Open Discussions/ Gulf Cultural Club
Tuesday, 15th September 2020
*Sami Ramadani (researcher, author and commentator)
**Jawad Fairooz (Former Bahraini MP)
*** Ahmed Al Shaiba Al Nuaimi (writer, journalist)
The sudden rush to break the Arab consensus on the Palestinian issue has taken many by surprise. For forty years the Arab world has remained opposed to the occupation of Palestine and insisted on a state for the Palestinians. Egypt was censored when President Sadat visited Jerusalem and signed the Camp David accord with Menachem Begin in the presence of US President Jimmy Carter. Now it is the governments of United Arab Emirates and Bahrain who broke the Arab ranks and established diplomatic relations with Israel. It is expected that other GCC countries, especially Saudi Arabia will follow. Concerns are rising on three levels; Gulf security with Israel establishing a foothold in the vicinity of Iranian borders, the future of the Palestinian struggle and the impact of Mossad’s involvement in repressing pro-democracy activists in GCC countries.
Chairman: Today has been a momentous day and we are going to discuss what happened in Washington. An agreement is going to be signed between the governments of the UAE and Bahrain and Israel because of the mediation of the USA or the forceful imposition of the USA by Mr Trump himself. It is clear that Mr Trump wants to go into the elections with something tangible in his hands although many people believe that foreign issues do not usually impact on the elections and that the local domestic policies will take precedence in the minds of the people who are going to elect them.
However the decision by the two governments has shaken us all whether we are from Bahrain or the UAE or from any other Arab country because this is coming at a time when Israel is showing absolutely no repentance in what it is doing to the Palestinians. Only yesterday they attacked the eastern borders of Syria with Iraq killing eight Iraqis and two Syrians. The attacks on Gaza have been continuing non- stop for almost a month. This is in addition to building the settlements and the annexation of the Golan Heights as well as lands from the West Bank.
So there is nothing to reward Netanyahu by signing a peace treaty with him and giving him the benefit of signing peace. I do not see where the peace is. This is one side of it. The other side is that the governments who signed the deal have never been involved with Israel so peace or war does not really mean much for them. It is the Palestinian people who have been on the receiving end of Israeli aggression and other countries like Egypt Jordan and Lebanon who are bordering Palestine.
These are the countries that matter most and we know that these small countries have been pushed to sign the deal knowing that the big Arab countries have been totally side lined. The Arab world today is different from what it was 40 or 50 years ago. We do not have Iraq as a major player and we do not have Syria and Yemen. Egypt itself has been neutralized. We do not have Libya or Sudan. We do not have Algeria which has been bogged down in domestic violence for more than ten years between 1992 and 2002. So this is the overall picture. We are in an Arab world which is totally marginalised because the big powers have been side lined and the small sheikhdoms are taking over because of the support of the West and the recent collaboration with Israel especially after the 2011 Arab Spring. Tonight we are going to debate this. We will have an overall political picture.
Sami Ramadani: Thank you very much Saeed for inviting me to take part in the discussion. I will as you asked me give an overall picture and I will try and trace the series of recognitions and the establishment of relations between some Arab regimes and Israel and then I will try and give a historical context to these events in the light of their political significance.
We all probably remember that back in 1979 Egypt established relations with Israel as the first Arab country to do so officially under president Sadat following the 1973 October War and the subsequent negotiations, some secret, some public until the USA reached an agreement with Egypt and under the auspices of the USA and President Carter Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty so-called.
That agreement is much more significant as I will argue than anything that has happened in the last few weeks regarding the UAE and Bahrain recognition. Egypt is a very strategic country and that treaty did actually cause a major set back for the struggle of the Palestinian people and the Arab people generally against the Israeli occupation and Zionist domination of the region. So historically speaking the Egyptian-Israeli deal of 1979 is by far the most strategic event and set the region back in terms of US and Israeli occupation of Arab land.
The second country that followed Egypt was Jordan in 1994. Jordan established mutual relations with Israel again under the auspices of the USA with President Clinton being the arbiter of that recognition. Then you have the two miniature regimes of the UAE and Bahrain following suite. One should differentiate regimes and governments from the people because none of these treaties reflect the will of the people either the Egyptian people or the Jordanian people or the people of the UAE or Bahrain. I would argue that all these so-called peace treaties go against the will of the people of those countries.
The main reason for that is that there is a tremendous feeling of solidarity and support for the just cause of the Palestinian people by the Arab peoples and the people of the region – Iran and Turkey Pakistan and the Middle East and North Africa. There is a close affinity between these people and the people of Palestine as a people who were evicted from their homeland, as a people who are still occupied and still suffering under Israeli brutality and the brutality of the occupation and ethnic cleansing and uprooting an entire people from their homeland. These are major war crimes of which the peoples of the region are very much aware and are in complete solidarity with the Palestinian people.
These are major setbacks for the cause of the struggle. Some Arab regimes are daring to do in public what they used to do in secret. Which is my second point. These regimes had secret links and relations with Israel for many decades. Some of these links became more exposed in the last ten years.
You could see relations developing between Israel and the UAE since 2010 and since 2015 much more publicly between Bahrain and Israel. What is significant in terms of Bahrain? I think the invasion and occupation of Bahrain by Saudi troops and UAE troops that helped crush the Bahraini people’s uprising is an important background as to how the Bahraini regime has become much more plaint and much more answerable to the Saudi regime. If we can also expand from this I am suggesting that what is happening in the Middle East today also falls under general US backing.
This US strategy has passed through different stages. The phase of direct occupation and invasion of countries like what happened in Afghanistan and Iraq are generally not being followed anymore because the USA was defeated in both cases. They lost 4500 soldiers in Afghanistan and they have achieved nothing and they lost 4500 soldiers in Iraq and they achieved nothing and tens of thousands were injured and trillions of dollars were spent on warfare and they have failed to completely dominate Iraq. They have influence in Iraq. They dominate part of Iraqi politics and this prime minister in Iraq seems to be more answerable to the United States than to his own people but they cannot dominate the streets of Iraq. The Iraqi people have rejected them. They have resorted since 2011 to utilise proxy wars and to utilise the Arab influence and to push Israel to be all interventionalist.
Israel has started to publicly intervene in Syria to support the terrorist organisations there. Israel escalated ist links which became more public with the Saudi regime, with the UAE and with Bahrain and with Oman as well. So the USA has been following a strategy after its defeat by resorting to proxy wars and proxy influences by using the regimes they control. I put Israel into the same basket. I think the USA dictates to Israel its major policies. I don’t talk about small interventions between the USA and Israel but when it comes to major policies the United States calls the shots. This also comes within the strategy of not only destabilising Syria, Lebanon and Iran and fragmenting the region but also preparing for a war against Iran. That is another dimension. Israel and the USA want to escalate the tension against Iran and the joining of Bahrain and the UAE within that strategy is a future dimension that may extend the utilisation of the UAE and Bahrain in any future escalation against Iran. We need to keep this in mind.
And another thing which is quite important is that Israel and Mossad have a tremendous influence in the region through their secret activities and assassinations. I remember how the Mossad assassinated one of the leaders of Hamas in Dubai for example. That was in 1994. That was with the co-operation of the secret service of Dubai.
It is now anticipated that with the public relations being established with Israel that Israel will become much more prominent on the security front in the UAE and in Saudi Arabia. So we are talking about Israel coming much more to the fore in terms of its interventions and in the general the US strategy of trying to fragment the peoples of the region, escalate sectarian wars whether in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Bahrain for example. There is an intense sectarian regime in Bahrain suppressing most of the Bahrainis.
All this has to be seen as part of the broad picture of a conflict which has escalated on the one hand between the peoples of the region in general and on the other hand you have the Israeli occupation and their backers in Washington. Washington is trying to keep hold of the Middle East because they have other international conflicts with China and with Russia. So the Middle East has also to be seen within a general international umbrella as an important strategic area that the United States also relies on in terms of oil and gas and its strategic position in terms of the broader strategic conflicts with China and Russia and regionally against Iran.
So there are numerous contradictions in the region and the USA is trying to fragment the region and to disunite it to encourage sectarian wars, to encourage terrorist organisations to flourish. They have proxy forces whether they are in Syria or Iraq and they are using proxy regimes like the UAE and Bahrain and the Saudi regime.
As Trump said and I think this is a correct assessment. Not one of these regimes can stay in power for more than two weeks without US support. So we have a board picture that we need to keep in mind.
I should draw my remarks to a close by suggesting this – although these public admissions of elections and treaties are just a setback. I also see in them a great advantage and that is that a lot of these relations are really part of practical relations that have been going on for a number of years and decades. Whether Jordan and Israel, whether Saudi and Israel, UAE and Israel, Bahrain and Israel. And the fact that they have come out into the open helps to clarify the picture. The people will see who their friends are and who their enemies are. Who wants to help the Palestinian people to free their own land. Who wants justice for the Palestinians? Who wants to lift the siege of the West Bank and Gaza? Who wants to see democracy in Bahrain? Democracy in Saudi Arabia where the people are crushed and poverty is high even though it is one of the richest countries in the world.
These are all part and parcel of the same conflict. Who will see the liberation of the Golan Heights and the occupied parts of Syria? Who will see the liberation of parts of Lebanon which are still occupied? Who will see the end of sectarian wars in the region? These are the issues that split the region into the over whelming majority of people on the one hand and these isolated propped up regimes like the UAE, Bahrain and the Saudi regime who are only there because of the CIA and Mossad and foreign intervention which is keeping them in power.
Jawad Fairooz: Yes, definitely today is a historical day. Not in a positive way but in a negative way. I will speak from four points of view. First of all a short introduction, then the local reactions and impacts on this normalization treaty with Israel, then the regional facts than maybe some future perspectives in this regard. So first of all let me start with an introduction which is going to be about the history. In short I can here refer everyone to how active the Bahraini people were to support the Palestinians to get their land back and to secure their rights. The Bahraini people have been active in this for more than six decades. They have provided logistical and financial support and during this period of struggle the Bahraini people were there and echoed their demands in that region. I could not find any other nation in the Gulf more active than the Bahrainis in the 50s, 60s and 70s.
Even today there are absolute security measures in every corner of the country. People have been demonstrating for two weeks trying to make their voice heard in the national committee. It is totally against their views. They are refusing this kind of treaty which is to choose between right and wrong. It is not a political issue, it is not a regional dispute for them, it is totally related to the basic rights of the Palestinian people and nothing more than that. I can mention a list of the names of the Bahrainis who were martyred when they participated in certain wars and the popular movement and confrontations that happened during different times.
With regard to the second point I can focus on the fact that it is against the sovereignty of the country and the question comes who gave the right to the ruling family to take such an important decision. It is part of the sovereignty and we can refer it to the current constitution in Bahrain . Article 1D. Here it is clearly indicated that the sovereignty is in the hands of the people.
We are challenging the current government and the ruling family. Who did they consult when they took this decision? Where did they get this right to take such an important decision which is affecting our sovereignty? It will affect future generations and all types of security of the region. Who gave the ruling family or even one person the king the authority to make such a strategic decision by themselves.
So it is so clear first of all that it is against Article 1 of the constitution which clearly mentions that sovereignty is in the hands of the people, the source of all power. Let them show us who they consulted with. They did not even consult with the assigned parliament which we know does not represent the people. They never consulted anyone – not even some political lawyer or political association or society. They did not ever consult them. So here it shows that it is unlawful and it is against the constitution.
Now we come to article 37 of the constitution. It is mentioned and I quote: peace treaties of alliance, natural resources, the public and private rights of the citizens. All this has to be promulgated by law to be valid. Is it part of the law? Has it been passed by the law? So who gave them such a right. So it is a clear indication that it is against the wealth of the people of Bahrain.
And here you can go through all the reactions that have been shown by the people of Bahrain, either by the political elites, NGOs or by the normal people in the streets. If you go to social media you can see that all these rejections are coming. We are in the position that anyone who expresses his view against the policies of the government could be targeted, could be imprisoned and so on. But the people of Bahrain became very brave and showed their objection in any possible way that they could. They demonstrated in the streets. They are still in the streets demonstrating. They know that they could be shot by the police and they could be targeted by any ammunition and they could be detained, they could get life sentences and could face all sorts of atrocities including the revoking of their nationality. All this. But the people of Bahrain show that this is against their will.
I can mention some of the statements that have been made by the Minister of the Interior yesterday. He indicated that we are deciding the nation’s priority. We are deciding on the interests of the country. Why should the Al Khalifa decide that? Who gave them this power, the king or any member of the Al Khalifa family to do that? It is the right of the people of Bahrain. They admitted here that they as the Al Khalifa family decided and it is something that they have never been given the power to decide.
Secondly he said that we cannot be allied with America if we are not allied with Israel. It is something strange. You are selling the country to the United States to protect you not to bring you to your enemies. Why should you accept that any other foreign country will decide your destination? It is clear that they are trying not to be independent. This is another accusation against the ruling family. They are considering that Bahrain is not an independent country and they are getting the United States to decide.
The third point is that when he said that we cannot be safe if we cannot be part of that treaty. And here the question comes through all these decades they used to say that Saudi Arabia’s partnership is protecting us. We can be secure from an threat from the outside. So it is clear that this was a lie. Saudi Arabia could not protect Bahrain and they are equating it with its relationship with the United States. So why did they exaggerate the power of Saudi Arabia to protect Bahrain in this regard. We know it is part of the influence of the United Arab Emirates and that is why Bahrain became part of this treaty. This indicates that we do not have independence. All our independence has been sold out by the ruling family and all this strategic decision about sovereignty has been given to the others. It is really shameful for the ruling family to do so.
Then I can mention here about the security of the region. Are we closer to peace or are we closer to war? Are we closer to stability or closer to the insecurity of the region. We are closer to war and insecurity. Why? We know that the relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia is not good and this treaty will inflame it to be worse.
Iran has so much hatred towards Israel that for them it is a strategic decision to be opposing Israel. Imagine Israel is now coming to the region so that would make the region unstable. This is against the will of the people of Bahrain. They are going to object and they are going to protest and instability is going to be there. It will not be a peaceful movement.
Now about the future prospects. Whoever wanted the region to be a peaceful region, whoever wanted sustainable development to be adopted which is being adopted by the UN. Mohammed Salman’s vision. The 2030 economic vision will not be a reality because of the tension. The future is going to be a time of war and we are moving towards darkness and instability and definitely all of the democratic principles have been ignored. This has not been approved by the elected government. It is not part of the will of the people it will lead to tension. It is so clear that this treaty will create more tension.
Chairman: Thank you Jawad. You highlighted how the people in the region will react to their government taking major steps without their approval or consideration. We know that the region is on fire, we know that the war on Yemen has been raging for five years, we know that Iraq and Syria are plagued by a lot of extremism and terrorism. We now that the Libya is unstable and Sudan has been approached by the UAE and pushed towards a peace treaty with Israel. So this is a major attack on those countries that have been standing against capitalism and any attempt to occupy other peoples’ land by force. You see more tension and more instability and this deal, unlike the one that was undertaken by Sadat is going to cause more tension within the GCC itself.
Ahmed Al Shaiba Al Nuaimi: I am talking on a day which is a really bad day for all of us. It is a day of shame for the people of the UAE. We feel that it is a day of shame in our history. We recognise that our country has been standing all the time with the rights of the people. Since 2010 things changed and if I go back a little bit into history we see how this country and this dictatorial regime dealt with people who asked for democracy and who called for freedom.
Today we can see the problem. It will lead us to a war in the region. We can see that the UAE is responsible for that. Abu Dhabi is leading the emirates and we know that today the people will make the decision without taking the opinion of the other states or the other emirates. This decision came from Abu Dhabi first of all. We know that the constitution of the United Arab Emirates criminalised this relationship with this terrorist state.
I don’t want to go into the constitution but it describes the relationship with Israel and how we have to deal with the rights of the Palestinians. This agreement contradicts the values upon which our countries were founded which are based mainly on supporting all the regional causes and not building relationships with the Israeli occupation.
Today the Emirati people cannot raise their voice. There is only voice in the UAE and it is the voice of the government. They imprison people who call form reform. These people established an association in 2000 which is anti-normalisation with the Israeli occupation. These people are either in jail or out of the country. We understand that the people cannot raise their voices. There is no freedom of speech.
So when they did this we had to establish a new association in 2010. It was established in 2010 in Sharjah. We established a new association which is out of the country now. It is in London. Many people have joined us. The voice of the people shows that most of the people of the UAE are against this agreement which was made without taking the opinion of the people into account.
There are more than 250,000 people who signed our petition which was drafted yesterday. We see how the people support Palestine. They care about our country and our region. We understand that all the people.
Chairman: There is a technical problem continuing the communication with our speaker. He has made some quite remarkable points in his presentation saying that there is opposition to any agreement with Israel as long as it undermines the rights of the Palestinians. This opposition has been in the UAE since 2000. Now another organisation has been created outside the country.
He also mentioned that Abu Dhabi is the dominant power and Mohammed Bin Zayed is the dominant man in Abu Dhabi and he is the dominant man in the UAE. It is clear that it is a decision by one man over the whole country. This is a real problem. This is one of the symptoms of dictatorship in the Arab world where you have major decisions taken by one person, usually the person at the top.
It was Sadat in 1979 or King Hussein later or now the King of Bahrain or the Crown Prince of the UAE. So this in brief is the political dilemma in which we see ourselves. We cannot influence the situation over the UAE or Bahrain or Saudi Arabia. We are totally marginalised, either in jail or in the diaspora. At the end of the day there is an unholy alliance between these dictators and the security agencies in some Western countries especially the US and UK and now Israel.
This alliance is focusing and ensuring that the peoples’ voices are not heard. So what can we do? How can we oppose such major decisions which are taken in our names in which we have no input. We cannot express any opinion about them. And also these big projects are likely to expose our countries to wars. If you bring Israel to the Gulf you are sowing the seeds for a conflict with Iran. This is natural. You cannot blame anyone else but those who bring the combatants to make them face each other and then wait for the consequences of this action.
So I think we have listened on this remarkable day to views from Bahrain and the UAE and of course we hear the overall picture that was given to us by Sami Ramadani.
*Sami Ramadani is a senior lecturer in sociology at London Metropolitan University. Sami was born in Iraq and became an exile from Saddam Hussein’s regime in 1969, as a result of his political activities in support of democracy and socialism. He opposed the sanctions imposed on the Iraqi people (1991-2003) and the invasion of Iraq (2003). He is active in the movement to end the US-led occupation. He is a member of the steering committee of Stop the War Coalition.
**Jawad Fairooz is a former Bahraini MP who has been persecuted and forced to flee the country in 2012. He became stateless after being stripped of his nationality in November 2012. He had previously been detained and ill-treated, after challenging the state’s harsh crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. He resigned from Bahrain’s parliament in 2011 in protest at the treatment of protesters who had taken to the streets during the Arab Spring. Since then he has been the Director of Salam for Human Rights.
*** Ahmed Al Shaiba Al Nuaimi is the Chairman of the International Centre for Studies and Research in London. He is a writer and journalist from the United Arab Emirates. He has cultural and educational contributions and is a specialist in educational and social sciences. He holds a BSc degree in Arabic Language and MSc from North Eastern University in Boston, USA.
