Egyptian Journalist Looks to Sue Israel for the Ten Plagues

Someone's taking the book of Exodus a bit too seriously.

An Egyptian journalist by the name of Ahmad al-Gamal has demanded that his government sue the State of Israel for damages the Jewish people caused by the ten biblical plagues outlined in the book of Exodus. His request comes suspiciously just in time for the holiday of Passover.

Guess the whole 'enslaving the Jewish people' thing didn't merit God to take action after all.

al-Gamal writes for the Egyptian daily Al-Yawm Al-Sabi. On March 11th, he wrote, via a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute,

“We want compensation for the plagues that were inflicted upon [us] as a result of the curses that the Jews’ ancient forefathers [cast] upon our ancient forefathers, who did not deserve to pay for the mistake that Egypt’s ruler at the time, Pharaoh, committed.”

No words.

al-Gamal is referring to, of course, the story of Moses leading the Jews out of Egypt, and out of bondage, where God cast ten plagues onto the land until Pharaoh finally allowed to "let his people go."

Why the Jewish people should be paying reparations for the acts of God, as obviously they did not create the ten plagues according to the story of Exodus, al-Gamal does not mention.

As we all know, the plagues include turning water into blood, a plague of frogs, lice, wild animals/flies, deceased livestock, boils, death of the firstborn son, locusts, darkness, and storms of fire.

“For what is written in the Torah proves that it was Pharaoh who oppressed the children of Israel, rather than the Egyptian people,” Gamal wrote. “[But] they inflicted upon us the plague of locusts that didn’t leave anything behind them; the plague that transformed the Nile’s waters into blood, so nobody could drink of them for a long time; the plague of darkness that kept the world dark day and night; the plague of frogs; and the plague of the killing of the firstborn, namely every first offspring born to woman or beast, and so on.”

al-Gamal is also encouraging the government to sue the Jewish State for "precious materials" used by the Jewish people during those times.

“We want compensation for the gold, silver, copper, precious stones, fabrics, hides and lumber, and for [all] animal meat, hair, hides and wool, and for other materials that I will mention [below], when quoting the language of the Torah. All these are materials that the Jews used in their rituals. These are resources that cannot be found among desert wanderers unless they took them before their departure.”

The troubled journalist is also going after Turkey for the Ottoman Empire's invasion of Egypt in the 16th century, from France for Napoleon's invasion in 1798, and from Britain for their 72 years of occupation.

Though such a request would be considered laughable in the West, it's hard to tell if the Egyptian government will actually take his demand for reparations seriously.