All Quiet on the Southern Front

Silence in Egypt, as Palestine burns

As the 75th anniversary of the Nakba approaches, Israel has escalated its aggression against the Palestinians, both in Gaza and the West Bank.

While the streets of European capitals have seen solidarity protesters, not a single demonstration took place in Egypt, not even after the Friday prayers. Egyptian cities, which in the past used to erupt in anger and in solidarity with the Palestinians, are now silent.

This situation can be somewhat bizarre (and sad) for someone of my age at least, whose political education and activism were initiated, like many of my peers, via the Palestinian cause.

Palestine has long been a radicalizing and politicizing factor for Egyptian youth, one generation after the other. Once you start organizing in solidarity with the Palestinians, you are bound to raise questions about your own regime, and the latter’s connections to the international imperialist powers. People easily draw parallels between the oppression they are facing at the hands of their regimes and that faced by the Palestinians. More importantly, they start following the Palestinian model. The regional soon becomes local.

1968 and the road to the Bread Uprising

There are volumes written on the year 1968 and how it changed the world. Yet most of the literature tackles the Western hemisphere, focusing on (surely important) events like the French May, the anti-Vietnam War movement, European student occupations, the Prague Spring, etc. Few have written though on the Arab 1968.