Egyptian Who 'Invited' Jews 'Back Home' Resigns Post
Essam el-Erian, a top advisor to Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, has resigned from his position, Egyptian media reported Sunday.
By David Lev- Arutz Sheva 7
First Publish: 1/7/2013, 10:25 PM
Essam El-Erian
Reuters
A report on Israel Radio quoted Egyptian
state-controlled radio as broadcasting a statement from el-Erian, who
said he had decided to quit his position as a presidential advisor after
being appointed to lead his Freedom and Justice Party's faction in the
upper house of Egypt's parliament. However, the report said, el-Erian
has been doing that job for nearly a month, without anyone raising the “conflict of interest” issue.
A more likely reason, Israeli analysts
said, was the displeasure many in Egypt expressed over his calle last
week for Jews who were booted out of the country to return home, in order to protect themselves from the inevitable destruction of Israel.
“I wish that all our Jews would return to
our country, so they can make room for the Palestinians to return to
their homes, and Jews return to their homeland, to be a part of our
democracy,” el-Erian said in a television interview
last week. “Why remain living in a racist country, led by occupiers who
will be punished for war crimes,” he added. The comments met with much
derision by Egyptian commentators, who accused el-Erian of crimes
ranging from seeking to please the U.S. to being a “Zionist” himself.
Numerous radical Islamist group, several of them now allies of the
Muslim Brotherhood, of which el-Erian is a member, said that if the Jews
did try to return to Egypt, they would be killed on their first day in the country.
There were about 80,000 Jews in Egypt in
the 1920s, but the Jewish population of the country began dwindling in
the 1930s and 1940s, as Egyptians conducted numerous pogroms against the
community. Hundreds were killed in riots after the establishment of the
State of Israel, and by 1950,
nearly half of the country's Jewish population had left Egypt. Most of
the rest left during the later 1950s and 1960s, and those who remained
after the 1967 Six Day War were largely thrown out of the country, or
imprisoned and tortured for years before they were allowed to leave.
Labels: Anti-Semitism, Controversy, Egypt, Islamism, Israel, Muslim Brotherhood
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