Post-1948 Egyptian anti-Israel literature imported European anti-Semitic texts wholesale

Evidence

A visit to the bookshops of Cairo, even to the kerb-side kiosks, shows them to be full of the most virulent anti-Semitic literature, much if not most of it translated or adapted from European works. Arabic translations of the famous “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” are to be found everywhere, and are quoted and distributed by the government in its various propaganda and information agencies. Hitler’s Mein Kampf, in Arabic, is another widely distributed classic. There is an enormous literature of books dealing with Zionism and Israel—natural and reasonable enough. Many of them, however, begin and conclude with statements about the wickedness of the Jews as such and the Jewish conspiracy against the human race, for which they rely very heavily on the “Protocols” and other European anti-Jewish literature. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1279

Categorization

• XREF: Direct mechanism evidence for the reader’s core interest: how anti-Semitic knowledge production traveled from Europe to the Arab world — qualifies Said-style claims that ‘Orientalism’ was the only West-to-East knowledge flow.
• QUESTION: When and through which intermediaries did the Protocols and Mein Kampf enter Arabic — translation dates, publishers, and state sponsorship channels are worth chasing.
• ADDENDUM: Useful qualifier for the anti-Israel literature discussion: government distribution of translated European anti-Semitic texts is a concrete, dated mechanism of knowledge transfer.