On December 10, an Egyptian writer and translator named Fatima Naoot wrote an op-ed in Al Masry Al Youm, after attending an official Chanukah party in Cairo, about how much Jews contributed to Egyptian culture, how loyal they were to Egypt and how much of a shame it is that they were forcibly expelled from that country under Nasser.
The furious reaction to her article has not abated for over a week. People are insulting her by calling her Fatima Yehudah. They are calling her Zionist even though she isn't. They are making fun of her for saying that she received an award from the UN (apparently from a UN Arts initiative.)
I see dozens of articles denouncing Fatima Naoot.
The critics are saying either that the Jews left voluntarily from Egypt - or that they were spies for Israel. But they all insist that they are not antisemitic, oh no.
The more honest ones tacitly recognize that what she said is true - but they are angry that she said it out loud. Because if Egyptians admit that it ethnically cleansed essentially all of its Jews, then it has to pay reparations.
A writer for The Seventh Day says:
I do know that the accusation of forced displacement is very dangerous for your country. Germany, for example, paid Israel 83 billion German marks for such allegations. Israel itself did not dare to accuse Egypt of this accusation, why did you volunteer it?
Another writer for the same paper, after comparing Naoot to the Muslim Brotherhood, writes:
We do not know whether Professor Fatima Naoot knows that because of her article, the fire of hell opens up on Egypt, and it harms its national security. The Jewish lobby is active and influential in the world and is empowered by its power, influence and money. The United States Congress, the European Parliament, and the British Parliament can now demand huge compensation and the return of their stolen property in Egypt .. !!That writer goes off the deep end right afterwards:
Did they know that Egypt on the front of the Knesset is depicted Greater Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates...?
Essam El-Erian (Muslim Brotherhood leader who said he would welcome Egypt's Jews to return) and Fatima Naout's statement both came in December, Al-Arian's statement at the end of December 2012 and Naout's article at the end of December 2018, and this brings up the question: Why December?
The answer is that Jews celebrate at the end of November each year the anniversary of their departure from Egypt, what they claim to be persecution and political harassment, the seizure of their property, the prayers, the tragedies, the sorrow and the expulsion of them from Egypt, Under the slogans of freedom, nobility, moral values, and ask Fatima Naout and her followers: If politics recognizes moral values and nobility, and what about the crimes of the Jews in Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria ?!
Nah, nothing antisemitic about this.