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| Africa North |
| Book questions Egyptian-Israeli marriages |
| 2009-01-30 |
| When A.S., a young Egyptian, went to Israel some years ago, he thought the Jewish state would be a nearby dreamland where he would lead a better life than at home. "I was duped by the culture of peace promoted after the peace treaty with Israel. But I was in for unpleasant surprises in Israel where I am already married to an Israeli woman," the man is quoted as recounting in a book recently released in Cairo. In her Egyptian Men and Israeli Women - The Forbidden Marriage, Hala Fouad, an Egyptian journalist, looks into the sensitive issue of Egyptian-Israeli marriages and their consequences for a country that fought four wars against the Jewish state before signing a peace treaty with it in 1979. "It's a matter of national security [for Egypt]," Fouad says in her Arabic book. "Israel used to be our sworn enemy and these men are marrying the foe's daughters and bringing into the world some children with confused culture and loyalties." There are no confirmed statistics about how many Egyptians have left for Israel. While Egyptian members of parliament put the number at around 15,000, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said only 600 Egyptians have settled there and none of them has joined the Israeli army. In August 2007, the Israeli Statistics Centre, however, claimed that 10,000 Egyptian men are married to Israeli women and they account for about 13 per cent of the Muslim soldiers in the Israeli army. According to the author, the offspring of such marriages would be a serious threat to Egypt's national security. Under the Egyptian law, children of an Egyptian father become Egyptian citizens. In Israel, children of an Israeli woman get the Israeli nationality. "Will these children one day join the Egyptian army? Will they hold senior posts in the Egyptian army and have the right to run in elections?" asked the author. Many Muslim clerics in Egypt have recently passed fatwas (religious edicts) prohibiting Egyptian-Israeli marriages. While apprehensive about the impact of such marriages, the author stops short of calling Egyptians living in Israel traitors. According to her, poverty, joblessness, corruption, and social disparities at home are among the reasons for young Egyptians leaving their homeland for other countries. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 "Israel used to be our sworn enemy and these men are marrying the foe's daughters and bringing into the world some children with confused culture and loyalties." If they go with that "strong horse" thing, I think I know how that's gonna go... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2009-01-30 14:28 |
| #1 Oi vey. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2009-01-30 05:50 |