Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May 2003, pages 19, 88

Special Report

 

U.S. Attack on Iraq Provokes Anger Across the Arab World

 

By Nizar Wattad

The U.S. attack on Iraq provoked angry reactions throughout the Arab world, where protests grew daily in number and size as citizens expressed anger at the United States and their own governments, and solidarity with the people of Iraq. When asked by the Washington Report to explain these initial reactions, Arab News editor-in-chief Khaled al-Maeena offered one simple reason for the overwhelming sense of anger and frustration sweeping the “Arab street”: “The Iraqi people have suffered for a long time,” he stated. “They have suffered under the rule of tyrants, they have suffered deprivation, they have suffered the stripping of their political rights, they’ve suffered social and economic problems, and we believe that a protracted war, even a short war, is going to cause them more suffering and innocent people are going to die.”

While empathy with the people of Iraq was the main reason usually cited for opposing the war, there were others. Some wondered whether Iraq was the only target of Washington’s war, or whether the Bush administration planned on pursuing step-by-step domination of the Middle East—specifically those nations rich in oil and water. Many questioned the wisdom of bypassing the United Nations and pointed to the double standard in the Bush administration’s respective treatment of Iraq and Israel. Finally, many protesters were expressing opposition to their own governments for failing to stop the war.

The last reason has been the worst nightmare of most Arab governments since George W. Bush first announced his intention to “disarm” Iraqi President Saddam Hussain. Arab leaders warned the U.S. that, should an attack occur without U.N. approval, the reaction on the Arab street would be unpredictable, and could possibly destabilize the entire region. In the first week of the war, that is exactly what appeared to be happening in several Arab capitals.

 

The Peninsula

Opposition to the war runs deep in the Middle East, even in the oil-rich Gulf states, whose governments are considered long-time friends of the U.S. In Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, protesters outside the British Embassy overturned vehicles, detonated gas canisters, and scuffled with riot police firing rubber bullets. In Yemen, 30,000 anti-war demonstrators clashed with police March 21 outside the U.S. Embassy. Police used tear gas, water cannon and, finally, gunfire to disperse the crowd, killing two people and injuring dozens. The next week, the protesters were back—and their number had doubled.

Bahrain and Yemen were exceptions in the Gulf, where most citizens found other ways to express their opposition. In Dubai, a number of charity organizations organized a national telethon benefit a scant five days after the first bombs fell. Things were generally calm in the UAE, with few residents expressing fear for their physical safety. However, noted vice president Elias Bou Saab of the American University in Dubai, “We cannot ignore the fact that people in the UAE are affected emotionally. People are sad in the manner the war has broken out and that thousands of Iraqi civilians will suffer.”

By its ninth day, the war had galvanized men and women throughout Saudi Arabia, where public protests are forbidden. People instead issued calls for the boycott of American goods, and held anti-war poetry sessions and peace prayers. “How come,” wrote Saudi journalist Nada Al-Fayez, echoing the thoughts of Arabs across the Middle East, “as a world policeman, Bush wants to punish one criminal, Saddam Hussain, and leave another criminal, Ariel Sharon, alone?” She reported that some Saudi women were donning military fatigues at private parties and boycotting Western fashions “in solidarity with the Iraqi people.”

An obvious exception to the widespread trend of opposition in the Gulf was Kuwait, whose citizens have a unique perspective on this war given their liberation from Iraqi occupation by a U.S.-led coalition force in 1991. According to the March 21 Jordan Times, in one Kuwait City coffee shop, as President George W. Bush appeared on television to announce that the war had begun, “a burst of applause filled the room.”

Even in Kuwait, however, American soldiers have been the victims of random shootings and vehicle attacks.

 

The Levant

In Jordan, numerous spontaneous demonstrations took place the day the war began at universities and public places throughout the country. The following day, Interior Minister Qaftan Majali appeared on television to warn citizens that “unlicensed public rallies and demonstrations will be handled firmly.” In response, over 10,000 demonstrators led by the Muslim Brotherhood staged a rally in Amman, and were tear-gassed by police. “We are depressed,” lamented one shopkeeper when asked to describe the sentiment on her street. Radio Jordan amended its programming to fit the national mood, replacing its more upbeat songs with patriotic ones. When asked why the change, a Radio Jordan official answered simply, “We are not happy with what is going on, so we are refraining from playing happy music.”

In Lebanon, a March 21 protest at the British Embassy grew ugly when international security forces turned water hoses on 750 student demonstrators engaged in a sit-in. At least four other spontaneous protests took place in Beirut that day, each drawing several hundred protesters, several decrying “the impotence of Arab regimes.” Four days later the number of demonstrators marching in the rain outside downtown Beirut’s United Nations House reached 10,000. While most marchers remained peaceful, shouting anti-American slogans and calling on the Arab governments to “stop selling their people,” around 500 demonstrators broke off and stormed the British Embassy. They were met with batons, water cannon and tear gas. According to the March 25 Daily Star, one army officer shouted “You want to throw stones at the army?” at a fallen demonstrator, beating him with a baton while other security personnel kicked him.

In nearby Damascus, on March 20 over 1,000 Syrians attempted to march on the U.S. Embassy, hurling stones at police and demanding that Syria expel the U.S. ambassador. Over the next few days Damascus would be witness to the largest organized protests in the Middle East since the start of the war, as an estimated 500,000 Syrians flooded the streets, forcing schools, universities and official government institutions to close. Syrians have a special reason to oppose this war, as many believe that Syria could be next on Washington’s list of post-Iraq targets.

Interestingly, while both Jordan and Syria border Iraq and were preparing for a massive influx of refugees, no such exodus occurred in the war’s first two weeks. Quite the opposite, in fact: Jordanian authorities reported that up to 4,600 Iraqis crossed back into Iraq after the war began, intending “to fight the U.S. invaders.” Similarly, Syrian border guards report “dozens” of fighters leaving Syria for Iraq, while the Iraqi Embassy in Lebanon reports that it has been “flooded” with requests by Lebanese citizens for visas to enter and defend Iraq. One such hopeful, a painter, put it simply: “We either all die together or let the Americans humiliate us.”

Protests also were held in Gaza City, where Palestinians continually fear the possibility of ethnic cleansing at Ariel Sharon’s whim, and, to a lesser extent, in such West Bank cities as Nablus—hometown of one of the war’s first victims, Ahmed Albaz, a Palestinian truck driver killed during the initial American bombardment.

 

North Africa

On March 24, at the request of the Algerian government, the entire country of Algeria observed a minute’s silence as a gesture of solidarity with the Iraqi people. In the Libyan capital of Tripoli the next day, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators chanted anti-American slogans and marched to the Iraqi Embassy. Thousands also took to the streets in Tunisia.

The most virulent protests in North Africa, however, were in Egypt, a key U.S. ally. On the first day of the war riot police at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo were using water cannons and batons to beat back 1,500 protesters calling for the expulsion of the U.S. ambassador, injuring 36. The next day 10,000 people chanted anti-U.S. slogans as they gathered under tight security after Friday prayers. Protesters then swarmed downtown Cairo, chased by helmeted riot police. A fire truck was burned in front of the ruling party headquarters, and 50 protesters were arrested. “I feel suffocated and I want to release all my anger and I want my voice to reach Egyptian officials,” said a demonstrator. “They have to do anything to stop this war.”

Despite calls from across the Middle East for Arab governments to take decisive action against the war—such as expelling U.S. ambassadors or halting oil sales to the United States and Great Britain—most regional governments focused more on quelling dissent and containing the protesters than on heeding their demands. In addition to the four Yemenis killed March 21, demonstrators were killed in Sudan, and a few ordered deported from Egypt and Jordan.

In Jordan’s case, the deported protesters were actually four Iraqi officials suspected of having helped organize the protests. Their deportation came soon after a request by the United States that all nations expel Iraqi officials. The proximity of the officials’ expulsion to the U.S. request had many in Jordan crying foul.

It is precisely this scenario—in which an Arab regime seen as a U.S. “collaborator” loses legitimacy in the eyes of its own people—that Mideast governments have been hoping to avoid. According to Arab News editor-in-chief Al-Maeena, some Arab governments like Egypt and Jordan “are between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand they have been traditional allies with the Americans,” he explained, “on the other hand you cannot ignore the aspirations of the people. Believe me, even if there are no elections, the governments have to answer to the people, especially given that about 50 percent of the population is under 21 and really upset.”

The governments’ fears were summed up by Lebanon’s former ambassador to the United States, Riad Tabbarah, who presented the worst-case scenario on Arab leaders’ minds: “If this drags on for a long time, regime change would not be out of the question everywhere.”

This scenario is in stark contrast to what the Bush administration hawks have “predicted” will happen—namely a “new era of freedom” and democracy in the Middle East. Initially, at least, the U.S. attack seems to have had an opposite effect, as governments turn to increasingly harsh tactics to suppress dissent—and maintain their own fragile grip on power.

Nizar Wattad is editorial assistant for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

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