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<h1 id="reader-title">Did the Arabs Betray Palestine? – A Schism
between the Ruling Classes and the Wider Society</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">by <span
class="post_author" itemprop="author"><a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/author/ramzy-baroud/"
rel="nofollow">Ramzy Baroud</a>, April 29, 2016<br>
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<p>At the age of 21, I crossed Gaza into Egypt to pursue a
degree in political science. The timing could have not
been worse. The Iraq invasion of Kuwait in 1990 had
resulted in a US-led international coalition and a major
war, which eventually paved the road for the US invasion
of Iraq in 2003. I became aware that Palestinians were
suddenly ‘hated’ in Egypt because of Yasser Arafat’s
stance in support of Iraq at the time. I just did not
know the extent of that alleged ‘hate.’ </p>
<p>It was in a cheap hotel in Cairo, where I slowly ran
out of the few Egyptian pounds at my disposal, that I
met Hajah Zainab, a kindly, old custodian who treated me
like a son. She looked unwell, wobbled as she walked,
and leaned against walls to catch her breath before
carrying on with her endless chores. The once
carefully-designed tattoos on her face, became a jumble
of wrinkled ink that defaced her skin. Still, the
gentleness in her eyes prevailed, and whenever she saw
me she hugged me and cried. </p>
<p>Hajah Zainab wept for two reasons: taking pity on me as
I was fighting a deportation order in Cairo – for no
other reason than the fact that I was a Palestinian at a
time that Arafat endorsed Saddam Hussein while Hosni
Mubarak chose to ally with the US. I grew desperate and
dreaded the possibility of facing the Israeli
intelligence, Shin Bet, who were likely to summon me to
their offices once I crossed the border back to Gaza.
The other reason is that Hajah Zainab’s only son, Ahmad,
had died fighting the Israelis in Sinai. </p>
<p>Zainab’s generation perceived Egypt’s wars with Israel,
that of 1948, 1956 and 1967 as wars in which Palestine
was a central cause. No amount of self-serving politics
and media conditioning could have changed that. But the
war of 1967 was that of unmitigated defeat. With direct,
massive support from the US and other western powers,
Arab armies were soundly beaten, routed at three
different fronts. Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank
were lost, along with the Golan Heights, the Jordan
Valley and Sinai, as well. </p>
<p>It was then that some Arab countries’ relations with
Palestine began changing. Israel’s victory and the
US-West’s unremitting support convinced some Arab
governments to downgrade their expectations, and
expected the Palestinians to do so, as well. Egypt, once
the torch-bearer of Arab nationalism, succumbed to a
collective sense of humiliation and, later, redefined
its priorities to free its own land from Israeli
Occupation. Without the pivotal Egyptian leadership,
Arab countries were divided into camps, each government
with its own agenda. As Palestine, all of it, was then
under Israeli control, Arabs slowly walked away from a
cause they once perceived to be the central cause of the
Arab nation. </p>
<p>The 1967 war also brought an end to the dilemma of
independent Palestinian action, which was almost
entirely hijacked by various Arab countries. Moreover,
the war shifted the focus to the West Bank and Gaza, and
allowed the Palestinian faction, Fatah, to fortify its
position in light of Arab defeat and subsequent
division. </p>
<p>That division was highlighted most starkly in the
August 1967 Khartoum summit, where Arab leaders clashed
over priorities and definitions. Should Israel’s
territorial gains redefine the status quo? Should Arabs
focus on returning to a pre-1967 situation or that of
pre-1948, when historic Palestine was first occupied and
Palestinians ethnically cleansed? </p>
<p>The United Nations Security Council adopted resolution
242, on November 22, 1967, reflecting the US Johnson
Administration’s wish to capitalize on the new status
quo: Israeli withdrawal “from occupied territories” in
exchange for normalization with Israel. The new language
of the immediate post-1967 period alarmed Palestinians
who realized that any future political settlement was
likely to ignore the situation that existed prior to the
war. </p>
<p>Eventually, Egypt fought and celebrated its victory of
the 1973 war, which allowed it to consolidate its
control over most of its lost territories. A few years
later, the Camp David accords in 1979 divided the ranks
of the Arabs even more and ended Egypt’s official
solidarity with the Palestinians, while granting the
most populous Arab state a conditioned control over its
own land in Sinai. The negative repercussions of that
agreement cannot be overstated. However, the Egyptian
people, despite the passing of time, have never truly
normalized with Israel. </p>
<p>In Egypt, a chasm still exists between the government,
whose behavior is based on political urgency and
self-preservation, and a people who, despite a decided
anti-Palestinian campaign in various media, are as ever
determined to reject normalization with Israel until
Palestine is free. Unlike the well-financed media circus
that has demonized Gaza in recent years, the likes of
Hajah Zainab have very few platforms where they can
openly express their solidarity with the Palestinians.
In my case, I was lucky enough to run into the aging
custodian who cried for Palestine and her only son all
those years ago. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, that very character, Zainab, was
reincarnated in my path of travel, time and again. I met
her in Iraq in 1999. She was an old vegetable vendor
living in Sadr City. I met her in Jordan in 2003. She
was a cabby, with a Palestinian flag hanging from his
cracked rearview mirror. She was also a retired Saudi
journalist I met in Jeddah in 2010, and a Moroccan
student I met at a speaking tour in Paris in 2013. She
was in her early twenties. After my talk, she sobbed as
she told me that Palestine for her people is like a
festering wound. “I pray for a free Palestine every
day,” she told me, “as my late parents did with every
prayer.” </p>
<p>Hajah Zainab is also Algeria, all of Algeria. When the
Palestinian national football team met their Algerian
counterparts last February, a strange, unprecedented
phenomenon transpired that left many puzzled. The
Algerian fans, some of the most ardent lovers of
football anywhere, cheered for the Palestinians,
non-stop. And when the Palestinian team scored a goal,
it was if the bleachers were lit on fire. The crowded
stadium exploded with a trancing chant for Palestine and
Palestine alone. </p>
<p>So, did the Arabs betray Palestine? The question is
heard often, and it is often followed with the
affirmative, ‘yes, they did.’ The Egyptian media
scapegoating of Palestinians in Gaza, the targeting and
starving of Palestinians in Yarmouk, Syria, the past
civil war in Lebanon, the mistreatment of Palestinians
in Kuwait in 1991 and, later, in Iraq in 2003 are often
cited as examples. Now some insist that the so-called
‘Arab Spring’ was the last nail in the coffin of Arab
solidarity with Palestine. </p>
<p>I beg to differ. The outcome of the ill-fated ‘Arab
Spring’ was a massive letdown, if not betrayal, not just
of Palestinians but of most Arabs. The Arab world has
turned into a massive ground for dirty politics between
old and new rivals. While Palestinians were victimized,
Syrians, Egyptians, Libyans, Yemenis and others are
being victimized, as well. </p>
<p>There has to be a clear political demarcation of the
word ‘Arabs.’ Arabs can be unelected governments as much
as they can be a kindly old woman earning two dollars a
day in some dirty Cairo hotel. Arabs are emboldened
elites who care only about their own privilege and
wealth while neither Palestine nor their own nations
matter, but also multitudes of peoples, diverse, unique,
empowered, oppressed, who happen at this point in
history to be consumed with their own survival and fight
for freedom. </p>
<p>The latter ‘Arabs’ never betrayed Palestine; they
willingly fought and died for it when they had the
chance. </p>
<p>Most likely, Hajah Zainab is long dead now. But
millions more like her still exist and they, too, long
for a free Palestine, as they continue to seek their own
freedom and salvation. </p>
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<p class="author_description"> <em><strong>Dr. Ramzy Baroud</strong>
has been writing about the Middle East for over 20
years. He is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a
media consultant, an author of several books and the
founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My
Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story (Pluto
Press, London). His website is: ramzybaroud.net</em> </p>
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