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Following are excerpts from an Al-Alam TV debate on revoking the citizenship of Egyptian who marry Israeli nationals. The debate aired on June 20, 2010.
Egyptian playwright Ali Salem: In my view, an Egyptian has a natural right to travel to Israel, to work there, and to marry a Jewish, Muslim, Christian, or Druze woman, or somebody who has no religion.
Interviewer: But don’t you think that marrying a Jewish woman poses a danger, since in Judaism, a Jew is someone whose mother is Jewish. Therefore, his children will become Jewish, and will join the Israeli army. Doesn’t this pose a danger?
Ali Salem: Why, what will they do to us?
Interviewer: I’m just asking. I don’t answer the questions.
Ali Salem: So these people will strengthen the Israeli army? The Israeli army will have another 10,000 or 12,000 soldiers to fight the Egyptians? It sounds as if we are in a state of war.
Interviewer: No, what I meant was...
Ali Salem: That means we are in a state of war. All those “geniuses” in the Egyptian media seem to be living in a state of war with Israel. They do it in order to embarrass the government. I wish someone could tell me how a child whose mother is Jewish or Palestinian and whose father is Egyptian can pose a danger. What dangerous things will he do when he comes to Egypt?
Interviewer: He will have two nationalities – Israeli and Egyptian. Isn’t it possible that this will lead to [Israeli] infiltration?
Ali Salem: What do you mean by “infiltration”? He will enter Egypt via the airport, and then what? Will he measure the distance from the airport to the middle of Egypt? Will he reveal the secrets of the hotel in which he stays? Will he pass on the secrets of his furnished apartment? Will he walk down the promenade, see people eating corn, and report this to the Israeli Mossad? I wish someone would tell me what he will do...
Let’s say there is somebody who wants to harm this country – his father is Egyptian, and his mother is a Muslim or Christian Palestinian, or a Jew. Why would he want to harm Egypt when there is peace between us? We assume he will want to harm it because he lives in a hostile country, but that’s not the case, because his country has peace with us.
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Egyptian lawyer Nabih Al-Wahash: When his father passes away, and he comes to Egypt still holding his Egyptian nationality, he will want his father’s inheritance. He will want to receive something. One plot of land after the other, and Egypt will turn to another Palestine. What Israel – or rather, the Zionist entity – could not achieve through its war machine, which was shattered at the sound of the cry “Allah Akbar,” and against the faith of the Egyptian and Arab people in 1973, it will get on a golden platter through the weapon of women.
Secondly, he might come and present his candidacy to parliament. Will you be able to prevent him from doing so? There is no such law. He could enter the parliament or the Shura Council...
Interviewer: Ali Salem asks in what way this is dangerous.
Nabih Al-Wahash: If he inherits Egyptian land it is not dangerous?!
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The fact that he has a right to inheritance here is not a threat? If he enters the parliament it is not a threat? One of these days, an Israeli will become President of Egypt. Isn’t that a threat?!
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