Summary
Sami (Shmu’el) ‘Atiyah, an Alexandrine Jewish businessman who remained in Egypt after 1948, was expelled in 1956, and in 1958 founded the Organization of the Victims of Anti-Jewish Persecution in Egypt in Israel (The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora, lines 3482-3518).
Details
- A native of Alexandria, ‘Atiyah owned a successful shirt making factory and managed the cooperative that supplied raw materials to all the shirt makers of Alexandria (Chapter 8, note 6); he used his business and governmental connections to participate in organizing Jewish immigration to Israel after 1948, although he was not a member of any Zionist party, and he himself chose to remain in Egypt; as a friend of the brother of Gamal Abdel Nasser he maintained good relations with the Free Officers’ regime (The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora, lines 3482-3518).
- On November 1, 1956, following the Anglo-French-Israeli attack on Egypt, he was arrested and his property was confiscated; like most holders of foreign passports — his was Moroccan, “but this meant a connection to France” — he was expelled, reached Israel in 1957 and settled in Holon (The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora, lines 3482-3518).
- In 1958 he initiated the Organization of the Victims of Anti-Jewish Persecution in Egypt with the approval of Minister of Finance Levi Eshkol (The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora, lines 3482-3518).
- Even before Sadat’s November 1977 Jerusalem visit, ‘Atiyah offered his services to Defense Minister Moshe Dayan to serve as an intermediary conveying Israeli peace offers to Egypt, and recommended that Egyptian Jews renounce their financial compensation claims if this would promote peace talks (Chapter 8, note 17) — “prepared to relinquish his status as a victim of anti-Jewish persecution in Egypt in exchange for peace, a very substantial gesture because the assertion of victimhood and the demand for restitution had been the central purposes of his organization’s activities”. When Sadat visited Jerusalem, ‘Atiyah and Maurice Sachs sent him telegrams of welcome: “we are with you in your struggle for peace, and God is the grantor of success” (allah wali al-tawfiq) (Chapter 8, note 18) (The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora, lines 3546-3576).
Related pages
The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora, Organization of the Victims of Anti-Jewish Persecution in Egypt, Shlomo Kohen-Tzidon, Ada Aharoni