Jewish Anti-Zionist League
Encyclopedia
Jewish Anti-Zionist League was a political organisation in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

. The organization had branches in Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...

 and Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

. The League conducted militant agitations in the Jewish neighbourhoods of Cairo.

The League was formed in the summer of 1946 by Jewish members of the underground communist Iskra
Iskra (Egyptian communist organisation)
Iskra was a communist organization in Egypt. Iskra was founded in 1942 by Hillel Schwartz. In the initial phase of its existence, the membership of Iskra was a few tens....

movement. The founding Secretary of the Jewish Anti-Zionist League was Ezra Harari. Other members of the founding committee of the League were Marcel Israel, Edward Mataloun, Hanzin Kasfelt and Edward Levy. Immediately after the founding of the organization, the members of the founding committee were arrested.

Communist-Zionist clashes in Dahir

In April 1947 a violent clash erupted as between the League and Zionists
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...

, as disputes erupted over the election to the leadership in the Dahir Maccabi
Maccabi (sports)
Maccabi may refer to:* The Maccabi World Union, Maccabiah Games or any one of the following sport organizations around the world:...

 club. A slate of Zionist candidates won the election as result of manipulations and when the members of the Jewish Anti-Zionist League challenged the election outcome, the new club leadership called in police. In the clash, police forces sided with the Zionists and arrested the communists (considering the communists as a greater threat to public security than the Zionists). After the clash the communists reported the incident to the Wafdist
Wafd Party
The Wafd Party was a nationalist liberal political party in Egypt. It was said to be Egypt's most popular and influential political party for a period in the 1920s and 30s...

 newspaper Sawt al-Ummah.

On May 24, 1947, conflict again erupted at the Dahir Maccabi club, as Zionists refused the communists access to the building to celebrate May Day
International Workers' Day
International Workers' Day is a celebration of the international labour movement and left-wing movements. It commonly sees organized street demonstrations and marches by working people and their labour unions throughout most of the world. May 1 is a national holiday in more than 80 countries...

. Two days later another clash erupted at the club between Zionists and Jewish communists. Following these events, the League issued an editorial stating that Jewish schools were used for Zionist propaganda and that sports clubs used for Zionist organizing rather than sports activities.

Positions

The ambitions of the Jewish Anti-Zionist League were twofold. On one hand, it sought to counter the Zionist influence within the Jewish community in Egypt. On the other hand, it sought to clarify to the Egyptian public that not all Jews were Zionists.

In May 1947, the League had published a declaration, distributed in French and Arabic, condemning Zionism as a tool for British imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...

 and called for Jewish-Arab unity. The latter part of the declaration read
Jewish Men! Jewish Women!

Zionism wants to throw us into a dangerous and hopeless adventure. Zionism contributes to making Palestine uninhabitable. Zionism wants to isolate us from the Egyptian people. Zionism is the enemy of the Jewish people.

Down with Zionism!
Long live the brotherhood of Jews and Arabs!
Long live the Egyptian people!


The League argued that displaced European Jews should be given the possibility to return to their home countries or third country of their choice, rather than sending them to Palestine.It also claimed that only an independent democratic Palestine would be able to break the bonds of colonialism and safeguard the Jewish people. The organization condemned Zionist terrorist activity in Palestine.

Banning

In June 1947, the League was banned by the Egyptian Ministry for Social Affairs for "reasons of public security". Following the illegalization of the Jewish Anti-Zionist League, Harari founded the 'Forum Group'. The Forum Group was a Jewish anti-Zionist group within the Democratic Movement for National Liberation
Democratic Movement for National Liberation
The Democratic Movement for National Liberation was a communist organization in Egypt 1947-1955. HADITU was led by Henri Curiel. The movement followed a line of National Democratic Revolution....

. According to contemporary British security reports, the Forum Group had a considerable following amongst the Jewish community in Cairo (Krämer
Gudrun Krämer
Gudrun Krämer is a German scholar of Islamic history. She is professor of Islamic studies and Chair of the Institute of Islamic Studies at the Free University of Berlin...

does however question the accuracy of this estimate, stating that the group had a rather limited impact).
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