Authorities in Cairo have banned the film 'The Jews of Egypt' only hours before is was due to be screened in theaters, according to Haytham el-Khamissy who produced the film. The film looks at the lives of the country's estimated 65,000 Jews before they were forced to leave the country in the 1950s due to Egypt's conflict with Israel.
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El-Khamissy said no reason had been given for the ban, according to the British newspaper 'The Guardian'. "There is no excuse for this except delay and obstruction," said the producer said in a post on the film's Facebook page. "I announce the delay of the screening of Jews of Egypt until a solution is found for this inexplicable problem, inherited from long years in the parlors of the Egyptian state securities and which aim to terrorize thought and repress creativity."
The film, which had already screened at a private film festival in Egypt last year, as well as at festivals in the United States, was due to open on Wednesday in three local cinemas. Based on testimony from researchers, political figures and exiled Egyptian Jews, it presents a harmonious vision of early 20th century multicultural Egypt and asks how the Jews of Egypt turn in the eyes of other Egyptians from partners to enemies.
The film was banned by local censors, according to El-Khamissy, after a security agency made a request to view it. Most Jews who left Egypt in the wake of Israel's creation in 1948 traveled to Europe or the west, though some also settled in the nascent Jewish state. Their departure was fueled by rising nationalist sentiment during the Arab-Israeli wars, harassment and some direct expulsions by then-president Nasser.
Today, only a few elderly Jews remain in Egypt. Synagogues are heavily guarded and preserved mainly as tourist attractions.
