An official for Egypt's Culture Ministry has reported that the ministry has approved the translation of books by the internationally-renown Israeli writers Amos Oz and David Grossman. Only two Israeli books have ever been published in Egypt, one by the Iraqi-born Israeli writer Eli Amir and a book of poems by the Druze author Naim Araidi.

The official, Gaber Asfur, said he hoped to sign an agreement with the Israeli authors' English and French publishers so as not to have to go through Israeli publishers. He said the ministry cannot deal directly with Israeli publishers, "which would cause a scandal in Egypt and the Arab world".

Mr Asfur said Culture Minister Farouk Hosni had approved the translations of the Israeli books. An attempt by the Egyptian culture minister to become the next director general of United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has suffered a setback because of recent comments in the Egyptian parliament that he "would burn Israeli books himself if found in Egyptian libraries".

On 23 May, French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levi, Holocaust survivor and author Elie Wiesel and Nobel Peace laureate Claude Lanzmann posted an appeal to the international community asking that the Egyptian minister be prevented from assuming UNESCO's leadership.

The appeal pointed to numerous extremist quotes from the minister which have appeared in Egyptian newspapers over the years and said that the UN's cultural ministry should not fall into the hands of a man who advocates book burning.

(Photo Israeli author Amos Oz)

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