Israel’s foreign ministry reminds Egypt of peace deal after sci-fi drama El-Nehaya airs.
Egyptian children play with fireworks at the start of Ramadan. Photograph: APAImages/Rex/Shutterstock
An Egyptian science fiction drama that predicts Israel’s destruction has provoked an angry reaction from the Jewish state, including from the country’s foreign ministry, which reminded its neighbour of a decades-old peace deal.
Set in the year 2120, the series called El-Nehaya, meaning The End, imagines a bleak future with cloned robots, battered skyscrapers, and relentless violence.
In episode one, the protagonist, played by acclaimed actor Youssef el-Sherif, tells his students of a war to “liberate Jerusalem” that occurred before Israel turned 100, less than three decades from the present day.
He said Israeli Jews of European origin returned to Europe. However, he did not mention what happened to the several million Jews in Israel of Middle Eastern descent. The US, too, had broken up, said el-Sherif, who plays a teacher and engineer.
Israel’s foreign ministry said the show was “unfortunate and unacceptable. Especially between countries who have had a peace agreement for 41 years.”
Once enemies, the two states have worked closely on security issues since the 1979 treaty and also to enforce a blockade in Gaza, the Palestinian enclave with which they both share a frontier.
Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post newspaper called on its government to go even further than “a rather bland statement”, citing a clause in the peace treaty that states the two sides would “abstain from hostile propaganda against each other.”.
The 30-episode series is made by Synergy, which has ties with the government of President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and airs on the ON television network, which is owned by a pro-government company.
“Shows like these could not be aired without at least a wink from Cairo,” the Jerusalem Post article said.
El-Nehaya is one of many dramas and soap operas that launched during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan when people typically stay at home and watch television while fasting.
Its scriptwriter, Amr Samir Atif, told the Associated Press that the destruction of Israel “is a possible future in the absence of real peace and true stability in the region. Peace should be based on justice.”
There was no comment from the Egyptian government.
It is not the first Egyptian series to anger Israel. In 2002, Horseman Without a Horse, which depicted the Arab fight against the establishment of the state of Israel, but included antisemitic cliches about Jewish conspiracies for world domination.
Washington also complained at the time, saying it was “a programme that promotes hatred”.
Other Ramadan shows this year have broken ground for the opposite message to El-Nehaya – highlighting the normalization of some Middle Eastern countries’ relations with Israel.
In one Saudi drama, Exit 7, a character questioned whether Israel should remain an enemy and if Riyadh’s support for a Palestinian state had been fruitless. The show was seen as mirroring the position of Saudi Arabia’s government, which has increased ties with Israel, partly due to their shared arch-enemy, Iran.
[Disclaimer]
