Cancer conference in Egypt bans Jews
The Susan G. Komen for the Cure (a US organization) is holding a conference on breast cancer awareness in Alexandria, Egypt this week. But the Israeli doctors and cancer researchers who had been already received invitations and gotten permission to attend suddenly had their inviations rescinded by the Egyptian government.
Seeing as Susan G. Komen herself was a Jew, and that this conference is being sponsored by a US organization (and in the US, you cannot bar/refuse someone from attending a conference based upon their religion), it seems kind of ironic to me that they're continuing with the conference in light of this move.
Current buzz in the States (which is predictable) is that they're alienating a lot of their contributors by this action, and will probably burn their bridges with the Jewish community, some of their biggest donors.
What say you guys? Should they proceed with the conference despite this move, or should they pull out/pressure Egypt to back down?
http://middleeastpapers.blogspot.com/2009/10/jewish-cancer-victims-found...
http://ww5.komen.org/KomenNewsArticle.aspx?id=6442451393&terms=egypt
Salam
It seems that now ALL delegates will be allowed to attend.
In the end Egypt take a step and then have to afford the consequences...
The "Cops"...yeah!!!
What if (in real life) the "cops" are breaking every possible law on earth and then these "cops" would want to punish other people for breaking the law?
Who appointed 'them' as "cops" and gave them the right to encourage punishments on Iran, when they are the only country who has used nuclear weapons in a real war?
My dear, when the "cop/judge" is rotten, feel free to do anything you want, and if anyone dares punish you then the only thing to do is be nastier.
I like your reasoning, but don't appreciate you calling me narrow-minded. Anyway, remember that any research findings, sooner or later will be shared by the public. We can always meet with those delegates neutrally.
True, breast cancer isn't a light issue, but for the safety of the delegates , I'd rather keep them away or have the highest security around them.
Again, this is not addressed to the Jews, there are Egyptian Jews in the country and outside. I and every Muslim respect Judaism as a divine religion.
Salam
away with it.
Imagine a bunch of people speeding, breaking the traffic laws. The cops only catch a handful of the offenders; the others get away scott free.
Such is life.
And again, I never said Egypt couldn't ban the Israelis (they're certainly within their rights to do so if they want). I simply said that they should then be prepared for other groups/countries to react to that decision -- and if they lose millions in tourism dollars and never host another international medical conference, then that's the price they pay for refusing the Israelis visas.
If they're willing to pay that price, then more power to them.
"Marriage is a wonderful institution...but who wants to live in an institution?" -- Groucho Marx
Really ummjake, I can`t answer you that question... but I believe that will have a percentage that will refuse...
"Pointing out that the world isn't fair isn't a great argument.."
It IS.
If 1 party can break the rules and get away with it, so can the others.
If the US is free to boycott and not grant visas to representitives of certain regimes, then Egypt can proudly ban Zionist scientists.
By the way, how can any Zionist doctor/scientist be of any benifit to any human assosiation, when they are a part of a regime that prospers on killing the people who own the land that this regime is based on???!!!
That's rather presuptuous of you.
And so what if no one penalized the USA for boycotting the Moscow Olympics? So what if Iraqi athletes were denied visas before and no one protested/boycotted? They certainly could have...and then those involved would have a had a choice to make.
Pointing out that the world isn't fair isn't a great argument, I'm afraid. Perhaps if the Arab world were better organized then they could effect the same sort of change that the US (or the Jewish people) can...but I don't see that happening anytime soon.
"Marriage is a wonderful institution...but who wants to live in an institution?" -- Groucho Marx
"But they should not be surprised, then, when the WTA or other bodies threaten to pull their events "
They SHOULD BE surprised, because as I said earlier:
"The USA boycotted the Moscow Olympics back in 1980, many Iraqi sport teams/deligations we denied visas to many events during the time of Saddam...etc, and no one punished these countries for their shamefull actions! So why would you want UAE to be punished when it is taking a step on the right path???"
Of course, you all realize that twenty percent of Israelis are Arab - both Muslim and Christian. So let's not be too quick to condemn all Israelis. About a million of them are named Abdullah or Mohammed! It would be kind of ironic of one of the researchers was an Arab-Israeli, say from Nazareth.
Mand
countries using their influence to make statements about their views of other country's actions (like the UAE move and this one in Egypt), but then they should recognize that other organizations will respond in kind.
If the UAE doesn't want Israelis in their country for any reason, then so be it. But they should not be surprised, then, when the WTA or other bodies threaten to pull their events and choose to host them elsewhere because they expect international participation or because they have invited people from certain countries to attend.
Ditto for Egypt on this count. Go ahead and ban the Israelis. But take the hit when your sponsoring group backs out at the last minute, or when no other groups choose to host events in your country because you will not guarantee that all invited guests can attend.
And Ines_pt: I get your point, but it's sad to think that way...do you think an Egyptian would rather their mother/daughter die of breast cancer than have an Israeli doctor perform surgery on her?
"Marriage is a wonderful institution...but who wants to live in an institution?" -- Groucho Marx
I totally agree with happy’s post. Although Egypt signed the peace treaty. However, never there was any normalization with Israel. In fact this is the one thing that unite Egyptian intellectuals whether Secular or Islamists.
It seems that now ALL delegates will be allowed to attend.
in UAE not granting visa to criminals/terrorists such as the Zionists. Actually this is a brave thing to do.
The USA boycotted the Moscow Olympics back in 1980, many Iraqi sport teams/deligations we denied visas to many events during the time of Saddam...etc, and no one punished these countries for their shamefull actions! So why would you want UAE to be punished when it is taking a step on the right path???
Regarding your: "most American do NOT see Israelis as terrorists..."
I think that LeBaNeSeMan has addressed that: "Some americans need to educate themselves..."
Blackcat... did you live in Egypt before to give a kind of a opinion like that?!?
People there will get mad if this Israelis enter the country!!!
And if Egyptians loose or not is their problem not yours... you will not change with your words!
sorry, but this is very narrow-minded statement in this case.
The thread, as well as the Conference itself is not about being friends with israeli’s. The conference is about finding the solution to medical problem number 1 in the world. And not inviting the biggest specialists and strongest doctors in the world makes this conference useless, and makes missing huge important contribution in the matter of fighting cancer which knows no bounds and doesn’t chose people by the nationalities and religions to kill them, or I would say to eat them alive. Egyptians themselves don’t benefit from this decision, only lose.
loosers big time. It’s like to discuss the future of space shuttles to the moon without inviting Neil A. Armstrong and NASA Apollo program‘s reps. insane.
We shouldn't have problems with the Jews, but we do have problems with the Zionists.
Most importantly, Egypt rules its land as it wishes, we allow in or expel out persons or communities as my gov sees appropriate.
Bottom line, Egypt will never be friends with Israel until it washes its blood-filled hands off of my region. Period.
Salam
I'm laughing at those of you claiming Egypt is friends with Israel.
Where do you come form? La La land, or twilight zone ?!
Salam
We put our money into organizations that we feel mirror our sensibilities. I would presume most people do the same. If you look online, you can already see that many people have organized activiely AGAINST Susan G Komen based upon this incident, that they are pulling any plans for future donations for them because they feel the organization has betrayed them. They will find another cancer organization to support.
And while I agree that the conference is being held in Egypt, it is being sponsored by an American organization. Much like the tennis competition in the UAE earlier this year (when they didn't issue a visa to the female Israeli player)...if you expect to host international events, then sponsoring organizations get a say in how things are conducted. The UAE almost lost the right to host ANY internationahop sporting events because of their decision -- and they quickly decided that that wasn't what they wanted, so they relented and allowed the male Israeli player to be granted a visa.
If Egypt wants to host its own, home-grown cancer conference, they can go right ahead. But if they want the stature and expertise of an organization that comes from another country to be involved, then they should be sensitive to that country's sensibilities.
"Marriage is a wonderful institution...but who wants to live in an institution?" -- Groucho Marx
".....despite the fact that these Israeli doctors and researchers had their inviations/visa denied at the last minute goes against the typical American ethos...."
The conference is held on egyptians lands and the egyptians will put the rules not american ethos!
and this one is funny : "....and if they did, they could kiss their organization goodbye because the vast majority of the US donors would walk away from them in a heartbeat over stuff like this)..."
American donors ha?:D
was being sponsored by an American cancer organization that was founded in the name of a prominent Jewish American woman.
For this organization to now be going forward with the conference despite the fact that these Israeli doctors and researchers had their inviations/visa denied at the last minute goes against the typical American ethos.
As you apparently are well aware, most American do NOT see Israelis as terrorists. So from their perspective, this smacks of blatant discrimination against the folks hailing from there.
And c'mon...out of all the Arab countries, Egypt has been one that has historically had one of the better relationships with Israel. So this is clearly a case of revenge -- for the UNESCO incident, for something else...nothing more. And while I have no problem with countries leveraging their weight to express their opinions about other countries' behavior, I don't think that the Susan G. Komen orgnization should have allowed itself to be put in the middle of this incident. They should have pulled out and allowed Egypt to express its displeasure with Israel another way.
As it is, the conference staying makes it appear that Susan G Komen endorses this behavior -- which I don't think they do (and if they did, they could kiss their organization goodbye because the vast majority of the US donors would walk away from them in a heartbeat over stuff like this).
"Marriage is a wonderful institution...but who wants to live in an institution?" -- Groucho Marx
Thanks for your wrong information, LeBa.
Magicdragon again u have misslead information. Now the palastinians occupied palastine !:D Ramsis of egypt occupied palastine as the original inhabitants of palastine (more than 2000BC)were "kenaanites" to which parts of the arab pple belong(mainly lebanon, palastine, syria,)
Gaza is one of the oldest city in the world and the grandfather of prophet Mohammad (pbuh) is burried in Gaza.
I don't know why Palestinians don't accept their history. Ramses II of Egypt called them "Intruders". They came from the Eastern Mediterranean and occupied Gaza. From there on there has been conflicts with them.
The Israeli - Philistine conflict exists since 1.200 BC!
First : Some americans need to educate themselves about the arabic-isaeli conflict. It has been there since the 19030's. They should get information from good resources(other than Fox, ABC, and the biased media of the US)
Second : Egyptians like all arabs and muslims differentiate between jews (as pple belonging to a religion) and israelis (pple who believe in the state of israel and accepting the actions of their governments toward arabs). I would like to quote :"But the Israeli doctors and cancer researchers who had been already received invitations and gotten permission to attend suddenly had their inviations rescinded by the Egyptian government." AND " Seeing as Susan G. Komen herself was a Jew, and that this conference is being sponsored by a US organization "
Egyptian government banned Israelis becoz they are israelis not jews !
Thay are not banning Jews, they are banning Israelis. Well, we banned South Africa when it was apartheid, so why should we not ban Israel today?
'they' should pull out/pressure Egypt to backdown if Egypt was banning the Jews...but they should salute Egypt's great stand if it was banning the criminal Israelis...that is if 'they' have some decency in them.
This is my answer to your initial question, ummjake!
There has been a lot of tension recently after our Egyptian Farouk Hosni was voted down as the UNSECO's next Director General and was branded as Anti-Semite Hosni. The Jewish lobby nailed him down, during the voting process, as has been ciruclated in the press.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/08/AR2009090802084.html
Salam
and intelligent contribution that could benefit so many people.
I didn't drink the kool-aid! -- PM
(more than just the two I posted links to) said the ISRAELIS had their invitations/permission revoked. But the articles spoke of it as if it were a ban on JEWS...so that point is a little unclear for me too.
I think this is being seen as a purely political move because the Israelis were given invitations to the conference and they had been granted permission (by the Egyptian govt.) to attend, and at the last minute, the Egyptian health minister revoked it all -- without giving a reason.
If the minister would offer up a reason, then people could understand things better. But minus any additional information, on the surface this looks like blatant discrimination.
To me, it seems spiteful -- and precarious, because they're basically putting the organization (the largest breast cancer advocacy group in the WORLD) in the situation of having to choose between its vocal and financially generous donors in the US (who are outraged that this has occured) or keeping their mouths shut, staying put, and doing a modicum of good in Egypt, raising awareness about breast cancer -- while risking the future of their existence.
Another irony: Israeli researchers and developers developed the first fully computerized, no radiation diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer.
"Marriage is a wonderful institution...but who wants to live in an institution?" -- Groucho Marx
the title of this forum topic is misleading, Egypt is banning Israelis not jews
thus they are banned because of politics and not racism
I'm a little confused here - are they banning Jews or Israelis? I would agree that a ban due to religion is unconscionable. It's also a bit of a problem banning Israelis since Egypt and Israel are supposed to be friendly neighbors. But it certainly is a world-wide practice to deny visas to certain nationalities.
Mandi
why dont the yanks just hand out the american passports to them and see them in the conference, seated.
they must be kidding.