The Banality of Anti-Semitism in Egypt
MEMRI TV has made available a video of a comedy skit aired on Egyptian Television portraying a Jewish grandfather, his granddaughter and grandson sitting around the kitchen table scheming to sell human organs. They are portrayed as bloodthirsty, greedy buffoons in order to elicit chuckles from the audience. A young woman comedian introduces the skit with some “humor,”
the Jews trade in everything, so obviously they have not neglected organ trafficking. I have recently seen someone haggle over a pancreas in order to save five shekels.
The skit exposes the banality of Egyptian bigotry against Jews. In some ways, it recalls the cartoons and children’s shows in the early years of American television that used humor to lampoon black Americans with demeaning stereotypes. In the Egyptian skit, however, the message concerning the nature of Jews is far darker.
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