Hamze Abbas Jamoul
 At
the end of 2010 and the beginning of the 2011, a series of
demonstrations and protests began to rise in the Arab world. These
protests have become known as the "Arab Spring" (Ashley 2011), or, as
someone else called it, the “Arab awakening” (Aljazeera, 2011).
The Tunisian revolution that took place in the self-immolation of
Mohamad Bouazizi on 18 December 2010 in protest of police corruption and
ill treatment (Fahim, 2011 ), has shaken authoritarian leaders across
the Arab world in areas such as Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain. In this
article we will try to answer the following question: why did the Arabs
rebel? The Arab world was living a very difficult economic and social
situation as in Europe in 1848. Poverty, rising food prices, inflation,
human rights violation, and high unemployment were the main phenomena
the Arabs were facing.
In addition there was much corruption of Arab leaders as shown by some of the Wikileaks diplomatic cables. The
main reasons of the Arab revolts are not limited to internal causes, so
it is important to analyze the international causes such as the failure
of the war on terror, the Iraqi war and the U.S.A - European strategy
of the imported democracy. Another possible reason could be the failure
of the peace process in the Israeli- Arabic conflict.
1. The internal causes:
Throughout history, any revolution is a result of many events that
completely change the nature of the society and its political life. The
French revolution (1789-99), for example, was due to many factors such
as economic difficulties, political rights and rising food prices
(Sydenham1997).
William Shaub, in his article, The Roots of the Revolution in Egypt,
has highlighted on the average per –capita and it's possible affect on
the revolution. He wrote, “Egypt has had a massive income gap throughout
Mubarak’s control, which is clearly the root cause of the original
uprising. One half of Egyptians live on $2/day or less. The average
per-capita income in the country is just $6,200." The two Russians
researchers, A. Korotayev and J. Zinkina, in their analysis on the
Egyptian revolution, affirmed that Egypt was one of the most fast growth
of the world food prices, and that definitely had influences on
destabilization of Egyptian sociopolitical system (Korotayev et al:
011).
 Unemployment
in the Arab region is also a major source of economic insecurity and
for destabilization of any political system. According to Don Tapscott,
"twenty-four percent of young people in the region cannot find jobs"
(Guardian:2011). This percentage of young unemployment is very high and
the Arab countries in the region have not been able to change this
situation and create new jobs, especially after the world financial
crises.
Political and human rights are fundamental for any society and Arab
region lives a situation well described by Hisham Sharabi in his book
Neo-patriarchy. " Even when most states arrived a very high level of
democracy and political rights, the Arab region still suffers from bad
political systems based on corruption, state of emergency laws, the lack
of free elections and freedom of speech and religious fundamentalism "
(Sharabi: 2006).
Egypt was no exception to this corruption and lack of political
freedom. After the 1967 'Six Day War', for example, the emergency law
number 162 of 1958 was issued. This law limited the freedom and "[gave]
greater powers to the police, suspend[ed]certain constitutional rights
in the name of security, allow[ed] the state to detain individuals and
censor and close newspapers more easily and allow[ed] authorities to try
civilians in front of military and security courts under certain
circumstances” (Sehata: 2004). It is also important to bring to the
light that in Egyptian political history many events outside of Egypt
had an impact on democracy and political freedom, such as 9/11 attack in
the U.S.A. This event and the ongoing “War on Terrorism” have been used
as an excuse to increase the violation of the human rights and
facilitated the role of the military court (ibid).
After all these internal causes of the Arab revolt, it is important
to not underestimate the role of the technology and the social network
(Facebook, Twiter ) that facilitated the communication between the
protesters. For this reason, the governments in Egypt and Tunisia shut
down the Internet during the last protest against Mubarak and Ben Ali,
in order to limit communication between protest groups.
2. The international causes:
 The
geographic position of many Arab states protagonist of the “Arab
Spring" lead us to analyze also the International causes of these
revolts. Egypt is the biggest Arab state and it is the first state that
signed a peace accord with Israel. At the same time Cairo during Mubarak
regime enjoyed a solid alliance with the United States in addition to
the high influence on Palestinian parties. To understand better the 25
January revolution in Egypt we have to focus on the relations between
Israel and Egypt before the revolution. The best vision on the relation
between the Hebrew state and the Pharonic one is the article of Benn
Aluf, Israeli journalist, published on Haaretz.
The article, which appeared under the title "A prayer for the health
of the rais," began by stating that "of all the world's statesmen, the
one closest to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak" (Benn, 2010). Thanks to Mubarak, Egypt became a strategic
ally of Israel, as well as Israel's primary supplier of energy. Egypt
has also ensured Israel’s stability and security. As a result of all of
this the author concludes, "were Israel's leaders given one wish, they
might ask that Mubarak be granted immortality."( ibid).
This article show how much the ideals of Mubarak were from Egyptians
will and dreams. Egyptians have always refused the Camp David peace
agreement, and since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak, “calls have
grown in Egypt for ending the 1979 peace treaty with Israel” (Guardian,
2011).
In fact, on Friday 9 September 2011, “a group of 30 protesters broke
into the Israeli embassy in Cairo and threw hundreds of documents out of
the windows” (Ibid). The failure of the peace process between
Palestinian and Israeli, the last aggression against Gaza on 2009 and
against Lebanon on 2006 and the Lebanese victory against Israel, gave
more reasons and courage to the Egyptians and Tunisian to demonstrate
against their regime.
After the resignation of Ben Ali in Tunisia, and Mubarak in Egypt,
much has occurred. Manifestations agianst governments have increased in
number, seectarian clashes in Egypt have multiplied, and elections have
been held in both countries amid an Islamic - elite political rule.
Rather than holding a political position, this article wishes to go
further - to give a scientific analysis of the events that have taken
place, and evalutate the post-revolution period. The key question to
adress is whether policy in Egypt and Tunisia changed in this
transitional period?
It is perhaps too soon to adjudicate the work of the new political
elite in both countries. However one thing is clear: The Arab people
have changed and they will not accept the undemocratic politics of their
countries' past. Should they be forced to, they will revolt again to
protect their rights and claims.
Hamze Abbas Jammoul is researcher in conflict resolution.
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References and Bibliography:
Ashley, J.(2011). ‘The Arab spring requires a defiantly European reply’, Guardian [online], available from <http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/06/arab-spring-european-reply-labour> ,[23Novmber 2011]. Aljazeera.(2011),’The Arab awakening’,Aljazeera channel, [online], available from, <http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/general/2011/04/20114483425914466.html> [23 November 2011].
Fahim, K.( 2011 ), ‘Slap to a Man's Pride Set Off Tumult in Tunisia’, New York Times, [online],available from <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/22/world/africa/22sidi.html?pagewanted=all>,
[23 November 2011]. Korotayev et al.(2011), ‘ Egyptian Revolution: A
Demographic Structural Analysis’, EntelequiaRevistaInterdisciplinar 13,
[online],available from, <http://www.eumed.net/entelequia/en.art.php?a=13a09> [22October 2011]. Sydenham M.J.(1997),’ The French revolution‘ discover France, [online], available from, <http://www.discoverfrance.net/France/History/DF_revolution.shtml>,[ 25November 2011].
Sharabi, H. (1988),A Theory of Distorted Change in Arab Society, New York: Oxford University Press.
Shehata,S.(2004),‘ Egypt After 9/11: Perceptions of the United States’, Contemporary Conflict,[online] available from,<http://conconflicts.ssrc.org/archives/mideast/shehata/,[26November
2011]. The guardian.(2011), ‘Egyptian protesters break into Israeli
embassy in Cairo’ The guardian, [online], available from <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/10/egyptian-protesters-israeli-embassy-cairo%20November%202011.>, [27 November 2011].
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