If you read about the Suez Canal,
you will know about the old attempts, which some succeeded and others came to
failure, to connect the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea or the Nile River and
the Red Sea… you will also find detailed information about the idea of
establishing a water canal between the two seas since the time of Muhammed Ali
Pasha until the idea was put into action as was later done by Ferdinand
de Lesseps.
You will also read about the techniques,
facilitations, workforce, technical supervision, legal framework, conventions,
shares and their exchange… then you will know about the debts incurred on Egypt
and the role of shares in alleviating such effect…etc.
So if you want to write about the
Suez Canal, you will always have to refer to the academic material… as we were
taught by our teachers that if you want to write about a certain subject that
has historical or political aspects; meaning academic in general… then you will
have to analyze the title and put a research plan upon which you can collect
the academic material needed from sources and references… as source is
different to reference.
If you want to add something new…
then you have to look for other sources no one reached before… like a folded
document in one of the documentation houses or a testimony written by someone
in his diaries that was not published before… or another testimony for a source
who is still alive but kept silent for some reason… or any other of the sources
known explicitly in research disciplines.
However, there is another aspect in
the subject concerning the Suez Canal I believe we still need to detect, search
and document… it’s what was hinted at by folklore in the lyrics of national songs
that shined in the time of Suez Canal nationalization and the Suez Crisis or
the Tripartite Aggression on Egypt in 1956.
I here mean the challenges faced by
the Egyptian people along with its Arab nation and how they responded to those
challenges… it was true what the British philosopher and historian Arnold J.
Toynbee wrote about the theory of challenge and response and that Egypt is a
unique model in such respect.
Now, I will go to the main point and
say that president Sisi has declared the challenge of digging a new Suez Canal
that will represent a giant project opening new scopes of development in the canal
area and its surroundings; meaning the outskirts of Delta and Sinai… and that
this project will be the first in a series of mega development projects coming in
the future.
There have been calls for the
Egyptian capitalism to take part and contribute to building the country in this
critical era of our present time… but such mean capitalism abstained.
Then the Egyptian people responded immediately
to the call when they deposited their small savings in the banks, collecting
about 65 billion Egyptian pounds – which is the expected cost of the project –
in only one week… despite all the warnings issued by terrorist muslim
brotherhood and their likes, part of the Egyptian Capitalism and some figures supposed
to belong to other political ideologies to terrify the people that their money
is going to the nowhere, the response was positive indeed…
If we went back in time to an
earlier era; that was the re-opening of the old Suez Canal after it was closed
from the years 1967 to 1975 due to the war and defeat of 1967, we will discover
another challenge that proved the Egyptian people and state have an unbreakable
will capable of responding back to challenges… as the canal was filled with
sunk and run-aground ships in addition to the remnants of war like explosive
mines and torpedoes…etc… not to the mention the damage afflicted with its infrastructure
in the waterway and guidance and rescue equipments due to the war that lasted
for years... however, the canal’s waterway was cleaned and re-operated effectively
in a very short time.
Going further back in time from the
re-opening phase to the phase of Attrition war and crossing the canal in 1973
war, we will find another legend of the Egyptians that proved their ability to
respond to challenges… as the enemy erected a massive sand wall with military fortifications
going deep inside… coming out of that sand wall were hundreds of pipes
connected to Napalm – a flammable crude oil –
reservoirs capable of burning any human or annihilating any machine activity
over the canal …
However, our army resisted alongside
the residents of the canal cities and villages… those who set off the
liberation battle that started immediately after 1967 defeat when they
responded and reacted back in the battles of Shedwan, al-Gazira al-Khadra, Ras
el-A’sh and Portfouad… when our troops started crossing the canal during the War
of Attrition, they started by individuals… then a group… then groups… until the
number of the troops which crossed the canal and executed operations behind
enemy lines reached the number of a battalion… that was before Nasser’s death
in 1970.
And so we can say that the canal
along with its cities, villages and residents have been always an essential
factor in our response to the 1967 defeat… afterwards, we started building a
wall of rockets alongside the western coast of the Suez Canal and executing the
camouflage plan where the canal played an amazing role since its waters and
sand were part of that plan… as the soldiers were asked to go swimming, have
fun and sit on the sand sucking sugar-cane reeds and playing with the ball to give
the impression that the army is relaxed and there is no hope it’s going to
fight a war.
Again we go deeper back in time to
the nationalization and the Tripartite Aggression in 1956… and how the name of
the canal in the speeches of leader Nasser was inspiring to our national will…
until our present time; meaning after 60 years, we still feel proud when we
hear his voice declaring: “a decree from the president of the republic… article
no. 1: the company of the Suez Canal shall be nationalized as an Egyptian joint
stock company”… then we hear the triumphant
shouts of the masses… while there were others waiting for the launch signal to
move and control the company’s headquarter… then came the crisis of the foreign
guides when they refused to operate the canal except for the noble Greek guides.
Diving deeper and deeper in the past,
we arrive at the time when the canal was first dug… despite the oppression,
injustice and misery suffered by our grandfathers whom some of them were
kidnapped and most of them were forced to work in digging the canal… the Egyptians’
will to work and exert effort in the most difficult times and most harsh
circumstances was evident.
And so we see that the history of
the Suez Canal is a perfect example how the Egyptian people are willing to
respond to challenges and exert all efforts to conquer them.
It’s our right and next generations’
right to know about our history as written in history records and narrated by
our ancestors.
This article
was published in Al Ahram newspaper on August 5, 2015.
To see the
original article, go to:
#alahram
#ahmed_elgammal #Egypt #Suez_Canal #1973_war #1956_war #1967_war #attrition_war
#nasser
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