Article in Largest Egyptian Government Newspaper Calls for Murder of All American Jews

Endorses Neo-Nazi Who Shot Jewish Children in L.A. September 8, 1999

NEW YORK- An Egyptian government newspaper has published an article praising Buford Furrow, the neo-Nazi who shot up the Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles last month, wounding five people, four of them children. He also later shot and killed a Philippino-American postal worker. The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is urging the Clinton administration to use the over $2-billion Egypt receives in U.S. military and financial aid each year as leverage to persuade Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak to publicly repudiate the article and fire the newspaper's editor, who is a government appointee.

The article, in the August 13, 1999 issue of the Egyptian government newspaper Akhbar Al-Yom [which has a circulation of over 700,000, and is the weekend edition of the government daily Al Akhbar] stated that Furrow "has a goal to annihilate the Jewish race in the United States. I ask God to assist him in his efforts to attain this goal. Let us all join together saying, 'May it be God's will'." (Reuters, August 20, 1999)

In a letter to Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, ZOA President Morton A. Klein wrote: "An Egyptian government-newspaper has endorsed the goals of Adolf Hitler, by publishing an article calling for the murder of all American Jews, including Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, State Department officals Martin Indyk and Aaron Miller, National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, the United States Ambassador to Egypt, Daniel Kurtzer, ten United States Senators and numerous members of the U.S. House of Representatives. It is ironic to note that all of these individuals have supported American aid to Egypt. We call on you to publicly repudiate the article and fire the newspaper's editor. Otherwise, the American public will find it hard to understand why Egypt should continue receiving $2-billion in American taxpayers' money each year."

An article in the Egyptian government newspaper Al Ahram Weekly, July 15-21, 1999, called Jews "a parasitic people; charged that "their army annexes any Arab land, and they call the territory extending from Pakistan to Morocco a 'security zone'"; and claimed that "For Zionist thought, Jews and gentiles are entirely different species."

A recent report by the Anti-Defamation League, "Anti-Semitism in the Egyptian Media, Spring 1998-Spring 1999," concluded: "Anti-Semitism continues to thrive in the Egyptian media. Derogatory images and harsh accusations against Jews and Judaism have persevered through bad and good times...Anti-Semitic stereotypes continue to be prevalent in cartoons, caricatures, opinion columns, and other media, where Jews are often depicted as dirty, hook-nosed, money-hungry world dominators. Comparisons of Israel (both Likud and Labor governments) with the Nazis, denial of the Holocaust and traditional libels are also common...[M]any are printed in the government-backed press, including the largest Egyptian daily, Al Ahram, Al Goumhurriya and the popular magazine October.