A group of Egyptians is launching a lawsuit against the Jews, alleging that in the biblical exodus from ancient Egypt, the Jews stole gold and property (via Eric, Adam):
Dr. Nabil Hilmi, a dean at the University of Al-Zaqaziq, said Egyptian expatriates in Switzerland are mounting a massive lawsuit against “all Jews around the world” that seeks compensation for “tons” of gold they claim was stolen during the Jews’ exodus out of the country.
Hilmi described the suit in an interview with the Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram Al-Arabi.
“Since the Jews make various demands of the Arabs and the world, and claim rights that they base on historical and religious sources, a group of Egyptians in Switzerland has opened the case of the so-called ‘great exodus of the Jews from Pharaonic Egypt.’ At that time, they stole from the Pharaonic Egyptians gold, jewelry, cooking utensils, silver ornaments, clothing, and more, leaving Egypt in the middle of the night with all this wealth, which today is priceless,” Hilmi told the paper, according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
[ . . . ]
Hilmi estimates the nominal value of the 300 tons of gold purportedly stolen 5,758 years ago would be astronomically large. He figures the value doubled every 20 years and conservatively tacks on 5 percent interest.
Okay, never mind that the ancient Egyptians aren’t the same people as the modern ones . . . or that the bible isn’t exaclty admissable evidence in a modern court of law. But what I really want to know is, can the Jews counter-sue Egypt for 210 (or 400, depending on the interpretation) years of slavery?
That is absurd, but hilarious! I mean in the context of the “Israel belongs to the Jews: Read the Bible” signs that I’ve seen 😉
Better yet, this from someone who, when not deaning, is apparently a professor of public international law. Last seen in Egyptian government press releases explaining the finer points of international diplomacy: From the legal point of view, all these Israeli aggressions are acts of war against the Arab nation, and these aggressions prove that Israel is not a peace-loving nation, that it only knows the language of force, and that any diplomatic effort with it would be quite futile, although Egypt shouldn’t sever its diplomatic ties since Cairo is the liaison officer between the Tel Aviv government and the Palestinian Nation Authority. Some day I’d be interested in learning more about where these government buildings I’m always hearing about are located in Tel Aviv; they’ve been kept quite well-hidden, so far.
Anyway, an interesting JPost column on this from Yossi Klein Halevi. He’s wondering whether this novel idea about today’s Jews being somehow connected to latter-day Jews is going to upset anyone in the Arab world who’s been trying extra-hard to repeat the well-known truth about the origins of the so-called “Jews”. I mean, Arab converts and descendants of those wacky Turkic Khazars.
Then, just in case, Halevi goes on to muse that, if it turns out that there are actually Jews descended from Jews after all, then the tag line for all true-blue mou’minoun out there is, via the Prophet Musa, indeed almost as H puts it: “Israel belongs to the Jews: Read the Koran”.
Oh, and concludes that logically Jews must strive to build closer links with non-Arab Muslims. Like I said, it’s … interesting.
“Some day I’d be interested in learning more about where these government buildings I’m always hearing about are located in Tel Aviv; they’ve been kept quite well-hidden, so far.”
–Anjad? Really? What for?
“Israel belongs to the Jews: Read the Koran”.”
–Yeah, we knew that, but the other was more “newsworty.”