DOHA: After Gaza, Arab unity is dead and buried. This is the view expressed by the majority at Qatar Foundation's Doha Debates yesterday. The motion supporting this argument was resoundingly carried with 77 percent of the participants voting in favour. Those who opposed the motion argued that there was more emotional unity in the Arab streets during the Israeli attacks on Gaza, while the other side maintained that unity is not "how people feel but how the leaders act."
Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, former Qatari ambassador to the US, who spoke for the motion, opened the debate by saying, "Never there was Arab unity, whenever Israel attacked the Palestinians. The Arabs were divided when Kuwait was conquered by a neighbouring Arab country. During the attacks on Gaza, the Arab leaders couldn't even agree to have one conference to discuss the issue."
Daoud Kuttab, Palestinian journalist who opposed the motion said, despite the differences among leaders, there was more popular unity among the Arabs during the war on Gaza.
"Arab satellites unified the Arabs. There was information unity. People were demonstrating all over the Arab world. In the past there was superficial unity among the leaders but now there is popular unity."
The other side countered this argument saying that unity is not just the expression of people's hopes and inspirations but it depends a lot on how the leaders acted. " The Arab League was reduced to a laughing stock during the war on Gaza. The Arab leaders failed even to raise their fingers against the onslaught. We saw some regimes openly siding with Israeli, by putting the blame on Hamas," said Mouin Rabbani, Palestinian analyst, speaking for the motion.
Abdul Aziz Sagar, chairman of the UAE-based Gulf Research Center, who opposed the motion, said Arab unity was not dead, not buried. Citing the Qatari mediation to resolve the Lebanese civil war and the Saudi intervention to bring Hamas and Fatah into a national unity government, Sagar said such Arab initiatives had prove d successful in the recent past.
Both sides agreed that there is hope in the young generation in the Arab world, who were on the forefront of the demonstrations held across the Arab world to protest against the Israeli attacks. "My generation has failed. Now it is up to you to prove that you can change the situation," Nasser bin Hamad told the gathering, that comprised a number of Arab youngsters. He added that Arab unity will become a reality only when the people in the Arab world are given their fundamental human rights and the freedom to decide their future.
© The Peninsula 2009
