Israel slams Egyptian Ramadan series predicting destruction of Jewish state

Israel has slammed as 'unacceptable' the prediction of its demise in an Egyptian television series that has aired despite a peace treaty with Cairo.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab

27 April, 2020

'The End' airs every night during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan [YouTube]

A futuristic Egyptian television series predicting the destruction of the state of Israel is "unacceptable", Israel's Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.

The Ramadan series is "unfortunate and totally unacceptable, especially between countries that have a peace agreement between them for the past 41 years", the ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

Egypt's "El-Nehaya" or "The End" is a dystopian drama set in a future world controlled by cyborg clones.

The show's first episode, aired late last week, features a classroom scene set in the year 2120 in which children are learning about the "war to liberate Jerusalem".

"America was the central supporter of the Zionist state," the teacher in the scene says.

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"When the time came for the Arab states to get rid of their sworn enemy, a war broke out that was named the war to liberate Jerusalem... the war ended quickly and brought about the destruction of the Zionist state of Israel less than 100 years after its establishment [in 1948]."

"Most of the Jews in Israel ran away and returned to their countries of origin in Europe," the teacher added.

While many Jews settled in Israel after migrating or fleeing from European countries, the majority of the Jewish population are Mizrahi or Sephardic Jews.

Mizrahi Jews hail from Middle Eastern and North African countries, while Sephardic Jews trace their origins to the Iberian peninsula from which they were forced to flee during the Spanish inquisition. Many Sephardic Jews fled to North Africa and the Ottoman Empire.

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"The End" premiered on private television station ON and was produced by Synergy, the country's largest production company with strong ties to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Cairo officially normalised ties with Israel in 1979, and the neighbouring states have seen increased security and economic cooperation under Sisi's rule. However, most Egyptian oppose the normalisation of ties.

There has not yet been an official response from the Egyptian government.

The show's writer, Amr Samir Atif, told The Associated Press that the destruction of Israel presented in the classroom scene "is a possible future in the absence of real peace and true stability in the region".

"Peace should be based on justice," Atif added.

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