[[{"content_id":"20574","domain_id":"0","lang_id":"en","portal_id":"2","owner_id":"29","user_id":"1","view_accesslevel_id":"0","edit_accesslevel_id":"0","delete_accesslevel_id":"0","editor_id":"0","content_title":"No room for Israel in Egyptian hearts or maps (AFP)","content_number":"0","content_date_event":"2008-06-02 12:30:00","content_summary":"","content_summary_fill":"0","content_body":"Israel, which recently celebrated the 60th anniversary of its creation, does not exist on maps and atlases in Egypt where its history is taught only as a painful reality.\r\nMaps sold in Cairo's main bookshops omit Israel, with the area comprising Israel and the occupied territories simply labeled Palestine in Arabic.\r\nSixty years after its creation, and 30 years after the Camp David accords paved the way for a 1979 peace treaty with Egypt, Israel exists only virtually as far as its neighbour to the west is concerned.\r\nBreaking ranks with other Arab nations, Egypt was the first to recognize the state of Israel, followed by Jordan and Mauritania. \r\nThe other 18 member states of the Arab League do not officially recognize Israel.Maps of the region sold in Egypt are often produced in other countries such as Syria or Lebanon.\r\n"No, there are no maps with the name Israel. We follow the rest of the Arab world in this, peace treaty or not," snapped Ibrahim Mahmud, who works in a bookshop in downtown Fagalla Street.\r\nA widespread boycott of "normalisation" with Israel means there are no Israeli books in libraries and no Israeli films shown on Egyptian screens for fear of lodging Israel into people's consciousness, some observers say.\r\nLast week Culture Minister Faruq Hosni came under fire from Israel's ambassador in Cairo Shalom Cohen and from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre for saying that he was prepared to burn Israeli books.\r\nHe said the comments were meant only as an expression to prove that something does not exist -- in this case Israeli books in Egyptian libraries -- defending the position prevalent among Egyptian intellectual and artistic circles on boycotting Israel.Hosni stressed that he opposed normalising cultural ties with Israel before it has made peace with the Palestinians.\r\nEgyptians view the events of 1948 as the "Naqba" or catastrophe in Arabic -- the exodus of some 700,000 Palestinians during the first of several wars between Israel and neigbouring Arab states.\r\nIn a reflection of predominant opinion, widely read journalist Salam Ahmed Salama described Israel as a "dangerous cancer" in a column headlined "60 terrible years" in the state-owned daily Al-Ahram.\r\n"The facts are clear -- the Palestinians were kicked out of their land, and Israel has never applied the peace treaty," said Magdi Qassem, head of the National Textbooks Committee.","content_html":"


Israel, which recently celebrated the 60th anniversary of its creation, does not exist on maps and atlases in Egypt where its history is taught only as a painful reality.<\/font><\/p>\r\n

Maps sold in Cairo's main bookshops omit Israel, with the area comprising Israel and the occupied territories simply labeled Palestine in Arabic.<\/font><\/p>\r\n

Sixty years after its creation, and 30 years after the Camp David accords paved the way for a 1979 peace treaty with Egypt, Israel exists only virtually as far as its neighbour to the west is concerned.<\/font><\/p>\r\n

Breaking ranks with other Arab nations, Egypt was the first to recognize the state of Israel, followed by Jordan and Mauritania. <\/font><\/p>\r\n

The other 18 member states of the Arab League do not officially recognize Israel.
Maps of the region sold in Egypt are often produced in other countries such as Syria or Lebanon.<\/font><\/p>\r\n

"No, there are no maps with the name Israel. We follow the rest of the Arab world in this, peace treaty or not," snapped Ibrahim Mahmud, who works in a bookshop in downtown Fagalla Street.<\/font><\/p>\r\n

A widespread boycott of "normalisation" with Israel means there are no Israeli books in libraries and no Israeli films shown on Egyptian screens for fear of lodging Israel into people's consciousness, some observers say.<\/font><\/p>\r\n

Last week Culture Minister Faruq Hosni came under fire from Israel's ambassador in Cairo Shalom Cohen and from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre for saying that he was prepared to burn Israeli books.<\/font><\/p>\r\n

He said the comments were meant only as an expression to prove that something does not exist -- in this case Israeli books in Egyptian libraries -- defending the position prevalent among Egyptian intellectual and artistic circles on boycotting Israel.
Hosni stressed that he opposed normalising cultural ties with Israel before it has made peace with the Palestinians.<\/font><\/p>\r\n

Egyptians view the events of 1948 as the "Naqba" or catastrophe in Arabic -- the exodus of some 700,000 Palestinians during the first of several wars between Israel and neigbouring Arab states.<\/font><\/p>\r\n

In a reflection of predominant opinion, widely read journalist Salam Ahmed Salama described Israel as a "dangerous cancer" in a column headlined "60 terrible years" in the state-owned daily Al-Ahram.<\/font><\/p>\r\n

"The facts are clear -- the Palestinians were kicked out of their land, and Israel has never applied the peace treaty," said Magdi Qassem, head of the National Textbooks Committee.
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