9 - 15 August 2001
Issue No.546
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 9 - 15 August 2001 Issue No.546 |
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Religious or political?
Despite subdued expressions of anger over Israeli atrocities, public support for the Palestinian cause has never been stronger, analysts tell Omayma Abdel-Latif
Television viewers have almost come to expect the scene brought to them each evening. The mothers and wives of the day's Palestinian victims cry out in front of the cameras the all-too- familiar question: "Where are the Arabs?" -- an allusion to what is said to be Arab indifference to Palestinian suffering. Compared with the first days of the Al-Aqsa Intifada which triggered a strong public show of anger, the appearance of apathy has been said to reflect waning support for the uprising which completes its first year next month.
The image in Cairo this week, however, served as compelling evidence that Egyptian identification and solidarity with the Palestinian cause has never been stronger. It reflected what Abdel-Wahab Elmessiri, an expert on Zionism and author of an encyclopedia on Judaism, described as "mounting and simmering resentment." As he explained to Al- Ahram Weekly, "It is a very deeply- rooted resentment of the Israeli atrocities and the ruling elites in the Arab world who confine themselves to making statements without substance."
The week witnessed a surge of activities, with the people's resentment finding expression in a series of events that began last Friday at Al- Azhar mosque where thousands of worshippers brandishing copies of the Qur'an demonstrated. They also carried banners which read: "Al-Aqsa is captive" and "We will not forget the day of return, Palestine."
The rally was followed by a number of other shows of solidarity. On Saturday, the liberal Wafd Party launched a fund-raising campaign under the slogan "Pay a pound to support a Palestinian." According to No'man Gomaa, the party's chairman, the campaign also calls for a boycott of all American and Israeli products and is gathering momentum among the public. "We seek to offer the Palestinians real support by raising funds and not merely staging demonstrations and burning flags," Gomaa told the Weekly. The Wafd's campaign followed criticism directed at both civil society organisations and political parties for their lack of concrete action to support the Palestinians.
But others still believe in the need for symbolic protest action. Egyptian human rights organisations have joined the campaign calling for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to be put on trial in Europe. Alongside charges concerning Sharon's involvement in the massacres of Sabra and Shatila in 1982, activists are trying to drum up support to have the Israeli premier tried for his role in the killing of Egyptian prisoners of war during the 1967 war. The Lawyers Syndicate called for "a week of mourning" and lawyers staged a strike on Monday.
Some argue, however, that these activities fall short of giving full expression to the extent of public anger and frustration with the way the Palestinian Intifada has been handled on the official level. "People see in the Palestinian question a vehicle for protesting their own social and political predicaments," Emad Gad, editor-in- chief of the Israeli Digest, a periodical published by the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, told the Weekly. "They see it also as a confrontation between our own people and a state established and sustained by the West."
Unlike Gomaa, Gad believes that demonstrations and acts of public protest are important because they give citizens a sense of their own power vis-à-vis the state. They also serve as a reminder to the government of "the latent discontent which could explode into a full-scale confrontation." "Economic concerns and anxiety over day-to-day life give the encounter between the state and the protesters a grim dimension," Gad said. He believes that the emphasis placed on how Egyptians react to the Israeli atrocities is due to Egypt's centrality in the Arab world. This centrality, he explains, makes it inevitable that Egyptian ideas and choices become wider Arab concerns.
President Hosni Mubarak has repeatedly ruled out the possibility of a new Middle East war. But most observers believe that what the public wants is not necessarily a declaration of war but signals to the US and Europe that their interests will be threatened unless Palestinians' rights are upheld. "The costs' calculus needs to be changed. Currently the United States pursues its policies in the Middle East in a relatively cost-free manner; the only way you can change that calculus is by making the United States pay a price for its pro-Israel policies," Elmessiri said.
Some, according to Elmessiri, may regard the Arab-Israeli conflict as a religious, rather than a political, conflict. He explained that the popular resentment against Israel comprises various elements included in which is religion. "It is a mixed bag of religion and politics, but there is an overriding feeling that Israel is part of the Western colonial invasion and that it represents the last pocket of this invasion," he said. For the man-in-the-street, the religious images and symbols have enormous power. The main element that triggered public outrage was the image of Israeli forces violating the sanctity of Al-Aqsa mosque. In this type of conflict, says Elmessiri, it is very difficult to divorce the political from the religious.
According to Gad, Israel's actions gave the conflict a religious character. It was Sharon's visit to Al-Haram Al- Sharif that sparked off the Intifada, Gad explained. The latest incident which reaffirmed this dimension was a Jewish group placing, albeit temporarily, a cornerstone for the "Third Temple" a few hundred metres away from the Muslim sanctuary.
Gad argues that as long as the conflict remains political, it can be resolved through negotiations, but once the religious component is emphasised, opportunities for compromise are severely restricted. "It is either the mosque or the temple; today they claim the temple lies beneath the mosque; tomorrow they may claim that some of their heritage lies beneath the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and seek to remove it," Gad said. He predicts that with the escalation of Israeli aggression, it will be difficult to contain the people's outrage.
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