Israel's ambassador to Cairo complained Tuesday that the Egyptian media was "brainwashing" its people and fuelling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through “biased coverage of the fighting.”
Ambassador Zvi Mazel highlighted articles in Egyptian government newspapers such as Al Gumhouriyyah and the Egyptian Gazette, warning that anti-Semitism was "very much on the rise," said AFP.
"By inflaming feelings and inciting hatred instead of calling for cool heads and restraint, the media actually fuels the conflict," he told reporters at a press conference.
"I'm afraid that this vicious campaign will be poisoning the relations between Israel and Egypt long after this conflict has been resolved," he said.
He warned of the dangers the region would be exposed to if the historic peace treaty signed between Egypt and Israel in 1979 were to crumble.
"Peace between Israel and Egypt is very necessary for the Middle East as a whole. Without it the region would be drawn into ever greater instability and violence," he said.
But Mazel’s comments may not convince an Egyptian committee that is working to secure one million signatures on a petition demanding that the government throw him out and shut down the Jewish state’s embassy.
The official spokesman of the Popular Committee for Solidarity with the Palestinian Intifada, Abdel Aziz Al Husseini, said his group had canvassed at the neighborhood level to collect thousands of signatures, and that 35,000 had already been handed over to the Egyptian president’s office.
Husseini had told Albawaba.com that the campaign, which started in October 2000, had three elements: First, the demand for the closure of the Israeli embassy and the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador from Egypt.
The second and third elements, he said, involved demanding that the UN secretary general provide the Palestinians with an international protection force and bring Israeli war criminals to justice.
Husseini said the president’s office had “received the first list of signatures, but without issuing any official comments on it.”
He added that a source close to the president’s office told the committee that the mere willingness of the Egyptian authorities to receive the signatures meant stepping up the tense diplomatic situation with Israel.
The committee, which was established shortly after the eruption of the Al Aqsa Intifada last fall, has assumed responsibility for organizing political campaigns and collecting donations on behalf of the Palestinians - Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
