Who Remembered Gaza in Wikileaks?

By Yousef

If you are one of the 1.5 million Palestinians who for years have been trapped inside the world's largest open-air prison, Gaza, you likely feel that the world and the leaders of the Arab states have forgotten about you. Well, unfortunately, revelations from diplomatic cables that were "wikileaked" recently give the people of Gaza little reason to feel otherwise.

The situation in Gaza is, despite some claims about easing of the siege, still very cruel. This piece published by Amnesty International's UK Director Kate Allen does a good job of explaining why "six months of a less-oppressive blockade regime has made only a minimal difference to the lives of Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants."

So it should come as no surprise that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is one of the most salient issues in the Arab public sphere and has been for years. It is seen as the worst-bleeding yet resilient wound in the conflict over Palestine, and a tightening Israeli siege, horrific bombardments and civilians casualties and the most recent flotilla voyages have put Gaza at the center of the Arab public's attention. One might think that because of this, the plight of Palestinians in Gaza would be featured significantly in discussion between regional leaders and the U.S.

So what of Gaza in the leaked diplomatic chatter?

Well, of nearly 1000 cables leaked thus far only 57 of them even mention Gaza. (379 mention Iran, 142 mention Israel, 136 mention Saudi Arabia.) There is no telling how representative the thus far leaked cables are of the 250,000 that are due to be leaked, or even how representative that 250,000 is of all diplomatic cables. But, in the 57 cables that do mention Gaza there is an opportunity to see how this issue has been discussed between leaders and officials, and what priority it is given. Many Arab and Muslim states have donated significant humanitarian relief to Gaza, but this is not what is at question here. What are they doing diplomatically to change the situation, i.e. press to lift the siege, so that Gaza doesn't have to live on perpetual handouts? That is the real question. It's also important to emphasize that more cables may paint a different picture, but overall at this moment, the results are disappointing.

As far as I can tell Moroccan and Turkish government officials are the only ones in the Arab and Muslim world to have expressed genuine concern for the humanitarian situation in Gaza. In a 2008 meeting between Assistant Secretary David Welch and Morocco's king, the king expressed "deep concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza." For their part, the Turks who are often portrayed in a number of these cables of taking a public stance on Gaza for "domestic consumption only" or to reach over Arab regimes to the "Arab Street", also conveyed concerns about the humanitarian situation in private meetings. In a meeting between Undersecretary Burns and his Turkish counterpart Feridun Sinirlioglu the Turkish official "contended the 'humanitarian situation in Gaza,' which is not a punishment of Hamas, but of the Gazan people, fed Turkish popular anger against Israel"

Raising the issue in bilateral diplomatic meetings suggests that the issue is one of actual concern to the government of Turkey, and not simply a ploy for domestic consumption or the manipulation of Arab publics.

Other than Morocco, the Arab states, whose publics "reacted strongly to the Israeli offensive on Gaza, creating intense pressure on Arab governments to act" do not appear to take as principled a stance as the Turks. In fact, there is little of any discussion about the humanitarian situation in Gaza at all in these cables. If anything, the discussions usually focus on Gaza being coldly perceived as an Iranian pawn with little regard to the population there. If there is concern about Gaza's humanitarian situation it is often from a security perspective.

One cable said Egypt "views a well-armed and powerful Hamas as a national security threat, a point driven home in dramatic fashion by the January 2008 border breach when Hamas bulldozed the old border fence and more than half a million Palestinians poured into Egypt, unchecked and hungry."

Yet, the leaders are keenly aware of the image problem they'd have for ignoring Gaza. Egypt's Security Chief said "'We do not want incidents like Gaza to inflame public anger,' he added 'the Gaza conflict put 'moderate (Arab) regimes' in a corner.'"

For his part, the Egyptian security chief Omar Soliman is reported to have told General Patraeus that "Egypt worked closely with Israel to coordinate humanitarian assistance shipments and was encouraging the Israelis to allow more assistance into Gaza." He also stated that Egypt's primary objectives were to "maintain calm in Gaza, undermine Hamas, and build popular support for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas."

This passage also captured what Soliman conveyed to Admiral Mullen :

Stability in Gaza also depends on giving people a more 'normal' life, Soliman continued, saying Israel must be convinced to regularly open the border crossings for legitimate commercial activity. The current system - where Egypt informs Israel of a humanitarian shipment and Israel waits two days before accepting or rejecting the shipment for transfer to Gaza - does not adequately meet people's needs.

Yet, another passage from a cable highlights the game Egypt is playing in Gaza by showing one face publicly and another privately:

Egypt will not take any action that could be perceived as collaboration in Israel's siege of Gaza, and they have been hyper-sensitive to any suggestion that foreigners are assisting them or overseeing their efforts to counter smuggling. Aboul Gheit publicly distanced Egypt from our January MOU with Israel to combat arms smuggling into Gaza, although he knew about it in advance and consulted with Secretary Rice and me about its contents. The Egyptians do not want to be stuck holding the Gaza bag, and must be able to point the finger of blame at Israel for the plight of the Palestinians. At the same time, Egypt has withstood scathing and widespread criticism in the Arab world for refusing to open the Rafah border crossing to supply Gaza.

This excerpt from a recently released cable probably won't help Egypt's case much: "Soliman noted that in six months, MOD will have completed the construction of a subterranean steel wall along the Egypt-Gaza border to prevent smuggling."

Qatar's prime minister told Senator John Kerry that Gaza's needs are acute and Kerry replied that the PM "was preaching to the converted and told the PM he was 'shocked by what [he] saw in Gaza.'" But in a meeting Kerry held with Qatar's Amir a day earlier, the Qatari ruler seemed to suggest that the plight of Palestinians in Gaza was not only exaggerated, but intended to be exaggerated by the Egyptians:

The Amir remarked that he has a feeling he knows which capital (Cairo) is the source of reports that Gaza is under pressure. He said the economic pressure in Gaza on families is not what it was. He offered as an example that Qatar Charity recently offered a family in Gaza 500 USD, but the family declined the gift saying its members had enough to get by and suggested another family that was in more dire need of assistance. The Amir said the notion that a family would turn down money is new.

As for other Arab states, the Syrians noted concerns about the humanitarian situation in Gaza and for Palestinians elsewhere including refugees. The only mention of Gaza from Amman thus far came from an officer in the prime minister's office who noted to U.S. Embassy officials that "the Gaza crisis had allowed Iranian interference in inter-Arab relations to reach unprecedented levels." Out of Abu Dhabi, Gaza is only mentioned as part of a slew of Iranian "emirates" as understood by Crown Prince Mohmamad bin Zayed (MbZ) who comes off as the most paranoid character in all the cables released thus far.

So for the people of Gaza, there is good reason to feel neglected by their own government (HAMAS), by Palestinian leaders elsewhere and by most regional leaders as well. Regardless of the depressing humanitarian and economic situation in Gaza, regional leaders depart once again from their publics in the way they view Gaza. For the average Arab - Palestinian or otherwise - Gaza has an emotional connotation of sympathy for a besieged people. For most leaders and officials, Gaza is seen through a self-interested prism of security and/or regional hegemony; everything else is secondary.

Of course there is no doubt that this is a small number of cables that might not be representative and the cables themselves are written from the perspective of individuals who have a bias. It's my hope that a slew of new cables appear indicating that Arab leaders raised the issue of lifting the siege and each and every encounter they had with U.S. Representatives. Nonetheless, the content of the cables we have thus far should create serious questions in the minds of an Arab public whose leaders seem to be on a different page when it comes to Gaza.


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