Egypt bans e-book “What is Israel allowed?” | EUROtoday

“What is Israel allowed to do?” is the identify of the e-book that the publicist Hamed Abdel-Samad and Philipp Peyman Engel, the editor-in-chief of the “Jüdische Allgemeine,” revealed final fall. In it, the 2 interact in a controversial debate – in letters – concerning the Hamas bloodbath on October seventh, the Israeli response to it, the invasion of the Gaza Strip, the accusation of “genocide”, anti-Semitism, the scenario within the Middle East and the way this impacts the whole world. The incontrovertible fact that two individuals had been arguing in a particular approach a few world-changing subject was not solely noticeable on this nation. The Egyptian writer Al Mahrousa included the e-book in its program and needed to publish the Arabic translation on the present e-book honest in Cairo. But nothing got here of it. The authorities have banned the looks.

Philipp Peyman Engel says in an interview that there was “nothing to indicate this until the very end.” There is not any “official reason” for this. “Dictatorships regulate this through short official channels, so to speak. What we noticed is that the publisher was put under massive pressure. Hamed and I had been looking forward to the publication for months because such an open and argumentative book had not yet been published in Egypt. Unfortunately, it will remain that way.”

In the “Süddeutsche” newspaper, Hamed Abdel-Samad expressed the suspicion that the ban may even have one thing to do together with his novel “The Cloud Factory,” which is about criticism of faith and euthanasia. He believes, says Engel, “both books are in a neck-and-neck race, which the Egyptian government in the Islamist-dominated country is less fond of: the book about criticism of religion or the book by a Jew who defends Israel and sharply criticizes the hypocrisy of the alleged Arab solidarity with the Palestinians.”

There is “almost no topic that is as polarized and controversial as the Middle East conflict and Israel’s reaction to Hamas’s bloody terror,” says Engel. All too typically, nonetheless, “this discussion is extremely hostile, polemical, often hurtful and unobjective,” and the 2 needed to make issues higher. The e-book is “hard”, Abdel-Samad and he have been associates for years, they gave one another nothing and at all times had the impression that the opposite would break off the dialogue: “Hamed, when it comes to my Jewish socialization and supposedly blind Zionist position. I, when I accused him of unintentionally making anti-Semitic arguments when he counterfactually accused Israel of genocide, which for me is the new edition of the old anti-Semitic ritual murder legend.” The objective was to “discuss and argue with one another in a civilized manner,” even when there have been stark opposing positions.

Despite the ban in Egypt, the 2 authors may in all probability be effectively acquired by readers within the Arab world. The reactions from Egypt had been “overwhelming,” says Engel. They “can’t keep up with answering the emails with requests from Egyptians and other Arab readers to send the book in Arabic as a PDF for free.” Egypt’s President Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi “achieved the opposite of what he wanted with the ban. As we all know, forbidden fruits taste best.”