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By Ramzy Baroud
We have been mistaken to assume that Palestine represents the central concern for all Arabs. Such language means that Palestine is an exterior topic, to be in comparison with different collective struggles that eat most Arabs, in every single place. The continuing celebration of Palestine and the Palestinian flag on the Qatar World Cup 2022 by tens of millions of Arab followers compels us to rethink our earlier assumptions concerning the Arab individuals’s relationship with Palestine.
The place to begin for my argument is Rome, Italy, not Doha, Qatar. In August 2021, I attended a pleasant soccer match between Morocco’s Raja Casablanca, and the Italian AS Roma. 1000’s of Moroccan followers accompanied their staff. Though fewer in numbers, their matching outfits, songs, chants and group dances within the stands made them extra seen than the remainder.
Though the surroundings of the sport had little or no political context, the Moroccans sang for Palestine and wore Palestinian kuffiyas draped with the colours of the Palestinian flag. It was a heartwarming gesture, typical of Arab followers at soccer matches. Because the followers started leaving the stadium in bigger numbers, I noticed that the very fan tradition of Raja Casablanca was modeled completely round Palestine. Their primary slogan is Rajawi Filistini – Palestinian Rajawis, the phrases embroidered on their sports activities jerseys.
Contemplating the absence of political context to that particular match, clearly, the Moroccans didn’t see Palestine as a message to be communicated utilizing sports activities as a platform however have internalized it to the extent that it turned an integral a part of their on a regular basis actuality. Once I requested a bunch of Moroccan followers on why they embrace Palestinian symbols and chants, the query puzzled them. “Palestine is in our blood. The love for Palestine runs in our veins,” an older man answered, overcome with feelings.
A number of research have been performed to gauge Arab public opinion in recent times concerning the significance of Palestine, most notably the Arab Opinion Index survey performed by the Arab Centre for Analysis and Coverage Research in 2020. This ballot discovered that 85 % of respondents opposed normalization with Israel. Certainly, the Arab individuals stay clear of their allegiance to the Palestinian wrestle for freedom. No Arab nation deviated from this rule, from the Arabian Peninsula to North Africa.
The Qatar World Cup, nevertheless, raises new questions, not concerning the centrality of Palestine to Arab political consciousness, however whether or not the representations of Palestine are merely political and whether or not Palestine is simply one other ‘concern’ to be juxtaposed with different pressing Arab points and causes.
Even the Israelis, with their much-touted intelligence companies and a supposedly good grasp on the temper of the so-called ‘Arab avenue’, appeared confused and even offended as they rushed to Qatar to report on the World Cup, but in addition to make use of the worldwide sports activities occasion as a solution to translate diplomatic recognition and political normalizations into fashionable acceptance.
Nevertheless, the 2 Israeli reporters, Raz Shechnik and Oz Mualem returned to Israel disenchanted. Failing to attach the dots between Israel’s apartheid and army occupation in Palestine, the Yedioth Ahronot journalists had reached this handy conclusion: “Regardless of believing, as open-minded liberals we’re, that the battle with the Arab world is between governments and never the individuals, Qatar has taught us that hate exists at the start within the thoughts of the person on the road.”
Not solely did the “open-minded liberals” lack any sense of self-awareness, they, like most Israelis, had fully dismissed the Arab individuals as political actors, able to pondering and behaving in response to their very own collective priorities. Furthermore, additionally they confused the Arabs’ justifiable anger for the horrible injustices inflicted by Israelis on the Palestinians for random ‘hate’ that appears to easily mirror the supposed hateful nature of the Arabs.
If the 2 reporters mirrored on their very own reporting with a very – not self-proclaimed – ‘open thoughts’, they’d have discovered some clues. “At any time when we report, we’re being adopted always by Palestinians, Iranians, Qataris, Moroccans, Jordanians, Syrians, Egyptians and Lebanese … all giving us appears stuffed with hate,” they wrote.
Contemplating the deep political divisions that presently exist amongst Arab nations, one wonders why bizarre individuals from vastly numerous Arab and Center Jap nations are united in ‘hating’ Israel and loving Palestine. The reply doesn’t lie within the phrase ‘antisemitism’, however in representations.
For Arabs, Israel represents a historical past of western imperialism and colonialism, army occupation, racism, violence, political meddling, army interventions, wars and extra wars, every day pictures of good-looking Palestinian girls and boys killed by Israeli troopers, violent Israeli Jewish settlers forcibly expelling Palestinians out of their properties and farms, political vanity and far more.
Palestinians, however, characterize one thing else completely. They embody the unhealed wound of all Arabs. Braveness and sacrifice. Refusal to give up. Resistance. Hope.
Most Israelis are unable to know the natural relationship between Arabs and Palestine just because they refuse to simply accept that their nation summons such unfavourable emotions. Contending with this actuality would imply deep and uncomfortable reflections. The likes of Shechnik and Mualem would slightly clarify such a fancy process by some handy references to inexplicable and unjustifiable Arab ‘hate’ of Israel.
The Arab embrace of Palestine just isn’t solely about Israel, but in addition concerning the Arabs themselves. Although the Palestinian flag was itself impressed by the pan-Arab flag of 1916, it has morphed, through the years, to serve the function of the unifying Arab image.
The truth that Arab soccer followers in Qatar have spontaneously chosen, with none official directions or authorities intervention to make use of the Palestinian flag as their image of unity, speaks volumes about Palestine’s place within the collective Arab consciousness. It additionally tells us that the love for Palestine just isn’t a direct end result of hating Israel, neither is it that the Arabs view Palestine as an emblem of defeat or humiliation.
When Moroccan participant Jawad El Yamiq celebrated his nation’s nationwide staff’s victory over Canada on December 1, thus guaranteeing the development of Morocco to the knockout levels of the World Cup, he raised a Palestinian flag. Within the background, Moroccan followers have been chanting for Palestine and Morocco. For them, Palestine just isn’t an exterior trigger, and their cheers usually are not merely an act of solidarity. For them, Palestine and Morocco are synonymous, describing the identical collective expertise of defeat, wrestle and, finally, victory.
– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He’s the creator of six books. His newest ebook, co-edited with Ilan Pappé, is “Our Imaginative and prescient for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Communicate out”. Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Analysis Fellow on the Middle for Islam and World Affairs (CIGA). His web site is www.ramzybaroud.web
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