Egypt show causes outrage after predicting destruction of Israel

A new Egyptian TV drama has been condemned by Israel’s Foreign Ministry for predicting the destruction of Israel and the United States.

A statement issued yesterday said the series “is completely unacceptable especially because the two states have had a peace treaty for the past 41 years”.

In 1979, Egypt became the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel. Since current Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi took office in a military coup in 2013, relations between Cairo and Tel Aviv flourished as the two capitals are reportedly coordinating on several issues, including security in Sinai.

Set in the year 2120, the Egyptian series “El-Nehaya” – Arabic for “The End” – is about a computer engineer living in a dystopian future dominated by cyborg clones.

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In the first episode, a teacher tells a class of students about “the war to liberate Jerusalem”, which he says occurred less than 100 years after Israel’s founding in 1948.

The teacher adds that people in Israel “ran away and returned to their countries of origin” in Europe.

In response to the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s statement, scriptwriter of the series, Amr Samir Atef, told the Egyptian Extra News channel: “We present meaningful entertainment through this science fiction series. That’s why all the possibilities were on the table. All the possibilities were considered but the Israeli reaction, which I do not care about at all, was not.”

Produced by Synergy, one of Egypt’s largest production companies, the television show was aired on ON, a private television channel, but was authorised by the Egyptian government’s censor, reported the Times of Israel.