Israel Matzav

The Arabs deny another piece of Jewish history

The 'Palestinians' have long had a problem accepting that the Holy Temple existed on the Temple Mount two thousand years ago. By failing to accept the Temple's existence, the 'Palestinians' have denied much of the history of both Judaism and Christianity.

Now, another part of Jewish history is being denied. But the deniers this time are not the 'Palestinians.' The deniers are the Egyptians, with whom Israel has a 'peace treaty' and to whom the United States annually provides more than $2 billion in foreign assistance. Egypt's Supreme Council of the Antiquities is denying that Jewish slaves built the pyramids.

"It is well known that the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids; they regarded these structures as a national project for ancient Egypt," said Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Hawass filed an official complaint to the Egyptian attorney general of Egypt against a Cairo high school for teaching the students that it was the Israelites who built the pyramids.

Hawass, prominent figure in Egyptian culture and around the Arab world, criticized the school curriculum for "insisting that the Jews built the pyramids and highlighting the fact that those who refused to partake in the building were physically tortured."

I suppose they now also deny that Jews were ever slaves in Egypt - a fact documented by the Bible and by the Talmud. But apparently, this debate has been going on full force for the last thirty years since the first official Israeli delegation visited Egypt in 1977:

The longstanding debate over who built the five pyramids of Giza, West of Cairo, was rekindled at the first official visit of an Israeli delegation to Egypt, in 1977.

"We built the pyramids," said the late Prime Minster Menahem Begin at the National Museum in Cairo. He spurred fury among Egyptian historians and archeologists. Subsequently, the Egyptian press was full of protest articles.

YNet also notes that the Egyptians object to a plan by a group of American Rabbis to renovate Jewish historical and religious sites in Egypt, including synagogues and cemeteries.

I was in Egypt in 1978 shortly after Camp David was signed and while Anwar Sadat was still alive (probably the only time in recent history that it was relatively safe for a Jew to go to Egypt). Every time we asked to see a Jewish site, our 'guides' tried to avoid it. But we did get them to take us to the Rambam's synagogue outside of Cairo (we had to drive through several slums to get there and spent but a few minutes inside), to the modern synagogue in the center of the city (which was guarded by two soldiers with machine guns with machetes on the end, and which was open only on the Sabbath and holidays) and to a synagogue in Alexandria (which we saw only from a distance). I have pictures of these sites, but they are old color prints - long before the days of digital. The Egyptians have a real problem with having Jews in their midst. This is 'peace'?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:28 PM