Cairo
– An Egyptian journalist conducted an experiment in which he dressed up as a
Jew and asked passersby on the streets of Cairo for directions to a nearby
synagogue – with nearly serious consequences for his physical safety.
The
Cairo-based Internet
news site DOTMSR sent the journalist to the streets of Cairo dressed in
overtly Hassidic garb – sidecurls, skullcap, beard, and a hat.
The
“Jewish” journalist was then subjected to threats of violence, epithets, slurs,
and shoving from hostile locals.
In
one scene of the video, the journalist shows an Egyptian a note with Hebrew
writing on it. When asked if he is an Israeli journalist, he responds in the
affirmative, prompting the Egyptian to hurriedly walk away without responding
to his request for directions.
Another
clip shows a group of young people surround the journalist and demand that he
“get out of here.”
DOTMSR
is an Arab-language Internet news site “that broadcasts high-quality news items
in Arabic.”
It describes itself as a news outlet that “believes in openness,
innovation, and an obligation to accepting those who are different.”
On YouTube, a Muslim web surfer wrote that “while it would be best not
to behave in the manner shown by the people, I am certain that if a Muslim
would ask Jews how to get to the mosque in Mecca, they would in all likelihood
hit him very hard.”
“That is how things [with
Jews] have unfolded for hundreds of years,” she wrote. “There are exceptions,
but, unfortunately, the number of Jews who hate us is greater than those who do
not.”
“I would’ve helped this man,
simply because Islam is a religion of peace and charity, and a real Muslim is a
person whose words and deeds reflect these values,” she wrote.
Other Arab web users who replied to the video justified the hostile
treatment visited upon the journalist by claiming that it was appropriate “in
light of the actions of the Jews in Palestine.”
The Cairo locals were simply showing solidarity with the suffering of
the Palestinians under Israeli rule.
