Palestinian bogeyman resurfaces in Egypt

By Ramzy Baroud
Asia Times

".....But the anti-Palestinian sentiment in Egypt is no laughing matter. Many Egyptian media commentators, known for their affiliation with the state, are having unlimited space to renew their hate-filled campaigns by unabashedly inciting violence against Palestinians. A fascist-like discourse has been brewing for years, but has morphed into ways unprecedented since the coup against President Mohammed Morsi by the Egyptian military on July 3.

Among all the pretenses that the military junta could have conjured up, they chose to imprison overthrown president Mohammed Morsi for "links" with the Palestinian movement Hamas. The leveling of such an accusation is quite telling. Gone are the days where Arab leaders were condemned for their ties with Israel, or affiliation with this western intelligence or that. The fact that Egyptian media and commentators would repeat the "accusation" without any one raising the question "so what?", is equally expressive of the state of political degeneration that exists in Egypt today.

But this is hardly new and is barely a Hamas-related matter. When Egyptian president Anwar Sadat signed the Camp David Accords with Israel in 1978 and a peace treaty the following year, the Egyptian government and much of the media it controls began a slow-paced but determined campaign to morally and politically divorce itself from Palestine as a central Arab and Egyptian cause.

Then there was no Hamas to blame for Egypt's borderless afflictions, nor bearded men to hold responsible for the country's profound disasters. Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat unwittingly served the role of Egypt's bogeyman. He was humiliated at every turn.

That generation of media wheelers and dealers were as unforgiving towards Palestinians as this generation of government stooges who are ready to blame, starve, imprison and kill if necessary. For it is now the Palestinians, not the Israelis, that are considered to be Egypt's greatest "national security threat".

On the other hand, Palestinians, especially in Gaza, remain extremely cautious in their approach to Egypt. They use whatever language required to maintain a semblance of civility with the Egyptian government, as they even did under the regime of Hosni Mubarak.

Despite the fact that Egypt had always participated in the siege that Israel imposed on the Gaza Strip in 2007, few Palestinians dared use loaded terminology. It was an Israeli and only Israeli siege, resolved the official Palestinian discourse. Tacitly, they urged their Egyptian brethren to ease the siege, in the name of the shared fight against Zionism, imperialism, and in the name of Arab and Muslim causes, to no avail.

In January 2008, tens of thousands of Gazans breached the border with Egypt. They rushed into Sinai in a delirious search for food, fuel and freedom. With the exception of a few students, they all returned to Gaza. Shortly after the border was resealed and Gazans were locked up again behind walls and barbered wire, then Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit publicly threatened that anyone who attempted to cross the border "will get his leg broken".

And when a popular revolution overthrew Mubarak, although not his regime, on January 25, 2011, Palestinians, like many millions of Arabs celebrated. Those who celebrated in Ramallah under the role of Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority, were quickly suppressed and dispersed, while the Gaza celebration carried on for days.

Of course, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood relate to similar political, ideological and religious frames of reference, but the Palestinian love for Egypt and the hate of its dictators, is much older than the current turmoil that has divided Egypt and resulted in a military coup lead by General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

The intensity of hate towards Palestinians, coupled with media-induced rumors, doesn't separate between Palestinians from Gaza or anywhere else. The matter is extremely serious since Palestinians in Gaza are immediately affected by it.

Their freedom, or whatever remains of it, is in constant jeopardy. One of the army's first steps after the coup was sealing the border with Gaza. Citing as a pretense was Egypt's hopeless fight against militants in Sinai, which is itself subsisting in a state of negligence and economic ruin. On their part, al-Sisi's supporters spared no efforts in demonizing Palestinians, using every medium available.

Meanwhile, the sheer opportunism of Mohammed Abbas' Ramallah government has crossed all bounds. Abbas was one of the first to congratulate al-Sisi for saving Egypt and preventing it from slipping toward the abyss.

Others in the PA called on Gazans to rebel against Hamas. And as Egyptians were still counting their dead on July 27 as a result of the government crackdown on protests in Nasser City and Alexandria, Fatah-PA supporters were marching in Ramallah in support of al-Sisi.

They rallied in "Ramallah's central Square of al-Manara chanted pro-coup slogans and calls to Sisi to crack down on supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi," al-Ray news agencies reported.

At least during my youth, all I needed to remember was to say marhaba and not assalamu alaikum, in order to survive the wrath of an angry officer. Now, little can be said or done to explain or endure this unequalled campaign of hate and demonization. The odd thing is that Hamas's biggest campaign during Morsi's 12-months in power was for Egypt to replace the tunnels it actively destroyed with a free trade zone that gave Palestinians an economic lifeline to brave the siege.

Little was achieved then, and nearly 80% of the tunnels are now destroyed. Gaza is again hurtling towards an even greater humanitarian crisis, while the Palestinians stand accused of orchestrating much of Egypt's mess. This is a matter as bewildering as it is untrue. But 25 years of unchallenged state propaganda can do that and much more. "