Lessening Anti-Jewish Hate Speech in Service of the Egyptian Regime: State Media under Mubārak, Re-Examined

This article aims a spotlight at an unusual chapter in the development of the Egyptian regimes’ policy toward antisemitism in the state media. While the various regimes allowed anti-Jewish speech in the governmental media since its nationalization by the Nasserite regime and used it for acquiring legitimacy, this article points to a different policy adopted by the Mubārak regime, following 11 September 2001. From the end of 2002, the Egyptian regime redirected the journalistic editing guidelines to cease anti-Jewish hate speech, resulting in a considerable decrease in the volume of anti-Jewish expressions and desecration of the Holocaust memory, until Mubārak’s downfall in 2011. This change was motivated by the regime’s concern for its political survival and economic interests, which were endangered by the democratization policy of the Bush Administration that linked the effort to combat terrorism and anti-Americanism in the Middle East with the struggle against antisemitism.