The Cairo correspondent for the German publicly-funded radio station, Deutschlandfunk, one Cornelia Wegerhoff, in her broadcast on August 8 equated the human rights records of Israel and Egypt. This is what she said, clearly and unambiguously: “Human rights are equally disregarded in Israel and Egypt.” It’s important to note that only after the largest German daily, Bild, criticized Wegerhoff’s report, that a spokesman for the public radio station “regretted” the impression that Israel’s human rights record is comparable to Egypt’s. “This was neither intended by the editors nor by the correspondent herself. We regret this error and have corrected our website accordingly and deleted the audio,” said the spokesman for the radio station.
They may have “deleted the audio,” but hundreds of thousands of people had already heard her original statement; the damage was done. When Deutschlandfunk “corrected” the website, did they merely delete her offending remarks, or did they do what should be done in such cases by the offending journalist? To wit: the original statement ought to have remained, and Wegerhoff herself, not a station “spokesman,” should both have apologized for the original remark and have provided the evidence of what was so wrong about her original equating of the human rights records of Egypt and Israel. Instead, the radio station’s spokesman said the equivalence she made “was not intended” by her. Nonsense. There is no ambiguity, no shade of grey, in the statement that “human rights are equally disregarded in Israel and Egypt.”
Let’s see how wrong she was. In Egypt, when there are demonstrations against the government, people are clubbed, sometimes killed (as in Tahrir Square in 2011), or arrested and, after a speedy trial, sentenced to prison for the crime of having expressed their opposition to the government. Tens of thousands of such critics have been imprisoned in Egypt.
In Egypt, the government is a military dictatorship; international observers unanimously claim that the election held in March 2018 was neither fair nor free. Opposition figures, including some candidates, were picked up and detained on trumped-up “terrorism” charges. Five hundred people whose families have not heard from them are still held in detention. Journalists and members of NGOs have been arrested and jailed or expelled. Their trials are perfunctory; their punishments swift.
In Israel, no journalist is arrested for being against the government. If a journalist makes fun of, or bitterly criticizes Netanyahu or any other government minister, instead of a prison sentence, he’s more likely to be hired as a columnist for Haaretz. No television journalist has lost his job, no bloggers’ websites have been taken down. The freedom of speech in Israel is as carefully preserved as it is in the great democracies of the West. Those Arab members of the Knesset who practically preach sedition from the Knesset floor, in complete freedom, are evidence of Israel’s deep commitment to freedom of speech.
While in Egypt, high officials often — though not always, as in the case of Mubarak and his two sons) – escape punishment for non-political crimes, the situation in Israel is very different. The prison terms handed out to former Israeli Presidents Moshe Katsav (who served five years for sexual assaults) and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (who served 11 months in prison for bribery and corruption) show that in Israel, no one is above the law. Equality before the law is an important human right.
How are Arab citizens treated in Israel? They have the same political rights as do Jews, both as voters and as candidates. Arabs serve in the Knesset, sit on the Supreme Court, occupy high diplomatic posts. There are Arabs who serve, though they are not required to, in the Israeli military, both as officers and men. Arabic is an official language.
The Arabs in Israel suffer none of the disabilities, and share none of the fears, of the Copts in Egypt. The Copts exist not as by right in Egypt, but on Muslim sufferance. Longstanding Coptic complaints include the underrepresentation of Christians in the police, judiciary, armed forces, civil service, government, and education system. There is also a virtual ban on access to state-controlled radio and television.
There have been many attacks on Coptic churches, neighborhoods, priests, and individual believers, by Muslim mobs, intent on terrorizing Christians and putting them in their place. The government has not been able to protect the Copts adequately from such assaults. Their religious rights are not the same as those of the Muslims. They need to obtain permission to build new, or repair old, churches. Unlike Muslims, they are not allowed to proselytize. The Copts exist in a permanent state of fear, never knowing when Muslims will suddenly turn on them, nor whether the state will adequately protect them.
Egypt has used its extensive anti-terrorism laws to conduct sweeps not just of terrorists, but of all those who are deemed to pose a political threat to the regime. This means political opponents can find themselves unable to have their speeches broadcast; their rallies may be cancelled; they themselves may be detained. The staffs of NGOs, whether Egyptian or foreign, find they are harassed, their offices monitored, sometimes the foreigners among them expelled from Egypt if they are deemed too inquisitive and too hostile. Television and press journalists in Egypt can lose their jobs, if what they broadcast or publish is not to the regime’s liking. The government constantly scrutinizes the Internet;. the websites of bloggers who are deemed critical of the government are shut down. They may find themselves permanently barred from posting anywhere on social media. At present, 32 Egyptian journalists are in prison. Many of the accused in the Egyptian system of criminal justice lack access to lawyers. The health of many of those we might describe as “political prisoners,” who are physically softer than real criminals, often deteriorates in Egyptian prisons.
The German reporter, Cornelia Wegerhoff, also left readers with the impression that the treatment of homosexuals was the same in both Egypt and Israel. But as the newspaper Bild pointed out, there was a massive LGBTQ parade – some 250,000 people – in Tel Aviv, while there has been no parade or any other kind of demonstration on behalf of LGBTQ in Egypt. While homosexuality is not illegal in Egypt, homosexuals are frequently the subject of abuse from ordinary Muslims. Police sweeps routinely round up homosexuals, who are then arrested and charged with “debauchery.” Egyptian homosexuals testify as to the fear they feel; few of them dare to come out of the closet. It’s just too dangerous.
Wegerhoff also seemed to think that the “human rights” of women are the same in Egypt and Israel. But in Egypt, the Muslim male rules the family; it is he who dictates how “his” women can dress, whether they are allowed to go out of the house, whether they can attend university, whether they can eat, study, work beside men who are not their relatives. Women’s rights activists, who work, for example, to increase the number of women in the government and higher education, are persecuted in Egypt. Women are treated better in Egypt than in Saudi Arabia and Iran, but that is faint praise. No one should confuse how women are treated in Egypt with the complete gender equality that women in Israel enjoy.
On the Index of Freedom put out by Freedom House, Egypt is rated as “Not Free.” Israel is rated as “Free.” It’s hard to imagine how someone could conclude that “human rights are equally disregarded” in the two countries.
German journalist Stefan Frank may have found the explanation. Frank, who has written extensively about German bias against Israel in the media and antisemitism in the press, wrote on Twitter: “Cornelia Wegerhoff, Cairo correspondent of @dlfkultur, has lost her mind.”
john says
islam has No Humanity, made up by a Barbaric Savage and Followed by Barbaric Savages.
Dapto says
Cornelia Wegerhoff Just another German Nazi of today
Robert_k says
The Mufti of Jerusalem and Heinrich Himmler, Adolph Eichmann and Adolph Hitler go hand-in-hand.
Robert_k says
As does Cornella Wegethoff.
FYI says
And the one thing they all have in common ,along with muhammed?
nazis and islamic fascists.
Their judgement comes at the hands of … a JEW
{Jews say it is YHWH.Christians say it is Jesus,but either way it’s Jewish}
gravenimage says
She’s getting a lot of criticism:
“GERMAN REPORTER UNDER FIRE COMPARING ISRAEL’S HUMAN RIGHT’S RECORD TO EGYPT’S”
https://www.jpost.com/International/German-reporter-under-fire-comparing-Israels-human-rights-record-to-Egypts-598256
pinchas baram says
such a despicable liar– amazing what kind of dreck become “journalists” today.
Shaun Anderson says
Since the Nationality Law was passed The status of Arabic as a national language has been changed.
ronyvo says
I hope and wish that this is true. Giving Muslims any rights in a western society is catastrophic, as we are witnessing.
Mr. Cohen says
Lord Ian Livingston of England said:
“Whilst the Israeli Defense Forces are not
perfect, the obsession of focusing on them
despite being the most moral and professional
army in the Middle East is very strange.”
SOURCE: Ten Baroness Tonge
Pilloried at House of Lords Session She Initiated
on Israel’s Treatment of Palestinian Children
by Benjamin Kerstein, 2019 July 8
http://www.algemeiner.com/2019/07/08/itiated-on-israels-treatment-of-palestinian-children/
Mr. Cohen says
Mr. Ross Perot
(two-time USA Presidential candidate) said:
“Israel is a beacon in its part of the world
in terms of its democratic government.
It is a role model to the others there…”
SOURCE: Remembering Ross Perot’s
relationship with Israel and the American Jewish
community by Jackson Richman, 2019 July 10
http://www.jns.org/remembering-ross-perots-relationship-with-israel-and-the-amreican-jewish-community/
Mr. Cohen says
In the year 1922 CE Winston Churchill said this:
“Left to themselves, the Arabs of Palestine would not
in a thousand years have taken effective steps towards
the irrigation and electrification of Palestine.
They would have been quite content to dwell,
a handful of philosophic people, in the wasted
sun-scorched plains, letting the waters of the
Jordan [River] continue to flow unbridled
and unharnessed into the Dead Sea.”
SOURCE: Churchill and the Jews
(chapter 7, page 81) by Martin Gilbert, year 2007 CE
CHRONOLOGY:
Sir Winston Churchill was British Prime Minister
from 1940 to 1945 CE and from 1951 to 1955 CE.
Mr. Cohen says
Sir Winston Churchill said this in year 1922 CE:
“The Arabs would have sat in the dark forever
had not the Zionist engineers harnessed the
Jordan River for electrification.
Now they swarm into Palestine in seeking the light.”
SOURCE: A Peace to End All Peace
CHRONOLOGY:
Sir Winston Churchill was British Prime Minister
from 1940 to 1945 CE and from 1951 to 1955 CE.
QUESTION: If the Arabs are native to Palestine,
then why did Winston Churchill say:’
“Now they swarm INTO Palestine in seeking the light.”
The word “INTO” implies that most of them
were NOT in Palestine before the Zionists.
Angemon says
Indeed.
Mr. Cohen says
This comment from Winston Churchill appeared
in the San Francisco Chronicle dated
1929 September 12, one day after he said it:
“The Jews have developed the country,
grown orchards and grain fields out of the desert,
built schools and great buildings, constructed
irrigation projects and water power houses
and have made Palestine a much better place
in which to live than it was before
they came a few years ago.
The Arabs are much better off now
than before the Jews came, and it will
be a short time only before they realize it.”
SOURCE: Churchill and the Jews
(chapter 8, page 91) by Martin Gilbert, year 2007 CE
CHRONOLOGY:
Sir Winston Churchill was British Prime Minister
from 1940 to 1945 CE and from 1951 to 1955 CE.
Mr. Cohen says
The 1929 September 13 edition of the
New York Times printed an article
which quoted Winston Churchill saying:
“To Jewish enterprise, the Arab owes
nearly everything he has. Fanaticism
and a sort of envy have driven the Arab
to violence and for the present the
problem is one of proper policing
until harmony has been restored.”
SOURCE: Churchill and the Jews
(chapter 8, page 92) by Martin Gilbert, year 2007 CE
CHRONOLOGY:
Sir Winston Churchill was British Prime Minister
from 1940 to 1945 CE and from 1951 to 1955 CE.
Mr. Cohen says
As for the Arabs of Palestine, [Winston] Churchill
wrote [in year 1929 CE], they had been brought,
as a result of the Jewish presence there:
“Nothing but good gifts, more wealth, more trade,
more civilization, new sources of revenue,
more employment, a higher rate of wages,
larger cultivated areas, a better water supply;
in a word, the fruits of reason and modern science.”
SOURCE: Churchill and the Jews
(chapter 8, page 92) by Martin Gilbert, year 2007 CE
CHRONOLOGY:
Sir Winston Churchill was British Prime Minister
from 1940 to 1945 CE and from 1951 to 1955 CE.
Mr. Cohen says
After stressing, as he [Winston Churchill in year 1940 CE]
had done several times before in the House of Commons;
that the Jewish settlers had made:
“tremendous strides in recent years,
while there was no prospect that the Arabs
would ever abandon their primitive methods of cultivation.”
Churchill told his War Cabinet colleagues that
it was a “striking fact” that the Arab population
had shown the largest increase in those areas
where land had been purchased by Jews.
SOURCE: Churchill and the Jews
(chapter 15, page 168) by Martin Gilbert, year 2007 CE
CHRONOLOGY:
Sir Winston Churchill was British Prime Minister
from 1940 to 1945 CE and from 1951 to 1955 CE.
GreekEmpress says
I will never, ever understand anti-semitism. Jewish people have contributed so much to art, medicine, science, industry, etc. And they are our spiritual ancestors. Our family stands with Israel and the Jewish people!
elee says
Egypt is most zealous in promoting and enforcing human rights. It’s just that in Islam kafirs Jews and apostates aren’t considered human, being “worse than beasts” and all.
gravenimage says
Are “Human Rights Equally Disregarded in Israel and Egypt”?
………………..
How about “no” and “hell no”?
Israel is a civilized democracy, and Egypt is a Muslim hell hole–albeit having been even worse under the Muslim Brotherhood.
b.a. freeman says
“Cornelia Wegerhoff, Cairo correspondent of @dlfkultur, has lost her mind.”
—
not at all. she is a product of a leftist (read “socialist”) “education,” which is little education, if any, being instead mostly bombardment with propaganda. she has no idea how to think critically, since she was never taught to do so, and was most probably punished if she showed any signs of developing such dangerous inclinations. the only “morality” she has is a ghost of judeo-christian ethics, and there is nothing in her world that would *EVER* preclude looking out for number one, so rather than fight the good fight for those who are oppressed, she (as would anybody else who has been so misguided) has chosen to take the easy way out and parrot all the nice-sounding pseudo-moral leftist lies, since everybody she knows thinks that way, and lauds her on social media when she does so (otherwise known as virtue-signaling).
eurabia has been ruled by commies for *far* longer than the u.s. and other western nations, and is much deeper in decay. the left has won this round, ensuring that western civilization will begin to collapse. it is our job as civilized people to politely reach out to such uneducated, misguided tools and attempt to open their eyes to the truth. few will listen, but every ally we gain is vital in the coming civil wars and major attacks by the ummah. the blood of (probably) millions of innocent victims to come will be on the hands of the left, and should civilization survive, virtue-signalers and other deluded leftists will be remembered as being in a category by themselves, *FAR* below nazis and other leftists, because they will have been the cause of so many more murders.