By Yitzchok Adlerstein As trade embargoes go, this one probably won’t make it into the history books. It won’t have much impact on the economy or create shortages of critical goods.
But a decision by the
Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture to ban all sales of palm fronds to
Israel this year was, at the least, not very neighborly.
Wednesday at sundown marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday of
Sukkot, an autumn celebration of God’s providence and bounty. Part of
the celebration involves gathering four plants, including a date palm
branch or lulav, which is used during a prayer and other parts of a
religious service.
For many years, Egyptians and Israelis alike have benefited from the
yearly trade in the coveted tree branches. Egypt had an abundance of
palm fronds and Israel was happy to pay for them. The arrangement
worked so well that Egypt became the world’s largest supplier of
Sukkot palm branches. Before the surprise announcement of the export
ban, which included not only Israel but Jewish communities around the
world, it was estimated that Jews would purchase 1.4 million branches
from Egypt this season. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that in
the past, Egypt supplied about 40% of Israel’s Sukkot palms.
The announcement, which came just weeks before the holiday, was timed
to leave Jews in the lurch on a holiday in which, historically, Jews
used to bring offerings to the temple in Jerusalem on behalf of all
the other nations of the world.
In the United States, Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Valley Village) jumped
into the fray with an urgent plea to the Egyptians to reconsider. They
remained as unmoved as the Sphinx.
But the Grinch, if you’ll recall, wasn’t able to stop Christmas, and
the Egyptians won’t be able to stop Sukkot either. Somehow, in the
space of just a few days, enough of the sought-after greens were
located in Israel, Spain and elsewhere. Now that the frond-buying
season is fully upon us, no shortages are being reported.
And Egypt’s obstinacy has been a boon for farmers elsewhere in the
world. Gus Nunez, a date grower in California and Arizona, isn’t
complaining. His workers harvested 25,000 to 30,000 fronds, which were
snapped up quickly. The only people who lost out in the end are the
Egyptian farmers who had counted on the revenue and were denied the
opportunity to sell their fronds.
In his letter to Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, Berman wrote:
“In light of the recent tensions between Egypt and Israel, there is a
widespread perception that the reported ban on lulav exports was
imposed for purely political reasons,” he wrote. “I sincerely hope
this is not the case.”
But it’s hard to account for this kind of behavior on Egypt’s part in
any other way. Only hatred and spite could move a government to act so
irrationally and counterproductively.
There also may be an element of wanting to deflect the attention of
the masses from the growing problems confronting Egypt. A scapegoat is
always good for a little distraction, and Israel is a country
Egyptians are always happy to blame, as we saw last month when
protesters from Tahrir Square launched a violent attack on the Israeli
Embassy.
Still, why would Egyptians want to prevent their date farmers from
making a little extra money?
Unfortunately, there is more hatred of Jews in the Arab world than
there is oil. Hatred is spewed and propagated in mosques, in media and
by governments. This hatred and demonizing of Jews is the single
greatest obstacle to peace. It makes impossible the kind of trust and
confidence that is essential to good relations between neighboring
nations. And it is a primary reason many Israelis don’t believe a
Palestinian state is viable.
The Grinch who tried to steal Sukkot has been stopped in his tracks,
but so has progress on bringing cooperation, peace and understanding
to a troubled region. Maybe the Egyptians scored some points with the
masses. Peace? Bah! Humbug!
Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein is the director of Interfaith Affairs for the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
re-post op-ed original from LATimes
