2023-10-18 18:05:27
While demonstrations of support for the Palestinians multiply in the countries of the Muslim world, the West maintains strong support for Israel. Academic Rafaelle Mauriello analyzes this growing gap between the West and the countries of the global South, already visible with the war in Ukraine.
The death of hundreds of civilians on Tuesday, October 17 in the bombing of a hospital in Gaza shakes public opinion in the Arab world. In Ramallah, Jordan, Yemen, Istanbul, Tunisia and Lebanon, thousands of people took to the streets to express their indignation and support for the Palestinian cause. Criticism also arises against the Western foreign ministries that have strongly supported Israel after the deadly attacks by Hamas.
Rafaelle Mauriello, professor of geopolitics at La Sapienza University in Rome and assistant professor in the department of Spanish Language and Literature at Allameh Tabataba’i University in Tehran, speaks from Iran about this gap between the West and the global south.
RFI: Demonstrations of popular support for Palestine in Muslim countries have multiplied. What have been the reactions in Iran?
Rafaelle Mauriello: According to the international press, when something happens with Hamas, Iran is targeted. In reality, the country that supports the most economically and where, let’s say, the political leadership of Hamas is exiled is Qatar.
Many people forget that. The money does come from Iran, but much more from Qatar and other countries. It is a paradox, because there is another important Islamist movement in Palestine and especially in the Gaza Strip, which is the Islamic Jihad, which does have representation in Tehran.
As for the Iranian population, the situation is more complex because we normally see Iran as a Middle Eastern country. But it is also a country in Western Asia. It is not a country that is close to Egypt or Israel directly.
It has an influence because it is the largest country in the region, the most populated. So it is experienced as something very close from the perspective of the State government and the press, but in reality for part of the population, Israel and the issue of Palestine in general remains a more or less distant issue in geographical terms.
Evidently there is a part of the population that supports Palestine, another part that has sympathies for Israel perhaps more to go against the government and the State. I would say that the vast majority of the population does not see it as such an important issue in their daily lives.
RFI: And in the other Arab countries? Demonstrations of solidarity with Palestine have been observed in several capitals since the terrorist attacks by the Hamas group against Israel. In Lebanon, attacks against Israeli civilians were even greeted with celebrations. Other Arab governments, however, have been more cautious.
Rafaelle Mauriello: As in the case of Iran, we must differentiate between governments and the Arab street or the majority of the Arab population. The vast majority of the Arab population supports the Palestinians, whether Hamas or whatever, as a national liberation movement.
There are terrorist acts that obviously everyone condemns, but here we must also understand that Palestine is a very complex issue. There is a “national liberation” component. Since representation in the Arab world is not very democratic – most Arab governments are not democratic at all – in reality, the heads of state of the Arab world do not have much sympathy for Hamas, because they see Islamist movements as a bit as a threat. Qatar and Algeria are an exception.
Taking into account that the vast majority of the Arab population supports the Palestinian movement in a very categorical way, obviously the Arab states are forced to also support the Palestinian movement in all its forms.
RFI: Some Latin American countries such as Brazil, Mexico or Chile insist on the need to resume the peace process. Colombian President Gustavo Petro went further, calling the Israeli response ‘terrorist’. Instead, the European Union and the United States support the Israeli counteroffensive calling for respect for humanitarian law. Two opposing readings of the conflict are evident. Is the gap between the West and the global south deepening?
Rafaelle Mauriello: Without a doubt, this is a long-term process that we had already seen before and that in what we call the West – Europe and the United States – is not perceived very well or adequately. Unfortunately, the European Union in general has reacted very badly to the crisis we are experiencing these days, with unconditional support for Israel.
Obviously any State, and Israel as a State, has the right to defend itself, but we know from Israel’s history that this defensive pretension sometimes ends in massacres, as we have seen very well in recent days.
[Occidente] He does not properly perceive the level of crisis and the level of fatigue, also cultural. That is amplified by Russia’s crisis with Ukraine. There is what we call a double standard: on the one hand, anything that Russia does in Ukraine is condemned and Israel’s own acts against the Palestinians are not condemned.
RFI: There are demonstrations in many streets of the Arab capitals with slogans against France, the United Kingdom, allies of Israel and also criticism of local governments such as in Morocco that has formalized a diplomatic rapprochement with Israel for years.
Rafaelle Mauriello: The case of Morocco is very interesting, because it is a country that has good relations with Israel for several reasons. Due to the presence of a Jewish population for many centuries, because the king truly has more political legitimacy than other representatives of other countries.
This political will, which can also be understood within the framework of relations that Morocco has with Europe and with other countries at a global level, clashes with the Arab population who are very against Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.
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