United Arab Emirates - defender of the Jews

UAE foreign minister and philosemite Gargash

This is by far the funniest story coming out of the Middle East in recent months:

United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Anwar Gargash has accused Qatari broadcast network Al Jazeera of promoting antisemitism, supporting terrorist groups, and incitement to violence.

Gargash made the remarks in a letter written Sunday and made public Wednesday on the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation's website.
 
The four-page letter was addressed to United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, as a rebuttal to the UN Special Rapporteur's statement on June 30, that recent demands to close Al Jazeera breached rights of freedom of expression.

Gargash defended demands to close the network by explaining that, "Freedom of expression cannot be used to justify and shield the promotion of extremist narratives."

The letter itself, which is on the official UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, says:

I have noted with dismay your spokesperson’s press briefing on 30 June, and the statement of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression on 28 June, pertaining to “the demand that Qatar close the Al Jazeera network”. I would like to take this opportunity to highlight examples of Al Jazeera’s ongoing editorial support for terrorist groups, as well as cases of incitement to violence, on-air promotion of sectarianism by Al Jazeera journalists, and the promotion of anti-Semitism in its programs.

...Finally, Al Jazeera has promoted anti-Semitic violence in its programming. It has given a television show (Sharia and Life) to the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Yusuf AlQaradawi, and has broadcasted his sermons. He has described the Holocaust as “divine punishment” during which “Hitler… put [the Jews] in their place.” [8]

The letter includes this footnote, showing that this Arab nation seems to rely on MEMRI for its translations:

[8]  ‘Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: Allah imposed Hitler upon the Jews to punish them –“Allah willing, the next time will be at the hand of the believers”’, Middle East Media Research Institute TV Monitor Project, Clip No. 2005 (28 January 2009), https://www.memri.org/tv/sheik-yousuf-al-qaradhawi-allah-imposed-hitler-upon-jews-punishthem-allah-willing-next-time-will. Additionally, on 9 January 2009, Qaradawi said he wanted to address the “treacherous Jews”, and said “Oh Allah, take this profligate, cunning, arrogant band of people… do not spare a single one of them. Oh Allah, count their numbers, and kill them, down to the very last one”: ‘Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi on Al-Jazeera Incites Against Jews, Arab Regimes, and the U.S.; Calls on Muslims to Boycott Starbucks and Others; Says “Oh Allah, Take This Oppressive, Jewish, Zionist Band of People... And Kill Them, Down to the Very Last One”’, Middle East Media Research Institute TV Monitor Project, Special Dispatch No. 2183 (29 January 2009), https://www.memri.org/reports/sheikh-yousef-al-qaradhawi-al-jazeera-incites-against-jews-arab-regimes-and-uscalls-muslims.

Suddenly, a leading Arab Gulf state is a defender of the Jews!

The total number of Jews who live in the UAE is approximately zero. 

Every year, it holds a book fair which features explicit antisemitism:

The anti-Semitic books for sale at the fair were listed along­side main­stream books in var­i­ous cat­e­gories. For exam­ple, The Pro­to­cols of the Learned Elders of Zion was listed in the “Polit­i­cal Sci­ence” cat­e­gory. Among the other anti-Semitic books fea­tured at the fair were:

• Blood for The Pie of Zion (The Jew­ish Dis­trict) by Najib Al Gailany. This novel tells a story of a Chris­t­ian priest from Dam­as­cus who was abducted by the Jews in order to use his blood for Jew­ish rit­u­als. The story details how Jews danced and celebrated while Rab­bis drain the blood of the elderly catholic priest. The book was listed in the “Nov­els” cat­e­gory and sold for 15 AED, or approx­i­mately $4.

• The Jews and the Secret Move­ments in the Cru­sades by Baha Al-Amir. The book, which sug­gests that the Jews played a role in the Cru­sades, includes an intro­duc­tion in which the author claims that “God the almighty declares in his state­ment to the peo­ple that all wars were started by Jews.” The book was listed in the “Inter­na­tional Affairs” cat­e­gory and sold for 50 AED (approx­i­mately $14).

• Human Sac­ri­fices and Tal­mu­dic Slaugh­ter­ing by Jews and Pagans by Fathi Muham­mad Zughbi. The book was listed in the “Faith” cat­e­gory and sold for 83 AED (approx­i­mately $23).

• Mein Kampf by Adolf Hilter. This book was listed in the “Gen­eral knowl­edge” cat­e­gory and sold for 20 AED (approx­i­mately $5).

The fair pro­vided sev­eral grants and awards in var­i­ous fields of lit­er­a­ture. In the past, it report­edly gave a grant to Gilad Atz­mon to trans­late his anti-Semitic book “The Wan­der­ing Who,” into Ara­bic. 

UAE newspapers have compared Israeli actions to the Holocaust and accused Israel's founders of imitating Hitler.

As recently as this year, editorial cartoons in UAE media depict Israelis as hook-nosed stereotypical Jews.

The UAE is not as antsemitic as other Arab countries but it has never fought antisemitism in its own borders. But suddenly, it finds it convenient to pretend to love the Jews when it is politically expedient.

To the UN, another institution that promotes antisemitism under the guise of being "pro-Palestinian."

We truly live in interesting times.

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