Dr Reem Abou-El-Fadl on 'The Road to Jerusalem through Tahrir Square'
Posted: 01 May 2012
Picture taken by Reem Abou-El-Fadl near Tahrir Square on 18 February 2011
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 Egypt's 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 Sadat’s 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.'
The article is featured in full on the Journal of Palestine Studies website or in pdf format here.
Dr. Reem Abou-El-Fadl is Jarvis Doctorow Junior Research Fellow in International Relations & Conflict Resolution in the Middle East