Anger at Arab World Institute is yet another example of Arab antisemitism

As we wrote earlier this month, there has been Arab anger at the Arab World Institute over their invitation of an Israeli singer at the Festival Arabofolies (Arab World Festival) in Paris, along with a major exhibition that featured Jewish history in the Arab world.

The BDS movement claimed that they were against the exhibit because it was created in cooperation with Israeli museums. 

A new article criticizing the exhibition proves yet again that anti-Zionism is just an excuse to whitewash antisemitism. 

The Arab World Institute had previously mounted exhibitions titled “Hajj, the pilgrimage in Makkah” in 2014 and the “Christians of the East, 2,000 years of history” in 2017. This "Jews of the Orient: a multi-millennial history” is the third of the trilogy. But mentioning that Jews had lived in the Arab world and built their own culture is too much for some Arabs, who never considered Jews to be part of their world. 

Nizar Hussain Rashid, writing in Rai Al Youm, attacks the exhibition with thinly-veiled antisemitism, saying that the exhibit "emanates from the Israeli bosom" and showcases, somehow, Israeli theft of Arab culture.

He makes the ridiculous argument that the name of the exhibition, Jews of the Orient or Jews of the East, is inaccurate because north African Jews are not from the East at all. 

Somehow, since he considers Israelis to be Western colonialists, that makes this exhibition on Jews in Arab lands to be illegitimate. 

Rashid repeats the lie that there is no history of Jews in Israel. "They toiled in digging and digging in the land of Palestine and did not find either a stone or a trace [of their history.] Where will the museum’s stones and sculptures come from then? Who are the forgers among the Professors of Archeology at the Hebrew University, for example? "

Rashid then goes on to deny that any Jews were forced out of Arab countries, claiming that they all left voluntarily from Egypt and Iraq and elsewhere, and then they found real discrimination when they reached Israel and regretted leaving their homes. 

Which brings up the question - if that is true, when why didn't they go back?

The writer ends off by saying "In any case, the Arab World Institute is now standing naked of every virtue and on open ground, after it was infiltrated in this scandalous way." 

Denying Jewish history. Saying that Jews are liars. Making clear that Jews never belonged in Arab countries as full citizens to begin with. Yeah, that's not "anti-Zionism."

And this is just one of the daily examples of antisemitism in Arab media. Another example from yesterday is a major Algerian newspaper headline, "How 3 Jewish families conspired to occupy Algeria," blaming the French occupation on a Jewish plot, in a bizarre interpretation of history.

If the people who are in the forefront of anti-Zionism really opposed antisemitism as they claim, why are they silent when there are such egregious examples of antisemitism throughout the Arab world?

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