Arab unity … the possible and the impossible – Hazarshi bin Jaloul

Today, in the Arab region, there is a pessimistic, defeatist, nihilist discourse that believes that the idea of ​​Arab unity and solidarity has become mere illusions and chimeras, a blessed and intellectual luxury, and it will not be realized that when the camel enters the tailor’s poison, and the Arab world is but a mosaic of unrelated groups and minorities. Based on this ideological mirage, he declared his supporters to be Arabism, and declared the end of Arab nationalism and the dissipation of the Arab dream. They linked this to the weakness of social integration in most Arab countries due to sectarian conflicts and ethnic and sectarian conflicts, which threaten the social fabric, and to the widening of the circle of regional tendencies and isolation. , which has resulted in the fragmentation of some countries in practice, such as Iraq, Sudan, Libya and Yemen. In addition to this, the declared war on Arab identity, and the position of the Western and Zionist powers and their projects which reject the idea of ​​Arab unity. What if the question of unity arose in the face of the effects of fragmentation enshrined in the Sykes-Picot Treaty and the Balfour Declaration in the face of the Zionist entity which separated the East and the West of the nation, and sponsored it in encouraging religious and ethnic minorities, and if the achievement of Arab unity requires the liberation of Palestine, then “Israel” did not become the enemy of some Arab regimes after their involvement in the political normalization project , cultural, media and artistic with the Zionist entity.
Worst of all, perhaps, is the absence of a national project which places among its priorities the achievement of unity and the encouragement of cooperation, as was the case in the 1950s and 1960s through the Baath and Nasserism movements. In addition, most of the regional units created to deal with external threats have become dysfunctional. The Maghreb Union was frozen due to the Sahara crisis and closed borders, the Arab Cooperation Council collapsed due to the Second Gulf War, and the Gulf Cooperation Council was disrupted due to the Saudi-Qatari crisis. National organizations were also fragmented at the national level and within a single country. This has been linked to the absence of democracy and a culture of human rights, the prevalence of tyranny, exclusion due to the unity of the battle and the emphasis on social- democracy rather than politics.
***
On the other hand, supporters of the optimistic revolutionary discourse believe that Arab solidarity and unification has become a future project due to its dependence on the unity of the cultural, religious and linguistic system, and the battle of a fate. , and that the seriousness of the internal and external challenges that the nation has been facing for some time is enough to push the living forces who believe in the renaissance project to put pressure on the Arab political decision-maker, to join the project of solidarity and unification . Among the justifications presented by this party is that facing these challenges and stopping the collapse of the Qatari state, the widening of the circle of foreign interventions and military bases, and the dependence on political and economic decisions inevitably passes through ‘adoption of multiple forms of cooperation and solidarity, networking of political and economic relations, bypassing Arab-Arab conflicts and placing the national interest above all considerations. In addition to this, the previous unitary experiences stored by the collective sentiment of Arabs during different historical periods, which transformed them from mere tribes into an active figure in the international conflict equation. In the same context, the unitary feeling latent at the bottom of the Arab self awaits the historic golden opportunity to express its existence. This reflects the volume of interaction with Arab countries exposed to occupation and civil wars, and levels of solidarity with the Palestinian cause translate into solidarity campaigns, volunteerism, support rallies and the rejection of any form of standardization. The moment of movements for change (the Arab Spring) was a quintessential Arab moment, before the conspiracy was waged against it by the encouragement of counter-revolutionary movements. The various surveys on the tendencies of Arab public opinion towards the question of unity and the bias of the Arab street towards measures and policies of a unitary character reflect the inevitability of this path. An analysis of the results of the field study published by the Center for Arab Unity Studies indicated that respondents’ adherence to the common Arab identity reached 82%. In addition, 55% expressed their acceptance of the creation of a full integration unit. 66% of respondents support the creation of a federal union with a single foreign and military policy. In the same context, 83% of those questioned oppose the lack of cooperation between Arab countries. The Doha Institute also confirms that 55% of respondents support the creation of an integration unit and 57% support a federation. If the pessimists ‘proposition was valid and was previously recognized by the national trend through a series of seminars and studies that dealt with the national experience of criticism and review, then the optimists’ perception also became rational. and realistic. Arab union and solidarity can be difficult and complex, but it is not impossible and can be achieved by restoring and defining Arab unity by moving beyond the classic unitary mystical discourse, which some call historical mythology, which focuses in his discourse on the nation united through history, on the unity of the historical, religious and linguistic system, and attention to the pragmatic character Unity is similar to the European Union. That is to say, on the economic and social content, to highlight the benefits and benefits that the Arab citizen reaps, moving from the ideal world to political realism, and on the progressive and progressive path (creation of a path of iron, cancellation of visas, standardization of school curricula, customs unity, the common market) and overcoming the dilemmas of national integration and conflict between bees. Boredom, races and sects, respect for national, religious and ethnic peculiarities, the absence of sterile debates and painful moments of conflict between national currents and within the same currents, and the inability to consider the Qatari state as a colonial artefact or an insurmountable obstacle, and no stumbling block to Arab monotheism. Rather, it is necessary to believe that the unity of the countries has become a prelude and a condition for the desired state of Arab unity, and to emphasize that national belonging is not a contradiction with national belonging. In the same context, the dialectical correlation between democracy and unity must be underlined, and the overcoming of forced unification, the fusion formula and the Bismarckian vision must be underlined. All this must also be linked to the liberation of the dualities that governed the Arab spirit, such as: Arabism / Islam, religion / secularism and originality / modernity. And on the basis of the failure and failure of previous unitary experiences and the state of fragmentation, dependence and backwardness, the Arab unification project can only be achieved through a historical bloc that understands the various influential and effective currents in the nation of nationalists, Islamists, leftists. and the Liberals. And if all human achievements through the various historical eras are only dreams, and if most scientific inventions are only conceptions, then can Arab unity in the future be transformed from a mere utopia and mythology to a reality?