In hard times, there is no other way but to promote
the nation’s mettle and revive the spirit of resilience and giving among the
people in order for their deep-rooted cultural and civilization qualities to be
revealed… and their ability to stay united and cooperate with army and police
men; those who headed the front, to get stronger.
In such regard, there are many models and examples of
giving in real Egypt to the extent of sacrificing one’s own soul… those pages of
sacrifice were written in the book of history by Egypt sons; those used to be
called civilians despite I am against this categorization into civilians and
military men… as traitors, who worked for long time to spread this conspiracy
of dismantle and disintegration into the heart of our national composition, used
this technique of categorization in order to dismantle this composition on cultural,
sectarian, and religious bases.
The first model that I would like to revive our
national memory of is what our sons in the Egyptian Navy did on the 21st
of October, 1967… meaning four months after 1967 defeat when the missile craft
Nr. 504 led by Captain Ahmed Shaker Abdelwahid al-Qareh succeeded in torpedoing
the Zionist warship “Eilat” in the Mediterranean… the missile craft crew included
21 fighters in addition to their leader Ahmed Shaker… this battle was the first
one of its kind worldwide… afterwards, another battle fought by the missile
craft Nr. 501 led by Captain Lotfi as-Sayed Gadallah took place… as the Zionist
warship “Haifa” was scuttled when it went out to save the “Eilat” crew… in
doing so, two thirds of the Zionist naval forces of warships were destroyed in
only two hours before Port Said’s shores.
That battle was the first one to revive the nation’s
mettle at that time and which raised hope once again among the armed forces
which did not have the chance to go into fight in 1967… after this glorious
act, Gamal Abdel-Nasser ordered the two heroes Ahmed Shaker Abdelwahid al-Qareh
and Lotfi Gadallah to be awarded the military Star of Honor which was the highest
rank military decoration that later was given to the martyr Abdelmonim Riad
after his death.
I have no idea why the names of hero Ahmed Shaker and
hero Lotfi Gadallah were not mentioned in Egypt celebrations of the Navy Day on
October, the 21st and why media did not talk about them or the
fighting heroes who were aboard the two missile crafts… the least to say in
such regard is “this is really improper”.
Our armed forces mourned hero Ahmed Shaker after his
death saying: “the hero who led the first battle of victory and recorded an
eternal worldwide-renowned glory in the history of Egyptian Navy… who raised Egypt’s
name high to the sky… and became an example of sacrifice for every soldier keen
on protecting his country’s sovereignty”.
After this model of sacrifice, I move with you to
other glorious pages of history written by sons of the Egyptian people in Suez…
those who caught the fire of patriotism with their own hands and who united
with their city and became one cohesive mass that nothing could beat… not the
cruelty of defeat, the strength of the enemy, or the treason of those who chose
to surrender and who took many forms since 1967 to date… none of these could hit
this cohesive mass.
It is really and deeply sorrowful that heroes of
popular resistance, especially in the great city of Suez, were not honored
either financially or morally… some of them martyred during resistance… some
died later… and those who are still alive suffer from old age and sickness.
Moreover, this great city, that is not less than
Stalingrad and other model cities of resistance, suffered and still is
suffering from negligence… I have already called upon the state represented in
its patriotic leader president Sisi to pay his attention to Suez and to
compensate it for the decades of intentional negligence and make it a national distinguished
city glowing with culture and awareness in addition to its beauty that came
from its resilience and resistance of its people.
Of those who stayed alive of resistance heroes until
now the patriot fighter Ahmed Otaifi and resistance fighter Abdelmonim Qenawi…
each one of them had his role that integrated with roles of other heroes who will
not go forgotten in the humanitarian and national history… even if forgotten amid
the lights of media whenever the victory anniversary is celebrated.
It is really important to focus in our present time on
models of popular resilience and great resistance that Suez along with its
people represented a unique example for… as we, especially in this very time,
are in bad need to revive the public mettle of the nation and bring the most
noble qualities of the Egyptian humanitarian composition to light.
In his book “Suez… a tale of a city”, the patriotic
late friend Mr. Hamed Hasab listed the minor details of what happened prior to
June 5, 1967 and what followed next until after the victory of October, 1973
and incidents of great resistance that started by donating blood to the extent
that the hospitals issued a statement calling upon all people who came in big
numbers to donate blood… that the fridges were full and they had to keep the
blood in their veins in case they needed it later… and not ending by the armed confrontation
with the Zionist enemy to deter its attempt to control the great city that
survived a more-than-100-days siege.
The resisting people in Suez realized that the enemy
practices his aggression on three main fronts… the first is a cultural
aggression represented in bringing in cultures targeting constructive values and
spreading factors of dismantle and indifference… cultures targeting our
spiritual and national legacy and working on erasing them, disconnecting the
nation from its legacy and weakening the collective awareness of the national
identity… and how close we are today to what happened at that time.
The second is a political and economic aggression
represented in bringing in monopolizing investments that not only did they loot
the national resources but also were main points where anti-revolution powers
in the society can gather around… and which constitute a political burden
hindering the nation from going on its progressive liberation struggle.
The third is a military aggression, either systematic
or terrorist, that combines with the previous forms of aggression… due to the
limited space allowed, I will continue writing about the epic of Suez city as a
model of popular resistance and resilience later.
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
This article was published in
Al Ahram newspaper on October 26, 2017.
To see the original article,
go to:
#alahram #ahmed_elgammal
#Egypt #Suez #resistance
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