Tag: imperialism

1923 Amon Newsreel: Saad Zaghlul Returns from Exile

Posted on By 3arabawy

Here’s another video clip from one of Muhammad Bayoumi’s works: “Amon Newsreel: Saad Zaghlul returns from Exile,” about the Egyptian nationalist leader’s return from his second exile in 1923.

Government and mainstream historians always focus on kings, presidents, “leaders” and “heroes”. Saad Zaghloul may have disliked the Brits, and wanted them out, but his class loyalty was always clear. We are taught how “Saad Zaghloul led the revolution”, but you hardly hear about those who ignited the revolution were in fact the tram workers whose strike brought the capital to halt, encouraging their brothers at the railways to join in… then confrontations with the British troops (and the Egyptian police) broke out all across the country… They don’t tell you how Saad and his exiled friends, horrified by the increasing militancy of their workers and peasants (yes, they were rich in case you forgot), rushed in to send messages “denouncing violence” and asking the protesters to stop “destroying private property,” while their minions back in Egypt were doing their best to control the protests, not push them forward… MORE IMPORTANTLY the Wafd Beiks and Bashas were pissing in their pants by the thought that their peasants were getting armed to fight the Brits…. “What will happen when the peasants are done with the Brits?” Saad and his comrades must have been thinking in exile… “Damn, they’ll turn them on us later if we mess with their land rights….” Such thoughts I’m sure did not amuse them… And once in power, Saad legislated anti-strike laws, and unleashed his police on leftists and labor activists. The successive security crackdowns and infiltrations led to the decimation of the first Egyptian Communist Party in 1924.

For more background on the 1919 revolution in Arabic, check this and this.

We need to write our history from below.

Bush cites Israel as model of democracy for Iraq

Posted on By 3arabawy

From AP:

President Bush held up Israel as a model for defining success in Iraq, saying Thursday that the goal of the U.S. mission there is not eliminating attacks but enabling a democracy that can function despite continuing violence.
With his Iraq policies under increasing fire from the American public and lawmakers from both parties, Bush went to the U.S. Naval War College here to declare progress. As the president pleaded for patience, his top national security aide went to Capitol Hill to meet with a key Republican critic.

Former Hamas prisoners remember Fatah torture

Posted on By 3arabawy

From McClatchy:

They called it “The Bus” and it marked the beginning of days, weeks, even months of brutal interrogation at the hands of the nascent Palestinian government.
After being rounded up by Fatah forces, Hamas men were blindfolded and shackled to a line of uncomfortable, low chairs while their captors blasted “dirty” music to soften their psychological defenses.
Then, one by one, they were beaten, questioned and thrown in cells.
“Torture by the Israelis was less than what they did here,” said Hassan, a 46-year-old high school physics teacher who would give only his first name. He said he was held by Fatah for 59 days in 1996.
For Hamas members, the gutted prison bloc in the back of the Gaza City headquarters of the Palestinian Authority’s Preventive Security Service was their Abu Ghraib.
It was here that the seeds of the rivalry with Fatah were planted a decade ago. And it was here last week that Hamas broke the spirit of Fatah forces and sealed its military victory.
As soon as the compound fell, onetime inmates started turning up to visit the reviled prison bloc.
Among the first was a man who called himself Abu Essam, a stout, bearded, 54-year-old colonel with the Palestinian Authority National Security Services. He said he spent two years inside these cells.
At first, Abu Essam was hired to oversee the interrogations in 1994, soon after Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat triumphantly returned to Gaza to build the foundations for a future state.
When it became clear that he was reluctant to use harsh methods, he was thrown in a cell himself for six months.
Abu Essam’s arrest was part of a prolonged Fatah crackdown on Hamas and its leadership, many of whom spent time in this jail.
The prison was then overseen by Mohammed Dahlan, the young Fatah leader and Gaza Strip enforcer charged with building the security system from scratch.
Hamas members said Fatah interrogators tortured them and shaved their beards to humiliate them.

It’s hilarious when I think that the so called international community is upset Hamas stormed the torture chambers where Dahlan and his men used to hold torture orgies for hours, days and weeks for Palestinian resistance fighters and dissidents. Smashing those cells and compounds is a “coup against legitimacy”? I really hope some of those Western diplomats would spend some time in Fatah’s torture chambers as detainees (don’t worry there are still plenty of those facilities in the West Bank) and then will see how keen they are for this “legitimacy” they are talking about!