Let them have people's democracy for a change

Throughout post-colonial history Arab aspirations for democracy have never been fulfilled. That was because governance was imposed from above. The region’s people have never had ownership of their countries’ wealth or their own political destiny. Today, they are on the threshold of change because the centre of power has shifted from the palaces to the streets, and long may it continue.

Western pronouncements of support for democracy in the Middle East, have been expressed begrudgingly, an all too familiar situation. Whatever happened to the Bush-Blair enterprise to bring democracy to the Middle East? That was a damp squib, riddled from the off with contradictions; while political parties with armed wings were co-opted into the political process in Iraq, democracy was put on hold elsewhere, notably in Palestine. Understandably, the people have become impatient. They can wait no longer or trust the false promises from Western capitals and regional palaces. Hence the mass demonstrations on the streets of the region’s major cities.

Because they seek to overturn corrupt and unjust systems and establish fair, transparent and accountable political orders, revolutions by their very nature always bear with them the seeds of counter-revolution. The Arab Spring is no exception. When it became clear that this process of change was unstoppable, Western leaders have resorted to the old tactic of cheque-book diplomacy.

At their latest summit in France, the G8 countries pledged tens of billions of dollars in aid and held out the prospect of much more to the emerging democracies. However, if those Western leaders were really keen to end the cycle of economic dependency and debt burden they could easily have pledged to find and return the stolen billions stashed away in European and American banks by the despots and dictators in the Middle East. That money has been stolen from the people of the region.

Moreover, not all “world leaders” were forthcoming in their support; the International Quartet’s Middle East envoy Tony Blair, for example, made his deep reservations clear. He claimed that democracy in Egypt will bring the Muslim Brotherhood to power. This was the same excuse used to sabotage the results of the 2006 elections in Palestine under Blair’s watch, first as Britain’s Prime Minister and then in his current role.

Professor Henry Siegman, a former executive member of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) refutes such claims. He has said that Israel would like the world to believe that the Palestinian branch of the Brotherhood, Hamas, is nothing more than a terrorist organisation, and its “resistance” to Israel’s military occupation is part of a global Salafist effort to defeat the West and restore an Islamic caliphate. As a former insider, Siegman is well positioned to judge: “That is a lie,” he says, used not only to place Israel at the forefront of the so-called Western war on “global terrorism”, but also to justify turning a blind eye to its illegal acts in the occupied Palestinian territories.

More importantly, Siegman adds, “What surprises about Hamas’s rule in Gaza is not the visible increase in public religiosity – some of it undoubtedly out of fear of the authorities – but Hamas’s relative restraint in imposing such religious behaviour on Gaza’s population, especially when compared to certain other Islamic regimes in the region.”

Unlike Mr Blair, Israeli officials have been less than candid in their pronouncements. To maintain the public persona of being a paragon of democracy they hailed the popular uprisings grudgingly, claiming that they were all reactions against poverty and tyranny, no more, no less. Astonishingly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had the audacity to tell the US Congress that the living conditions of Israel’s Palestinian minority were far better than anywhere else in the region.

His remarks were refuted by Arab Knesset members who dismissed the claim as a gross deception. The Palestinians in Israel may have Israeli passports but they still have to queue in separate lines at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport because they are not Jewish citizens of the Zionist state. This denial of the ‘other’ is not peculiar to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Anyone who speaks out against Israel is regarded as an enemy of the state. In a mature democracy, differences of opinion should not be a cause for serious confrontation; this does not seem to be the case with Israel and its critics.

When Rae Abileah, a young Jewish woman, interrupted Netanyahu’s speech to Congress by shouting, “No More Occupation! Stop Israeli War Crimes! Equal Rights for Palestinians!” she was tackled, gagged, tossed to the floor and hospitalised. If this is done to a Jewish activist in the heart of American democracy, what chance does a Palestinian have in Gaza, Ramallah or Nazareth?

Western support for democratic change in the Middle East will be judged by what happens in Palestine, not by the amount of money pledged but in US and EU respect for the rights and will of the Palestinian people. The moral compass for the region will be set in Palestine. Already, the lack of commitment to the rule of law has been exposed by the pressure placed on Justice Richard Goldstone to change his personal view about Israel’s vicious assault on Gaza codenamed Operation Cast Lead. His verbal contortions were matched only by the British government’s, which has undertaken to change the law on universal jurisdiction so that its Israeli friends can visit the UK to discuss peace. Not even the world’s top civil servant, Ban Ki Moon, is immune from such pressure. He was pushed into opposing the imminent Freedom Flotilla 2 sailing towards besieged Gaza. Surely, this says a lot about Western commitment to democracy.

The Zionist enterprise to colonise Palestine was based on the fallacy that it was a “land without a people for a people without a land”. One Israeli prime minister even claimed, “There was no such thing as Palestinians, they never existed”. It has only succeeded thus far because Israel and its influential backers have been able to marginalise the Palestinians, with the full support and collusion of western governments and regional agents. There was never a role for the people of the Middle East. This is why, after Israel’s Camp David treaty with Egypt and the Wadi Araba accord with Jordan there was no normalisation with their respective citizens. The pendulum has now swung away from the palaces onto the streets after the people announced their slogan from the liberation squares: “No more fear after today”. This can only be good for genuine democracy in the region.