An analysis into the rise of Arab Nationalism following the establishment of the State of Israel post-1948 and its impacts

November, 2012

The main catalyst for the rise of Arab nationalism throughout the Arab world stemmed from the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Israel's creation as the result of Zionist Jewish nationalism led to a counter-reaction in the peoples of Arab states - including Palestine - which was focused on removing Zionism from Arab lands and uniting Arabs to defeat Israel with the Palestinian cause being the central call of Arab nationalist intellectuals.

By 1919 the Palestinian people had already established their identity as Arab, Palestinian, Syrians during the Paris Peace Conference as part of their process in developing their own nationalism. This longing for a more defined identity had increasingly become a matter of concern for Arab intellectuals especially after a growing Jewish community in Palestine and an absence of one formal representative of the people. Such occurrences led to a reaction and a will to reunite and regain the people’s dignity through the idea of Arab Nationalism. Examples of notable early nationalist thinkers include Sate’ al Husari, Michel Aflaq who were greatly influenced by prominent 19th century European thinkers.
One of the earliest forms of Arab Nationalism was embodied in the Syrian Socialist National Party that was founded in 1932 by Antoun Saadeh, which started off by fighting French colonialism from Lebanon and was to later on actively take part in the resistance against the Israeli invasion.

Following World War II, Egypt had rejected a form of Arab nationalism while Sate’ argued that “the individual has no real existence outside it” and insisted that Egypt was a major part of Arab Nationalism. After the Arab revolt of the late 1930s, however, the Arab case against Zionism had been weakened by great British oppression of the movement and the confiscation of their weaponry. Consequently, the death of up to 5000 Arabs in Palestine and the continuing mass immigration of Jews in to Palestine in addition to international endorsements for a promised land for the Jews allowed Arabs to look at the issue with a more unified vision where religion and/or background were no longer matters of concern - liberation was now the Arab Nationalists’ mission, Christians and Muslims.
It was then that a few fascist ideologies came to surface and Arabs resorted to extreme measures to resist and fight the encroaching occupation to put greater emphasis on the need for establishing the Arab identity in the light of such events as Sate’ al Husri stated “We can say that the system to which we should direct our hopes and aspirations is a Fascist system” In 1941 Hajj Amin al-Husayni, a prominent Muslim nationalist leader and Grand Mufti of Jerusalem sought German/Italian support to oust the British as did some other Arab nationalists where He writes in his book:

I have considered Germany to be a friendly country, because it was not a colonizing country, and it never harmed any Arab or Islamic country, and because it was fighting our colonialist and Zionist enemies, and because the enemy of your enemy is your friend. And I was certain that Germany's victory would definitely save our countries from the danger of Zionism and colonization.

Therefore, a strong sense of urgency from the sort of prevailing narrative was evidently directed at both the secular and religious sectors of the Arab, Palestinians societies, which helped mobilize the efforts of the whole region following the creation of a Jewish State by the name of Israel on “Arab soil”. The efforts, however, failed and led to a great defeat of 1948 that according to Sate’ al-Husri was due to the fact that Arabs were divided in to “artificial” seven states and the solution was to unite in to one state.

In the light of this will, the League of Arab States was formed in Cairo on the 22nd of March 1945 with six member sates: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan (modern day Jordan), Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria. The Arab League aspired to preserve and further develop the collaborative efforts between Arab countries as mentioned in their pact: To draw closer the relations between member States and co-ordinate collaboration between them, to safeguard their independence and sovereignty, and to consider in a general way the affairs and interests of the Arab countries.

It was since 1948 that the word “Arab” took on a new meaning. Arabism was the sense of identity the people of the region had developed regardless of religion and/or background but rather based on common language, history, culture and collective will for a liberated Arab Palestine. Furthermore, pan Arabism was the dream that was to restore the dignity of the Arab people after the great defeat. Palestine and Arabism were now synonymous and Nationalism was a compulsory class being dictated to high-school students in Syria and Egypt.
In Syria in 1947, Al Baath party was founded by Michel Aflaq along with Salah al-Din al-Bitar and Zaki al-Arsuzi, with their motto as “Unity, Liberty, Socialism”. Aflaq was another Syrian Nationalist who believed in unity as a means for liberating occupied Arab land (Palestine) and resisting “imperial interests” in the region, as he once stated in a speech "...freedom will come to the Arabs through unity, the establishment of the Arab Nation.” The idea of the Baath party was to be a collectivist approach to the “resurgence” of the Middle East mobilizing the masses specifically the peasants and workers. Simultaneously so did the Nasserist movement come to existence along side that of the Baathist with the similar popular collectivist approach. This subsequently resulted in the region’s first pan-Arab agreement that took place between Egypt and Syria with Jamal Abdul Nasser as it’s leader in 1958 named the United Arab Republic (UAR). In 1961, however, Syria withdrew leading the UAR to collapse and causing tension between the two countries. Several following failed attempts to unite increased the divide between the Arab states. This divide drew the once focused attention on the dedication to the liberation of Palestine, and undermined the Palestinian people’s struggle for the resistance of an occupation. This drove Palestinians who develop their own nationalism with the support of the Arab League during the summit of 1964, which sought to “prohibit and the existence and activity of Zionism”

The failures of the Arab states as a whole did not stop here though, what these four decades had brought the region was defeat after failure. In a joint Arab war against Israel that lasted up to six days in 1967, the Arabs faced the greatest defeat yet, losing the Golan Heights, Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank of Jordan to the Israelis, which was yet another example of failure to succeed as United Arab states at war with the common enemy also in effect undermining the Palestinian cause.

The great dream of Arab Nationalism and collective efforts to “liberate” Palestine were finally shattered by Sadat’s signing of the peace treaty with Israel in 1977 which resulted in his assassination shortly after that after which his commander took over in 1981. Ever since then the region had been experiencing an alarming series of rising dictators, starting from Libya with Muamar Gaddafi, Syria with Hafez al-Assad, Iraq with Sadam Hussein, Egypt with Hosni Mubarak all of whom still spoke of Arab nationalism yet with much despise for their Arab neighbours. The region was struck with turmoil soon after the dictators went to war with each other especially during the Gulf war of 1990. The Gulf war further manifested the inadequacies of joint Arab initiative where not only did Arab states fail to address the Palestinian cause, rivalries between them increased and countries sided against the Palestinian refugees in Kuwait for Arafat’s backing of Sadaam during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

Three or even four fruitless decades later, nationalism was still a major class in both primary and secondary education in countries like Syria and the ultimate conclusion to every great speech made by one of the Arab dictators typically highlighted that the ultimate mission to fight for a sovereign Arab Palestinian state, ending with a big round of applause of course.

In conclusion, rallying cries regarding restoring Palestine and defeating Israel and Zionism has been central to the Arab nationalist discourse. As we have seen, the Palestinian issue is so central to the Arab worldview that three generations of Arab nationalists used it to draw to their cause - the early nationalists, the Nasserists, and the Baathsits, and the cause remains used by nationalist movements in the region to this day. Whether nationalism was a means to realizing the Palestinian cause, or simply a means for nationalist parties to remain in power, the effectiveness of the cause in mobilizing the masses behind the Arab nationalist idea is clear.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

* E. G. H. Joffé Arab Nationalism and Palestine Journal of Peace Research Vol. 20, No. 2 (Jun., 1983), pp. 157-170 Published by: Sage Publications, Ltd. * Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/424086

* Al-Husri, Sati' The Making of an Arab Nationalist: Ottomanism and Arabism in the Life and Thought of Sati' Al-Husri. N.p.: Princeton: Princeton UP, 1971. Print. Translated.

* Al-Hussayni, Hajj Amin. Mudhakkirat Al-Hajj Amin Al-Husayni. Damascus: n.p., 1999.

* Smith, Charles D. Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict- A History with Documents. 7th ed. Boston: n.p., 2010. Print.

* Al-Husri, Sati' Arabism First. Translated ed. Beirut: Dar Al-Ilm Lil Malayeen, 1965.

* American Foreign Policy. "The Avalon Project : Pact of the League of Arab States, March 22, 1945." The Avalon Project : Pact of the League of Arab States, March 22, 1945. Department of State Publication 6446, n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2012. <http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/arableag.asp>.

* Hopwood, Derek. Syria 1945-1986: Politics and Society. London: Unwin Hyman, 1988.

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[ 1 ]. Arab Nationalism and Palestine p-166
[ 2 ]. The Making of an Arab Nationalist: Ottomanism and Arabism in the Life and Thought of Sati' al-Husri p. 127
[ 3 ]. Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict p-176
[ 4 ]. Mudhakkirat al-Hajj Amin al-Husayni p.96.
[ 5 ]. Al-Husari, Arabism First p. 149
[ 6 ]. "Pact of the League of Arab States, 22 March 1945"
[ 7 ]. Hopwood, Derek Syria 1945–1986: Politics and Society.
[ 8 ]. 1964 Palestinian National Covenant http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/plocov.asp