The July Revolution that changed the shape of the Arab world, but not for the better

July 23 marks the 72nd anniversary of what Egypt calls the July Revolution, which changed the shape of the entire Arab world but not, though, the shape of the regime in Egypt. It was the beginning of military coups in the region, and military rule in most of its countries, if we exclude the coup of Hosni Al-Zaim in Syria in 1949, which was overthrown less than four months later by another coup carried out by Sami Al-Hinnawi, who was then executed, followed by a third coup in the same year.

The first statement issued by the Egyptian army did not mention the word “revolution”, but used instead “the blessed army movement” and was signed by the so-called Free Officers. Since they were all young men, they feared that the people would reject them, so they brought in Major General Mohamed Naguib, the president of the Officers’ Club at the time, who had a good reputation and was accepted and loved by officers and troops alike. This enabled him to overthrow his rival, who was supported by the king, to become their leader. Then they arrested him after he became President of the Republic in 1954. This is another story for another time. The army statement contained phrases and words that people longed to hear, such as eliminating feudalism and capital’s control of government, establishing social justice, establishing a sound democratic life, and building a strong national army.

Only forty days after seizing power, the Free Officers issued the Agrarian Reform Law. This was submitted to parliament previously by Ibrahim Shukri MP during the reign of King Farouk, and it limited agricultural land ownership by individuals to no more than 200 acres; land over and above that was distributed among farmers. The tenant farmers thus became landowners, making them very happy. Gamal Abdel Nasser and his fellow officers took advantage of this to promote themselves, not least because a significant part of the population were still afraid of them. They travelled by train across Egypt — known later as the “Revolution Train” — to greet the masses who flocked to see them. This was followed by a train of artists, including actors and singers whom the people loved, to promote the Free Officers.

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Some believe that the Agrarian Reform Law was fair and distributed wealth, despite the objection of the Sheikh of Al-Azhar at the time because it violated the teachings of Islam, but it is certain that the law damaged agricultural production in Egypt, as it destroyed the unity of agricultural land and fragmented it into small parts. A lot of agricultural land had houses and factories built on it. Abdel Nasser then started to reclaim land from the desert for cultivation, and established the “New Valley” that he announced in 1958 to be parallel to the Nile Valley, in which development would be based on ground water.

In the past three decades, feudalism has returned to Egypt in a new form and with shiny new clothes, and now some privileged individuals can own thousands of acres of land.

As for the Free Officers’ claim about eliminating capitalism’s control over government, in the early sixties, companies, factories and shops were nationalised; everything became affiliated with the state. Institutions were created to manage all of this and army officers were appointed to head them, despite not having the relevant experience. They relied on people who were trustworthy rather than necessarily competent, so production fell and quality got worse. Corruption spread, and the institutions were destined to collapse. Instead of a small group of capitalists controlling the government, the army took control of the economy and, with its military, economic and media institutions, basically took control of the entire government, becoming a state within a state.

The other points mentioned in the officers’ statement were nowhere to be found.

The sound democratic life they promised the people did not materialise. Instead, they dissolved all political parties, silenced political voices and nationalised newspapers and magazines. One-party rule became the reality — the Liberation Rally was replaced by the National Union, followed by the Socialist Union — as the regime became a dictatorship and ruled with an iron fist.

The “strong national army” caused Syria to secede from unity with Egypt in 1961 due to the corruption of its leaders. It was defeated in 1956 and fell into the quagmire of the Yemen War, which wasted Egypt’s gold and strategic reserves and used up the state’s coffers with useless supplies, one of the main reasons for its defeat in June 1967. This was the great disaster that befell the nation and enabled the Zionist occupation state to occupy Jerusalem, the West Bank, Sinai and the Golan Heights.

Abdel Nasser built his overwhelming popularity in the Arab world on his extreme hostility towards Israel and his claims that he would throw it into the sea. The sea, though, swallowed his words. The Zionist entity is no longer the main enemy of the Arab world. Instead, the compass has been shifted by pro-Israel leaders across the region, and anti-Israel resistance movements have become the perceived enemy.

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CIA official Miles Copeland wrote in The Game of Nations that the US spy agency provided secret aid to Abdel Nasser and made him a giant. US intelligence agents met with Abdel Nasser and his group three times in March 1952 and agreed to spread the belief among Egyptians that the coup was not imposed by the British, Americans or French. They allowed him to attack these countries in his speeches after the coup, so that cooperation between the CIA and the clearly not “Free” Officers remained a secret.

With the end of World War II and the victory of the Allies led by the US, it was natural for it to lead the world, inherit the British Empire and dominate its colonies in the Middle East. It did this through military coups to create a new world order under watchful American eyes, which was loyal to Washington and guarded US interests and colonial ambitions. The US Empire had arrived.

The Prime Minister of Egypt during the rule of King Farouk and the leader of the Wafd Party, Mustafa Al-Nahhas Pasha, had been aware of this since Al-Zaim’s coup in Syria. Farouk did not resist the coup, but rather surrendered to it, even though he could have thwarted it at the time. Moreover, the British forces stationed on the Suez Canal did not move to confront the handful of officers and support the king. They knew the truth of the situation.

The BBC published documents about Britain’s position on the 71st anniversary of the coup, in which it is clear that interest was focused solely on the safety of British nationals, and that it warned Naguib that Britain had placed its forces in Egypt and the Middle East on full alert in case British lives were endangered. At the same time, it reassured him that it had no intention of interfering unless British lives were threatened.

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After the July coup, military coups happened in the region with the support of the US and the unmistakable hand of Abdel Nasser’s intelligence agents. Among these was the coup by the Iraqi Minister of Defence, Abdul Karim Qasim, in 1958, who ended the monarchy in Iraq. Abdel Nasser was jealous of him and viewed him as a dangerous competitor for the leadership of the Arab world. Qasim was then overthrown in the 1963 Baathist coup and executed; his old friend Abdul Salam Arif took over. Arif died in a suspicious plane crash, and was succeeded by his brother, Abdul Rahman Arif, who was overthrown in another coup in 1968 known as the White Revolution in Iraq. This was led by Ahmed Hassan Al-Bakr and his deputy and nephew Saddam Hussein, who then turned against his uncle and ruled Iraq alone.

A coup in Yemen on 26 September, 1962, saw a group of army officers led by Abdullah Al-Saloul overthrow the royal imam regime in the country. On 1 September, 1969, Muammar Gaddafi and a group of junior army officers staged a coup against King Idris Al-Senussi in Libya and forced him to abdicate. Gaddafi took over the reins of power.

The coup train arrived in Syria in 1966. The Baathist leadership included the murderer Hafez Al-Assad. By November 1970, Al-Assad had sold the Syrian Golan Heights to the Zionist entity in the June 1967 war, and was in charge. The Americans rewarded him by making him president of Syria, and the presidential mantle was passed to his son Bashar after him. The many coups in Sudan will be discussed at a later date.

These coups were a plague that swept the Arab countries, a huge disaster that befell the entire region and essentially ended political life.

Police states are now the norm wherein intelligence agencies play a major role in managing government affairs. The army controls the people instead of guarding the borders. With surveillance and the monitoring of communications now well established, individual citizens are encouraged to be informers, reporting anyone not loyal to the coup regime. Fathers report their sons, and vice versa; neighbours and work colleagues are also targeted.

This is how they managed to tear apart the social fabric of society. The paranoia and violence of the Egyptian regime reached its peak in the sixties, with the army becoming directly involved in the arrest and imprisonment of individuals in its military prisons, which witnessed murder and rape (of men and women) and brutal physical and mental torture. It was unprecedented, even during the British occupation. The regime did not care about the citizens. Instead, it humiliated, degraded and dishonoured them in front of their families. At the time, Abdel Nasser would say, famously, “Lift your head, brother, the time of tyranny is over.” The deluded masses across the Arab world, dreaming of freedom, dignity and justice, applauded him.

“Abdel Nasser used to chant, addressing every Egyptian citizen: Lift your head, my brother, but the poor and deceived citizens were unable to lift their heads because of the overflowing sewage system, the whips of the intelligence services, the fear of detention, the sword of censorship, and the eyes of the police,” said intellectual Dr Mustafa Mahmoud. “An atmosphere where only hypocrites can flourish prevailed. And the new slogan became obedience and loyalty over education and knowledge. Values deteriorated, production declined, and the voice of the mob rose above everything else. Abdel Nasser lived for twenty years in empty media hype, failed propaganda and disappointing socialist projects. Then he woke up to a back-breaking defeat, an economic collapse, 100,000 killed under the sands of Sinai, and military equipment that was turned into scrap. The country was lost, and the citizen was lost.”

Regime change in the Arab world has been characterised by military coups carried out by army officers seduced by external forces seeking to seize national resources and wealth. They have never been popular revolutions, as in Europe. Despite this very obvious fact, the coup leaders insist on regarding their coups as such and celebrate them annually. Their speeches on the anniversaries of the “glorious” revolutions ring hollow, and only serve the interests of the dictators at the helm. The people, as usual, are left to rue the day that they and their forebears ever believed that “the time of tyranny is over”. It is far from over.

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