struggle against the régime of King Farouk. Following the victory of the Algerian revolution over French writes for the magazine " Trois Continents.' Although you are Egyptian, you if not all of the Arab countries insist on speaking as an Arab mili- and their view of the Palestine tant. Why is that? problem. And this was true up to Never has the feeling of being Arab 5 June. shown itself as strongly as since Before 5 June, El Fatah lost more 5 June (1967). As a result of the men to the Arab security forces June crisis, people from geographithan to the Israeli security forces. cally distant places, who used to And even as recently as March see questions in terms of their this year, King Hussein of Jordan country's separate parochial deve- tried to act against El Fatah. He lopment, found themselves to be was not able to do so because, in Arabs. the eyes of the Arab masses, For example, before June, MorocFatab represents the will not to can friends of mine spoke of capitulate. King Hussein's own Mehdi Ben Barka as a tricontinen apparatus did not respond to his tal hero, as a Third World martyr. orders. a Moroccan martyr, but not as an After two months and a new agresArab. Today this is no longer sion, the whole world could see true. In Algeria, there used to be that dual power existed in Jordan. a lot of talk about 'Algeria's On Friday March 22, it was the special character'. Today Algeria militants of El Fatah, armed and defines itself as Arab.
The consciousness, or rather this uniform. who guarded the acquisition of consciousness, is be- approaches to the Karameh camp and maintained security within it. coming a reality today. I can cite That same Friday, it was also the examples of meetings in Paris, commandos of El Fatah who carAix-en-Provence, and elsewhere in Tried the coffins of the Karameh France in which I have taken part.
victims to Amman. The dignitaries The participants in these meetings no longer felt themselves to be of the Hashemite régime, were obliged to follow the cortege; and Egyptians, Yemenites, or Tunisichanging his mind after an interval ans, etc., but Arabs, and they of only a few weeks, King Hussein approached questions as Arabs.
found himself compelled to declare People used to talk about • solidarity with Palestine. Today that himself* the first of the Fedayeen. is a thing of the past! They can Has this also had repercussions in feel solidarity with the revolution- other Arab countries besides Tordan? aries in Bolivia but the problem they feel in connection with Palestine is one of engaging in a fight. sistance removed any inclinations it is the same phenomenon. How can we be of use to El Fatah? toward the compromise which That is how they pose the ques- might otherwise have appeared in tion. the other neighbouring countries Why do you believe that this and which did reveal itself fol Arabism must be accepted?
I accept Arabism because I accept the objectives of the Arab revoluAmerican wing represented by marily because they wanted this to Zakaria Mohieddine would have be so. Such irresponsible Statenot been eliminated. ments have been made in every Lotfallah Soliman, you are the war. During the war against tascist author of an essay entitled Trans- Germany, ( Ilya Ehrenburg said fer of Guilt which deals with The only good Germans are dead shifting on to the Arabs the re- Germans: Yet this was by sponsibility for the Hitlerite geno- means a reason to give up supportcide against the Jews. ing the Soviet Union against the This transfer of guilt is subjec. Nazis. tively and ven unconsciously at We are agreed that Palestine will the root of the sympathy which belong to all those who want to Israel has enjoyed in Europe, in- live there and are willing to share cluding in progressive circles. the fate of the country as PalestinDo you think that Israel's present ians. But there few who accept reprisals and its attacks on the this idea in Israel. The example refugees can open their eyes today, of 'pieds noirs' in Algeria shows open their conscience? that those who do will not be Israel cannot attack the resistance numerous. of the commandos without attack- In your essay published in Les ing the population and without Temps Modernes you wrote incurring the guilt of genocide. before the June war that victory But this fact is not new. Israel and by the Arab revolutionaries was the Zionist movement in general becoming possible. You explained were always racist by nature. The that the June war and the Pale/FI YOU.
DO IT LYING) SOME OF US. GET STILL - AND SOME SLEEP!
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A well-known Arab intellectual, Lotfallah Soliman began his political life in the International League Against Anti-Semitism in 1937. In 1946, he founded the Workers' and Students' Committee which participated in the
imperialism in 1962, he worked on the peper ' El Moudjahid.' At present he lives in Paris where he
We want a State that will remain overwhelmingly Jewish in character, composition, society, culture and spirit?