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Op-ed: ‘The Arabs must unite above all else’ Walid Jumlat, head of Lebanese Progressive Party

Walid Jumlat is head of the Lebanese Progressive Party (PSP) and his family has been at the forefront of Lebanese politics since the 19th century. His father, Kamal Jumlat, was the founder of the PSP which came into existence after Lebanon’s independence in 1943. In 1977 Kamal Jumlat was assassinated on orders from Demascus, for refusing to give in to the Syrian government that wanted to impose its stamp on the country. Walid Jumlat rose to become the leader of the PSP and during the 1970s and 1980s managed to survive the turbulent years of the Lebanese civil war. A staunch Arab nationalist, he has opposed the governments of Syria, Israel and the United States, as well as right-wing opponents from the Maronite community. During his recent visit to Germany he spoke with Farish A Noor, discussing the state of Arab politics today.

Farish Noor: You are a Lebanese Druze and are regarded as one of the most vocal spokesmen for that particular community. But since the Lebanese civil war the situation in Lebanon and Palestine has hardly improved and the world’s attention has moved elsewhere. How would you account for that and what is your own view on how things should proceed from now on?

Walid Jumlat: Yes, I am a leader of the Druze community, and in fact I come from a long line of Druze leaders going back to my father and even before him. But the fact is that we are now caught in an impasse and our situation as a whole, for all Arabs, has gotten from bad to worse.

I maybe a leader of the Druze community, but I maintain that what is needed now is Arab unity and a common purpose above all else. Today I do not support any communitarian or sectarian demand, be it from my own community or other communities. The Druzes have to be realistic: there are only about one million of us scattered all over the world — from Lebanon to Palestine, across Syria, Jordan and the Arab states, and in the West. We are not in a position to make demands that are exclusive to the interests of others. And what is more the identity of the Druzes is a religious one — we are a branch of Ismailis. We converted and became Druze with the coming of the Fatimids, but were Arabs before that, and we are still Arabs. We need to identify ourselves with the general Arab cause.

FN: If that be the case, what would be the main objective of Arab unity today?

WJ: First and foremost, the liberation of Palestine. Palestine has to be the central concern of all Arabs, for it is fundamentally an Arab state that has been occupied. I will not mince my words: for me, all of Palestine is occupied, either directly or indirectly. All of Palestine is Arab land, and so the cause of Palestine has to be the central cause for all Arabs. Talk of settlement and negotiation has not gotten us anywhere. There have been some Arab leaders who have opted for settlement and negotiation, but this has led them to the brink of disaster. What have they achieved? They go to these settlement negotiations, and get nothing in return. In turn, Israel is getting stronger and stronger and everyday its border expands further outwards. How can there be a negotiated peaceful settlement under such circumstances? The only ones who have profited from this process are the Zionists of Israel: they are still building settlements and their wall is going up.

The so-called ‘moderate’ Arab leaders can talk all they want, and they will be given honours and awards and receive the praise of Washington, but have they managed to do anything to stop this process of Israeli expansionism? During the discussions at Oslo and Madrid they traded land for peace. In all they lost twenty per cent of our land! But what did they get in return? Is there peace in Palestine? Is there peace with the Israeli army? This is why I oppose any kind of settlement with Israel.

FN: And you think that uniting the Arabs is the only way that this predicament can be solved?

WJ: I am against dividing the Arabs any further. Look at what our sectarian politics has done to us: it has divided the Arab lands and it has turned the Arab world into the Balkans of today. Arab states are fighting each other, their governments work with other powers and conspire against each other. The people are the real victims of this sectarian conflict.

Till today the process of dividing the Arab people is going on. In Lebanon we have a fractured state that is now divided along religious, ideological and ethnic lines. Lebanon cannot even be thought of as a state anymore, and as such we are at the mercy of others.

Now the superpowers are attempting to do the same in other countries. Look at what is happening in Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq, with the Americans and their allies trying to promote sectarianism among the different communities: They use the language of multiculturalism, but what they are really doing is turning Sunni Muslims against Shia Muslims, Arabs against Kurds, Pathans against Uzbeks and Tajiks, and so on. This serves as the groundwork for a so-called ‘multicultural community’ upon which a ‘democratic system’ is to be built.

But how can you build a working democracy in societies that have been divided against themselves like that? All the United States government has done through its policies is create tension and animosity between these groups. Instead of bringing them together towards a national consensus, it has sown fear and distrust between them instead.

FN: So you are sceptical about the democratic overtures being made? Washington and its allies have been saying that its brand of democracy and its package of economic reforms are the only things that can save the Arab world. The UNDP Arab World Development report that came out last year seemed to argue that the Arab world as a whole is in a state of structural crisis. What do you say to that?

WJ: Firstly, I am not against democracy but I am against the sort of cosmetic democratic reform being proposed by Washington and Tel Aviv because I see that as just another means to weaken Arab states and open them up to foreign capital intervention. These powerful countries just want to colonise us again, and now they are using the language of democratisation to do it. Just as the Europeans did in the 19th century with their claim to want to ‘civilise’ the rest of the world.

We really are in dire straights. The way the Arab countries are run today, we are back to the early 20th century, at the time of the Sykes-Picot treaty when the British and French were dividing us and ruling us like puppets. As for the UNDP report on the Arab world, I am even more sceptical. The fact that it was authored by Arab intellectuals makes it even more embarrassing. How could they simply come to such conclusions, claiming that there has been no advance in the Arab world for the past 30 years?

This report was really intended, in my opinion, to undo all the advances that were achieved in the 1960s and 1970s, when the Arab states had greater leaders with foresight and wisdom like Gammel Abdel Nasser. The Nasserites and Baathists may have made some mistakes, but we should not denounce them entirely. They were Arab nationalists and their aim was the betterment of their people, culture and traditions. They were at least proud to be Arabs and they did their best.

But the Western powers managed to destroy them and weaken their governments. Crises such as the Suez Canal conflict and the attack on the Bank of Egypt were aimed at weakening Arab political and economic power, to make us vulnerable and weak. I do not deny that some Arab governments and leaders have made mistakes, but let us not forget that there was also a lot of manipulation behind the scenes and that the Americans and Israelis were keen to develop the image of Arabs as backward, incompetent, inherently violent and unable to govern themselves.

FN: Can you cite an example?

WJ: What better example than Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda? Today the US talks about its global war against terror, but against whom? Against Osama? Well who created Osama and Al Qaeda and the Taliban, if not the CIA?

Dr Farish A Noor is a Malaysian political scientist and human rights activist

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