Documentary ignites Egyptian sensitivities to Israel

Babylon And Beyond ^ | Sep 3 2008 | Noha El-Hennawy

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By telling her mother’s unorthodox story on film, Egyptian director Nadia Kamel has recently embarked on an exceptionally controversial endeavor that brought into question the taboos shaping the Arab perception of Israelis and dug deeper into the animosity between the Arab world and the Jewish state.

Delving into sensitive political and emotional terrain, Kamel documented the story of Mary Rosenthal, an Italian of a Jewish decent who converted to Islam and married an Egyptian Muslim more than five decades ago. Like her husband, Rosenthal joined the ranks of the Egyptian communist opposition. This conviction forced her to sever ties with her Jewish relations who had settled in Israel, a state the Arab left condemned as a seat of imperialism. But the familial split never felt right, and 60 years later Rosenthal decided to end the estrangement and visited her Israeli cousins.

In “Salata Baladi” or “Home Salad,” Kamel follows the footsteps of her 77-year-old mother across Egypt, Italy and Israel over the course of six years. But, like so many things between Arabs and Jews, the film became more controversial than one woman’s journey to back to her roots. The Egyptian press was inflamed, and many critics dismissed the movie as a call to normalize relations with the Jewish state, an apologist narrative to downplay Israeli aggression. Kamel’s membership in the filmmaker’s union was suspended.

"What I did is not normalizing with the state of Israel; I visited my family and made a film about the Egyptian identity…. This does not mean I condone the Israeli policies,” said Kamel.

"My support to the Palestinian cause has not changed," contended Kamel. "I do not believe in boycotting human beings. As a rule, I don't boycott Israeli individuals, but I do boycott business with Israeli institutions.”

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[17th Miss Regt]

She converted to Islam and then joined the communist opposition in Egypt. But communists are atheists by their very nature, so she is an apostate from Islam. And she is still alive?

[Clemenza]

Converted to make her husband’s family happy. You cannot be a full communist and a Muslim at the same time (although certain Freepers seem to get their ideologies/religions confused).

[forkinsocket]

She’s not an apostate. Communist & leftist Arabs (usually Shi3a but still popular among Ba3thists & Arab Nationalists Sunnah) are secular, but rarely atheists. Secular as in, we are Muslims but we will not convert others by force or put the country under shari3a & the part of Islam that will emphasized is anything pertaining to the liberation of the oppressed & the fight against the oppressor.

Leftism & Communism in the Middle East doesn’t necessarily mean atheism, gay rights, & abortion like it does in the West. In fact, third world leftism is pretty different than western leftism in general. For one, they are viciously nationalistic, not self-hating.