The head of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has called on Arab forces to confront
Israel and for the international community to pressure the “Zionist government
to withdraw from the land of Palestine.”
The comments by Brotherhood
General Guide Mohammed Badie came in a written statement issued May 17 to
commemorate Nakba Day, when Palestinians and other Arabs mourn Israel’s creation
in 1948.
The statement – the existence of which was revealed Wednesday by
the Investigative Project on Terrorism blog – reminds Brotherhood followers of
the movement’s decades-long “sacrifices” in efforts to destroy the Jewish
state.
“On this day, like every year, the Arab and Islamic nations
remember the worst catastrophe ever to befall the peoples of the world,” Badie
wrote in the text, translated by The Jerusalem Post. “We demand the
international community rectify the historic injustice [of 1948] and pressure
the government of the Zionist entity to withdraw from the land of
Palestine.”
The statement portrays the Arab revolts of the last 18 months
as part of an inexorable process to “liberate” land now in the State of
Israel.
“We have toppled the most repressive regimes with purpose and
determination,” Badie wrote. “We have begun the era of liberation of all
peoples, first of all the Palestinian people, [suffering from] the worst
occupation known to man – the Zionist occupation.”
Uriya Shavit, a
lecturer in Tel Aviv University’s Department for Arabic and Islamic Studies,
said those acquainted with the Brotherhood’s history will find the message
unsurprising.
“The idea that the Brotherhood doesn’t recognize the
legitimacy of Israel, and the call to eradicate it at some point, is something
the group has never denied. It’s been in Brotherhood literature from its
founding in 1928 until this very day,” Shavit said.
“What they have tried
to do, not just during the Arab Spring but before, is to try to reconcile the
ideology of never recognizing Israel, or the 1979 Egypt- Israel peace treaty,
with the understanding that if they’re to be in power, they have to be
realistic,” he added. “That’s why they offer statements like ‘We realize we will
have to recognize agreements signed by previous governments,’ but then always
add a ‘but.’”
The Brotherhood took half of Egypt’s parliamentary seats in
elections earlier this year, with even harder-line Salafis taking another
quarter. The Brothers’ presidential candidate, Mohamed Mursi, barely edged
former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq in firstround elections last month, and the
two hopefuls will meet in a runoff ballot June 16-17.
Asked about Egypt’s
peace agreement with Israel, Mursi has variously called for its revision or for
putting it to referendum. Aides to the candidate have said that if elected he
would not meet with Israeli officials, though his assistants
might.
Badie’s Nakba Day message repeatedly cites passages from the Koran
to explain political events. The Arab revolts showed popular will can topple
“corrupt regimes which knelt at the feet of the Zionists,” he wrote, adding the
Koranic verse, “They are those with whom thou didst make a covenant but they
break their covenant every time.”
“The idea is there is no point in
signing treaties with Jews – not Israelis, by the way, but Jews – because the
Koran tells you just how unreliable they are,” Shavit said. “This is rhetoric
even Hamas has used less in the past year, because it’s seen in the West as
plain anti-Semitism, albeit in Islamic garb.”
Dan Schueftan, director of
the National Security Studies Center at the University of Haifa, said the
question of Palestine has always been at the forefront of Brotherhood
doctrine.
“This rhetoric has little to do with the Palestinians, and a
lot to do with the fact that all this land is Muslim, and Israel is therefore
inherently illegitimate,” he said. “Egypt is moving from a bad situation to a
much worse one. Naturally, Israel will suffer: when Egypt can’t deal with its
own problems, it will deflect them at us.”
Nonetheless, he said, Israelis should watch developments in Egypt and across the region with a measure of both caution and confidence.
"I'm pessimistic and optimistic at the same time," he said. "Pessimistic about what's happening in the Arab world, but optimistic over Israel's ability to deal with it."