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Monday, June 01, 2015

Newest blood libel: Ramadan TV series accuses Israel of organ trafficking

Egyptian actor Ahmed El Sakka is finishing up filming of a new series to be shown during Ramadan, "Go and Return."

The plot is that a doting Egyptian father whose son is kidnapped in a shopping mall. His attempts to find the boy eventually bring him to Israel where an organ smuggling ring is behind the abduction. The evil Israeli smuggler wants the boy's spinal fluid for his own son.

The story takes place during the chaos when Mohammed Morsi was overthrown. In reality, there was an epidemic of child abductions at the time for organs - by Egyptians.

Which means this is probably just another blood libel against Israel.

Some scenes meant to be in Israel are being filmed in Lebanon. One article I saw said that some Lebanese Druze violently protested when they saw Hebrew street signs in their neighborhood.

Interestingly, there is another Ramadan miniseries that is getting a huge amount of attention, with stories about it daily in the Arab media. It is called "Jewish Quarter" and it is a seemingly nostalgic look at Egypt in the 1950s, and how Jews and Arabs interacted. I see no evidence that it is even slightly antisemitic.