A unity of slogans
A Bar Association rally recommended Arab unity as the only way to confront the US-led campaign against Iraq. Mona El-Nahhas reports
Hundreds of people showed up at the Cairo headquarters of the Bar Association on 20 February for a major rally featuring speakers from several political parties and tendencies which are often at odds with each other. The mood here, however, was clear -- all those present were unified in their disgust at both US policies in the region, and the silence emanating from Arab capitals towards these policies.
The association's headquarters were noisy with the slogans being chanted by the crowd. The ruckus ended only when the first speaker, the association's secretary-general, Ahmed Seif El-Islam Hassan El-Banna, arose to speak.
El-Banna, a leading member of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, set the event's mood by criticising Arab nations for their weak stance in the face of America's threats. That would be the rally's central theme, reiterated over and again by speakers from a diverse spectrum of political ideologies.
Wafd Party Chairman No'man Gomaa, for example, called on Arab governments to put aside their bilateral conflicts and stand as "one man". According to Gomaa, "things would be totally different if this occurred." Gomaa also called for an activation of the joint Arab Defence Pact. "While most countries around the world have managed to display a courageous stance regarding the Iraqi crisis," Gomaa said, "the Arab countries have not moved."
The participants expressed fears that US plans encompassed much more than an attack on Iraq. Gomaa and others at the gathering suggested that a US occupation of Baghdad would merely be the first step in a wider occupation of the entire Arab region. "Losing Iraq today would mean losing Syria and Egypt tomorrow," said Bar Association Chairman Sameh Ashour.
The Iraqi representative to the Arab League, Ambassador Mohsen Khalil, suggested that the reason the US is dealing with the Arabs as if they "don't exist" basically stems from the "lack of a unified national will". That was especially dangerous since, according to Khalil, the American threat will not be limited to Iraq. "That's why the Arab nation should unite and prevent the aggression at any price," he said.
"The least Arab governments could do," suggested Mohieddin, would be to prevent the US from using "our territories to wage war on Iraq".
Ashour also called for a reconciliation between Egypt's political forces, since "unity is the first prerequisite we need now".
Reflecting on sentiments similar to those expressed by other political observers around the region, Gomaa said the US was aiming to control Iraqi oil so as to deprive Europe and China of this precious natural resource. Expanding on this "conspiracy" theory, Gomaa suggested that the timing of the American campaign was also meant to divert global attention away from Israeli crimes against the Palestinians.
"Sharon is being given time to carry out his dirty plan which aims to destroy active Palestinian cadres and evict the Palestinian people from their lands," Gomaa said.
With the region in such miserable shape, another sore point repeatedly brought up at the rally was the frustration felt by the Arab masses at not being allowed to stage marches or organise demonstrations, either against the US, or their own governments. Tagammu Party head Khaled Mohieddin seemed to succinctly sum up the matter when he said that, "while millions of people worldwide have been saying 'no to attacking Iraq'", Arabs have been forced by their governments to keep quiet.
"We should feel ashamed of ourselves," said Doctors Syndicate chairman Hamdi El-Sayed, "for not playing a similar role, even though we know quite well that Iraq is just the beginning."
Those refusing to keep quiet, meanwhile, had been duly punished, a point brought up by Nasserist Party Chairman Diaeddin Dawoud, who urged President Mubarak to release anti-war activists who have been detained. Ashour said the lawyer's syndicate is monitoring the conditions of those in detention. He also said young people may have to pay a price for their struggle, just as previous generations did before them.
