Dr Reem Abou-El-Fadl on The Road to Jerusalem through Tahrir Square
Reem Abou-El-Fadl has published a study entitled The Road to Jerusalem through Tahrir Square: Anti-Zionism and Palestine in the 2011 Egyptian Revolution as a featured article in the Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol 41, no. 2 (Winter 2012). Its conclusions form part of a broader investigation among scholars of the Arab world, seeking to understand the place of the Palestinian cause in the recent Arab uprisings.
As the abstract states, The article addresses an aspect of Egypts 2011 revolution almost entirely ignored in most Western media accounts: Israel and Palestine as prominent themes of protest. It begins by reviewing Egyptian mobilization opposing normalization and in support of the Palestinian cause starting from Sadats peace initiative of the mid-1970s. In doing so, the author shows the ways in which the anti-Mubarak movement that took off as of the mid-2000s built on the Palestine activism and networks already in place. While the trigger of the Egyptian revolution and the focus of its first eighteen days was domestic change, the article shows how domestic and foreign policy issues - and especially Israel and Palestine - were inextricably intertwined, with the leadership bodies of the revolution involved in both.
