Where are the Arabs? Why aren't Palestine's Muslim neighbors supporting it like they did in the past?
How To Discuss Arab Solidarity With Palestine Today
Paula RosasAhad, BBC News WorldOctober 30, 2024
Pros:
1.Timely and Relevant:
The topic touches on a highly debated and ongoing issue, making it appealing to readers interested in current geopolitics.
2. Engaging for Muslim Audiences:
It resonates with communities concerned about Palestine and the broader Arab and Islamic world's dynamics.
3. SEO Potential:
Keywords like "Arabs," "Palestine," and "Muslim neighbors" can attract traffic from a wide audience.
4. Encourages Debate:
The topic can spark discussions on social media and forums, driving engagement.
5. Historical Insight:
Provides an opportunity to explore the evolution of Arab unity and geopolitics.
Cons:
1. Potential for Controversy:
The topic may provoke strong reactions due to differing opinions on Palestine and Arab politics.
2. Risk of Misinformation:
It requires accurate and sensitive handling to avoid spreading biased or incomplete narratives.
3. Sensitive Subject:
Discussing political and religious aspects could alienate some audiences.
4. Complexity:
Explaining why support has waned involves understanding nuanced geopolitical, economic, and cultural factors, which can be challenging to present clearly.
5. Perceived Bias:
Readers might perceive the article as one-sided, regardless of the writer's intent.
‘Where are the Arabs? Where are the Arabs?’
This is the phrase that comes from the mouths of every Gazan who has survived the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli bombing, holding dead children in their arms and screaming helplessly in front of the camera.
Gazans have been asking again and again, wondering why their Arab neighbors are not defending them against the Israeli bombing?
Since Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 last year, all eyes have been on the Middle East, and the question on everyone’s mind has been how severe and prolonged the Israeli response will be? And how will the people and governments of the region’s Arab countries react?
To this day, there is no definitive answer to the first question: the Israeli bombing has wreaked havoc in the Gaza Strip and so far 42,500 Palestinians have died, but it shows no signs of stopping.
Part of the answer to the second question is clear: if anyone expects large-scale protests or demonstrations in the capitals of the Arab world, they will be disappointed. Although the support and sentiments of the vast majority of the Arab population are in solidarity with Palestine, the demonstrations in these countries have been limited.
Walid Qaziah, a professor of political science at the American University in Cairo, told BBC Mundo that “as far as the Arab governments are concerned, their response has been either very weak or disappointing.”
He says that “apart from the traditional criticism of Israel or the offer by the governments of Qatar and Egypt to play a mediating role in this conflict, no one has supported the Palestinians.”
Walid says that no Arab country has severed relations with Israel or taken any action that would increase diplomatic or economic pressure on Israel or help prevent this war.
But why has the Palestinian issue lost its importance in the region? Considering the situation in the Middle East, the answer to this question is complex.
The disconnect between public opinion and governments
In the history of Arab countries, Arabs have linked their identities with one identity, one language, and to a large extent, one religion, but there have also been concerns arising from the European colonial influence in the region, but the interests of these countries' governments have also been contradictory.
Relations between Palestinians and Arab countries have also not been easy, especially with those who welcomed large numbers of refugees after the declaration of the state of Israel in 1948.
The Lebanese civil war and clashes between Palestinian militants and the Jordanian monarchy are sometimes reminders of the region's conflicting history.
But the Palestinian issue has also been a unifying factor for Arab countries for decades.
Timur Qarmot, associate professor of public policy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told BBC Mundo that "during this period, the state of Israel was seen as an extension of the former colonial powers." Which had withdrawn from the Middle East but left Israel as an agent to protect their interests, including Britain, France and now the United States.
Analysts say that in the past, countries such as Egypt, Syria and Jordan have fought wars against Israel, defending national interests as well as the Palestinians.
However, those wars are now a thing of the past. Egypt and Jordan signed peace treaties with Israel decades ago. Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have established diplomatic relations with Israel, while until a few years ago, relations with Israel were viewed with disfavor in the region.
Saudi Arabia also came close to normalizing relations with Israel before the Gaza-Israel war on October 7.
According to Dove Waxman, director of the Nazarene Center for Israel Studies at the University of California, Davis, “For decades and since the beginning of the current conflict, each Arab country has pursued its own interests. They talk about support and solidarity with the Palestinians, and it’s not that these sentiments aren’t genuine, but they look out for their own national interests.”
Ilham Fakhro, a researcher in the Middle East and North Africa Program at Chatham House, says that public opinion in the Arab world is strongly anti-Israel.
“The people of Arab countries have a lot of sympathy for the devastated citizens of Gaza and they want their governments to do more for the Palestinians. They want their countries to cut diplomatic relations with Israel, and at the very least, to expel diplomats from their countries.”
But that hasn’t happened yet.
“Arab governments abandoned the Palestinians a long time ago,” said Imad Harb, director of research and analysis at the Arab Center think tank in Washington, DC.
Resistance Movements in the Arab World
For Timur Qarmot, this was a turning point that changed the entire situation in the region: the popular uprisings that shook the Middle East and North Africa between 2010 and 2012 are called the ‘Arab Spring’.
“Since then, the situation has changed radically and the failure of these uprisings has destabilized the region,” says the professor at Qatar University. Many countries are still embroiled in civil wars, such as Yemen, Syria or Iraq. Syria and Iraq, which were central and powerful countries with two political ideologies and could challenge the United States, have disappeared from the scene today. Libya has disappeared, Egypt is in economic instability, while Sudan is embroiled in civil war.”
Qarmot condemns and says that “in this state of permanent crisis, Arab societies feel helpless while sympathizing with the Palestinians, while they themselves live under oppressive dictatorships.” The Arab world is in a sorry state, people do not have the freedom or the ability or the desire to live with dignity.
Nevertheless, the social response in favor of the Palestinians has been much stronger than the government’s, although it has been mainly on social media.
Since the Arab Spring, the streets of many countries in the region have been restricted to such activities. Where authoritarian governments once allowed people to express their frustration in demonstrations in defense of the Palestinians, today they fear that such demonstrations will lead to something else.
But that is not the only thing that has changed in these turbulent years, when millions of Arabs took to the streets to demand democracy and social rights in countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Bahrain and Morocco.
“The Arab Spring was truly an earthquake and changed the conditions and priorities of many countries. Some old governments fell and others thought that the same was going to happen to them, so they panicked, looked left and right and sought protection. Many people were led to believe that the US was fooling them by telling them that Israel was its ally in the region that could protect them.
Just a few years after the Arab Spring, when Donald Trump was US president, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, under US mediation, established diplomatic relations with Israel. Morocco and Sudan later joined the agreement.
The US did not take long to respond, and Washington recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, making a referendum on self-determination impossible.
“When we look at the relations of these countries with Israel, we find that under this, Israel has sold them surveillance systems that it uses to secretly monitor its own people,” Walid says.
Alleged incidents of espionage using the Pegasus program, developed by the Israeli company NSO Group, have affected Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, even Saudi Arabia, which does not have official relations with Israel.
According to the New York Times, Riyadh purchased the program in 2017 and lost access to it after the murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul the following year.
However, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after which he was able to regain access to the software.
Fear of Islamic Extremists
Apart from national interests, another factor that forced Arab countries to stay away from the Palestinian issue was the rise of Islamist militias in their own countries.
According to Professor Walid Qazi, the first wave of Palestinian resistance after the 1967 war and under the leadership of Yasser Arafat can be considered nationalist, but today's resistance is largely religiously based.
'Those who are fighting for the Palestinian issue today are mainly Islamists, whether Hamas or Hezbollah, whose concepts come from Islam, such as martyrdom.'
Hamas's ties to the Islamist organization the Muslim Brotherhood (which is involved in conflicts with several governments in the region) mean that many of these governments see Hamas as a threat.
“They see Hamas as the last bastion of the Muslim Brotherhood that is still standing and it is militarily strong,” says Qarmut.
The Doha Institute professor added that Israel is doing its dirty work by destroying Hamas in a way.
Concerns over Iran’s role
Hamas and Hezbollah’s ties to Iran also raise suspicions in Arab countries. For example, Iran poses a greater threat to the Gulf states than Israel.
Qarmoud says that many Arab governments have “adopted the Israeli and American narrative that these movements are Iranian arms in the region and are designed to sabotage regional peace plans while ignoring the Palestinians.”
Analysts say this is a narrative that has been promoted by much of the state-run press in the Arab world, a region where there is hardly any independent media.
Professor Walid Qaziya says that ‘for the Saudi media, for example, the main concern is not the Palestinians but how Iran is gaining control of the region.’
Qarmoud acknowledges that although Hamas now receives support and funding from Iran, when the Palestinian group was founded it had good relations with many Arab countries, but later countries became concerned about the growing power of the movement.’
He adds that ‘when the Arab countries closed their doors to them and no one wanted to give them weapons to fight Israel, they were ready to do anything to get them.’
The same is true for Hezbollah and other groups that receive support from Iran but also want to defend the Palestinians.
Walid Qadiya says, “When Iran is presented as their supporter, the Arab people no longer come into the picture, and I think there are some Arab movements that are genuinely willing to support the Palestinians and die for them, such as Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, and some Shiite movements in Iraq.”
Generational change
Apart from geostrategic interests and the crisis in Arab countries, the Palestinian issue has also been forgotten over time. Concepts that once beat the hearts of the Middle East, such as Arab nationalism, are now just echoes of the past.
Qarmut explains that “most of the younger generation in the region sympathizes with the Palestinians, but they do not know the causes and origins of the conflict because these things are no longer taught in schools. Today, society, even identity, has changed with globalization.”
The same thing happened with the new leaders.
“In the Gulf countries, for example, there is a whole new generation of leaders like Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia, who are mostly educated in the West, who are not Arabs and do not see Palestine as a problem,” says Qarmoud.
“Now their priorities are different, as are their ambitions,” he says.
Related Topics
#Saudi_Arabia #Syria #Arab_World #Hamas #Lebanon #Middle_East #Gaza #Palestine #Israel #Egypt #America
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