The Egyptian Assault on the Palestinian Resistance Continues

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Some Egyptians respond to the criticisms directed at Egypt over the swift judicial rulings the Egyptian judiciary has issued regarding Hamas’s alleged terrorism by saying this is a judicial decision, and the political regime bears no responsibility for it, since the Egyptian judiciary is independent and the political level does not interfere in it.

They say the Egyptian political regime has nothing to do with the matter, and hears of the judiciary’s rulings through the media just as everyone else does. They then affirm — as the political regime itself sometimes affirms — that the Palestinian cause is the abiding concern of the Egyptian regime, and that Egypt is as devoted to its Palestinian brethren as Palestinians are to themselves, if not more so.

Nor do they forget to remind Palestinians of the sacrifices Egypt has offered for the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people. And the people of Palestine say: may God have mercy on Egypt’s martyrs, and mercy on every martyr who has fallen for Palestine — but the political regime has long squandered the blood of its martyrs, because it never insisted on achieving a tangible accomplishment that would restore to Palestinians even a small part of their rights.

The Political Regime Is Responsible

For a long period, Egyptian media has been pumping hatred and animosity into the Egyptian street against the Palestinian people and against the Palestinian resistance specifically, while the Egyptian regime does not lift a finger. Egyptian television stations broadcast poison, animosity, and hatred against the people of Palestine, and the Egyptian regime hears and sees and does nothing. Whoever stays silent about a crime is a partner in the crime, and this is the state of the Egyptian regime.

Perhaps the regime pleads that it is democratic, that there is media freedom in Egypt, and that it does not interfere with what is said and broadcast. This is a weak excuse, because insults and slander do not fall under freedom of expression. What we hear from some Egyptian channels and radio stations does not constitute freedom of expression, but rather premeditated abuse of others.

For some time now, the judicial level has joined the media level in deliberately abusing the Palestinian people, while the political regime hides behind a dreadful silence. Europe moved intellectually, logically, and analytically when it came under global pressure to declare Hamas a terrorist organization, but ultimately came out with a declaration clearing Hamas of the charge. The Egyptian regime, meanwhile, stands watching as though pleased with what it hears.

Some say the accusations are directed against Hamas, not against the Palestinian people, and this claim is also without merit — whoever makes it does not know what he is talking about. The Palestinian resistance — of which Hamas forms the backbone — is the Palestinian people, because the people is known by nothing but its resistance. The people of Palestine are not known by Oslo, nor by security coordination with Israel, nor by those who normalize relations with it, but rather by their resistance and the weapon that confronts repeated Israeli assaults.

This resistance is what stood against Israel in three consecutive wars in 2008/2009, 2012, and 2014, and proved its loftiness and greatness in defending the honor of the entire Arab nation, which Israel dragged through the mud in 1967.

The Palestinian resistance is sacred — it is the hope of the Palestinian people in reclaiming its rights and preserving its dignity and honor, and anyone who attacks it or belittles it is attacking and belittling the people of Palestine. Moreover, the defeated have no right to demean the victorious, and those who flee from battles have no right to fabricate tales about those who take bullets to their chests and heads.

Hamas — which does not please the Egyptian media and judiciary — is the one that repelled the aggression against Gaza, and the one that made the Israeli ground army taste the hell of combat and forced it to flee the battlefield. If only this media would comment on the Egyptian army, which cannot even enter Sinai without Israel’s permission. Hamas achieves victory, while Egypt requests permission from Israel to send its army to fight terrorists in Sinai.

The Danger of Egyptian Incitement

Egyptian media, as well as the judiciary, are working to inflame feelings of hatred, spite, and animosity between the Egyptian and Palestinian peoples, and this poses a danger at the level of the Arab nation, because it is divisive, fragmenting media that raises the level of strife between the peoples of a single nation. What will Egyptian media gain when feelings of hatred prevail between Egyptians and Palestinians? What benefits will it obtain?

Egypt will not benefit from distortion and incitement — the first beneficiaries are the enemies of the Arab nation, the Zionists and Americans, who have worked diligently over the years to sow discord among Arabs and stir internal strife and conflicts. And since the benefit accrues to the enemies, incitement-driven and distortion-driven media serves no one but the nation’s enemies.

I do not think those inciting and distorting are unaware of this matter — they understand the consequences of their misdeeds and insist on their odious activities in the service of the enemies of the Arab nation, and of Egypt’s enemies specifically. They are not only against Palestine — they are against Egypt as well, which does not need new enemies who might strike at it if the scale of pressure exerted on them increases.

In the Arab homeland, we must pursue every path that unites rather than fragments. Indeed, we must confront every intellectual deviation that could drive Arabs apart from one another.

Arabs have suffered greatly from their own fragmentation, and all of them have ultimately paid the price for this fragmentation — so shall we continue in the follies that doom our fate and the fate of coming generations? Egyptian media must busy itself with what is useful, instead of busying itself with nonsense and corruption.

Arab regimes have worked, over the years, to tear peoples apart, both internally and at the Arab level, because they have an interest in strife and division, so as to remain in power without the peoples being able to challenge them, and it is unacceptable for the media to become an accomplice to these regimes in their corruption. The media is supposed to work in service of the causes of Arab unity, not be a partner in fragmentation.

It is clear that several Arab regimes do not want the resistance to continue confronting Israel, which is why several states have stood alongside Israel in its wars against this resistance, whether Palestinian or Lebanese. The Arab-Islamic resistance disturbs the sleep of these regimes, because its victory is a defeat for the crumbling regimes that maintain relations with Israel and submit to the orders of the United States.

Many Arab regimes are now allied with Israel, offering it security services concerning the Lebanese and Palestinian resistance movements. This is understandable, in that Israel is concerned with preserving the Arab regimes because of their corruption, decay, and reluctance to see the Arab nation as a whole rise up, whereas the resistance constitutes a danger to the existence of these regimes if it were to achieve victory. So which side will the regimes support: those who preserve their existence, or those who might, even indirectly, bring about their downfall in the future?

If the Arab regimes place their own interests ahead of the resistance’s victory, they will choose their own interests, and will inevitably stand alongside Israel. This is why several Arab regimes stand against Hamas, preventing it from carrying out its activities, cutting off funds from it, and tightening the noose on the Gaza Strip. The Arab regimes — the Egyptian regime especially — are strong partners in the siege of Gaza, and if they were able to cut off the very air from the people of Gaza, they would do so.

Israel works to eliminate the resistance in Gaza, and so do the great colonial states, and so do the Egyptian regime and the Oslo authority. It is a multi-sided siege, and the states concerned divide up the tasks of squeezing the Palestinian people in Gaza. And it is understood that they squeeze the people of Gaza in order to make them rise up against Hamas and topple it, so that the Oslo authority returns to Gaza.

This, in itself, is terrorism, because it uses the pain and grief of ordinary people to achieve political goals. They inflict suffering on the people of Gaza so that they rise up, thereby fulfilling their own wishes of eliminating the resistance. Is this not precisely the American definition of terrorism? Americans link terrorism to civilian suffering as a means of political extortion, and this is exactly what Egypt is doing — so who, then, is the terrorist?

The Egyptian Judiciary Enters the Fray

Egyptians take great pride in their judiciary, and we have seen this judiciary through its rulings sentencing people to mass executions, and we have seen it in its ruling condemning Hamas as terrorist within a brief period, without proof, evidence, or substantiation.

Where is this “respected” judiciary that sentences thousands and hundreds of Egyptians to death all at once? And where is this “great” judiciary that maligns an entire people without relying on tangible evidence that could rise to the level of a conviction? Egypt’s Court of Urgent Matters previously ruled that Hamas is a terrorist organization, and it repeats the same now.

A conviction for terrorism requires lengthy deliberations, scrutiny, thoroughness, and rigorous legal analysis, but it seems the Egyptian judge is ignorant and foolish, incapable of discernment, and gives no consideration to Egypt’s interest. The Egyptian judge’s decision is impulsive, reckless, and mood-driven, and betrays great ignorance.

But Hamas bears part of the responsibility. Hamas was struck by a kind of panic after the end of the Zionist military aggression in 2014, and rushed, panting, after Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, and America to save Gaza from hunger and destruction. Hamas bowed its neck a great deal, giving the Egyptians and the Ramallah crowd (the Ramallah authority) the impression that it was crumbling and could be brought down.

It agreed to hold the negotiations to end the war in Cairo, and agreed to hand over its beard, so to speak, to the Ramallah authority — yet it neither obtained money to pay salaries, nor achieved reconstruction, and remained standing, waiting for aid while its rivals laughed, mocking it. It bears great responsibility for the encroachment against it, because the victor must remain standing, head held high, firm and steadfast, never bowing before adversity — and Hamas did not do this, and so others grew greedy at its expense.

For the second time, the Egyptian judiciary issues rulings that touch the people of Palestine and level a grave accusation against them, while the Palestinian Authority does not lift a finger and does not utter a word. Whoever stays silent is a partner in the crime, and the accusation directed at the Egyptian political regime is directed also at the Palestinian Ramallah authority: both sides are the judge’s partners in his rulings.

As for the Palestinian factions, they contented themselves with issuing statements criticizing and condemning the Egyptian judicial ruling, whereas marches ought to have poured into Palestinian streets denouncing the Egyptian ruling, heading toward Egyptian representative offices to deliver letters of rejection and condemnation. Palestine belongs to God alone.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “استمرار الهجوم المصري على المقاومة الفلسطينية” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.