liberated, democratic” Egyptian government stopped the screening of the documentary, “Jews of Egypt,” probably because the sad history of Jews in Egypt doesn’t speak well of Egypt or its largely Muslim and Copt population. Below is the trailer of the film. The movie was supposed to be shown today, but now it won’t be.
Egyptian authorities have failed to issue a permit to screen a historical documentary about the country’s Jewish community, the film’s producer said on Wednesday, one of a series of disputes over freedom of expression under the Islamist government. . . . Producer Haitham al-Khamissi said Censorship Bureau officials had told him State Security had requested to view his film “The Jews of Egypt” before it could be cleared to be shown in cinemas. . . .
Khamissi said renewing the permit for the film, which was first shown with official permission at a film festival in Egypt in 2012, would normally take a matter of hours, but he said he had been waiting for a week. The film depicts changes in Egyptian society’s acceptance of its ancient Jewish minority in the first half of the 20th century. Most Jews fled the country due to attacks on their community, particularly after the 1956 war, when Israel invaded Egypt along with Britain and France, which were trying to regain control of the Suez Canal.
“The authorities had already approved my film … I’m only asking for a renewal of the permission but until now I haven’t received it,” Khamissi said. “They are worried about us, the people who think … The content is controversial, politically. After the creation of Israel in 1948, the world view of Jews changed,” he said. “There were worries that any Jewish Egyptian could be an Israeli spy.”
Let’s hear it for “liberal,” “democratic” Egypt, where freedom of speech and freedom of expression are rarer than Halal pork chops.
Tags: censorship, Egypt, Haitham Al-Khamissi, Jews of Egypt, Suez Canal, The Jews of Egypt
Nobody in government really thought that the “Arab Spring” would result in Western-style democracies. They knew exactly what would happen: the destabilization of the Middle East and more pressure on Israel.
DS_ROCKS! on March 13, 2013 at 1:58 pm