Israeli publication sparks war of words in Egypt

A decision by Egypt's ministry of culture to publish an Arabic translation of a book by the Israeli author David Grossman has sparked a war of words in a country that has officially been at peace with Israel for 20 years. The "coldness" of that peace and the continuing debate in Egypt about the nature of ties with Israel have been highlighted by the objections to the book, even though Grossman is generally regarded as sympathetic to the plight of Palestinians.

Yellow Wind includes interviews with Palestinians in the West Bank in 1987 to mark the 20th anniversary of the 1967 Middle East war in which the Arabs lost the West Bank and Gaza Strip to Israeli occupation.

The fact that the book was translated into Arabic by a Palestinian who was commissioned by Beir Zeit university, a West Bank institute strongly associated with Palestinian nationalism, has also failed to silence the culture ministry's detractors.

They argue that publishing a book by an Israeli author constitutes premature normalisation - the term for practical matters such as trade, easy travel, diplomatic recognition, academic exchanges and individual contacts with Israel.

The book has now been handed over to an Egyptian researcher who has just published a weighty tome on Zionism. He has been given the task of deciding whether it is safe to unleash the book on the Egyptian public and may write an introduction aimed at uncovering whatever hidden Zionist ideology lurks within.

Esmat Kandeel, a managing editor at the culture ministry who gave the initial go-ahead for the Arabic translation to be published, said those who criticised her decision were missing the point.

"It's a beautiful book that paints a very painful picture of life under occupation for the Palestinians. I wish everyone would read it," she said.

"The people who have criticised the decision to publish the book haven't even read it. The only reason they object is because it's a book by an Israeli. It's a kind of terrorism. They want us to close our eyes and ears and stay ignorant forever."

Egypt became the first Arab country to sign peace with Israel in 1979 but its citizens remain wary of the Jewish state. Egyptians rarely visit Israel, professional unions forbid dealings with it and opposition parties repeatedly urge the government to suspend the peace treaty.

Organisers of the annual Cairo book fair and international film festival refuse to invite Israel, and opposition newspapers survive on a staple diet of Israeli conspiracy theories.

But Israel seems more eager to embrace Egyptian culture. The Friday evening Egyptian film on Israeli television has been a staple for many years and most Israeli bookshops carry Hebrew translations of the works of Egypt's Nobel prize-winning author Naguib Mahfouz.

Wahid Abdel-Meguid, a political analyst at the Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, said: "The defeated side is always more sensitive than the victorious one.

"Egyptian cultural circles are still not used to dealing with Israeli culture. They feel the conflict is not over and that peace has not been realised and that whatever comes from Israel is loaded with the position and point of view of Israel and leads to furthering its interests, and this causes them to recoil."

Mohammed Madbouli Mohammed, the owner of Madbouli bookshop in central Cairo, sees nothing wrong with selling books by Israeli authors.

"What's wrong with knowing the enemy? They buy all our books. We must pay attention and read and see what this enemy is doing," Mr Mohammed said. "We are in a truce right now, we should take advantage of it by seeing how the enemy lives.

"We must congratulate whoever thought of translating this book. They are not collaborators, they wanted to give us an insight into these people's way of thinking."

Last changed: August 16, 2004

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