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Israel-Gaza war
This Week in AsiaPeople

Gaza war sharpens Arab world’s grievances against Israel: ‘peace is only on paper’

  • From Egypt to the Gulf, many have been left feeling ‘frustrated and depressed’ by their governments’ inability to stop the killing of Palestinians
  • The lack of any meaningful action by Arab countries reveals the gap between their leaders’ positions and public perceptions of the war

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Protesters on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with Gaza hold placards denouncing the killing of civilians during a rally at the site last month. Photo: AFP
Zafirah Mohamed Zein

“Palestine is everything [to us],” said 25-year-old Egyptian artist Mohamed Sherif. “And if you ask every person on the street what they think, they will tell you the same thing. Men here feel ashamed of ourselves when we look at the men in Gaza who are killed while protecting their land and their families.”

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Sitting in a coffee shop in a narrow alleyway in downtown Cairo, he turned towards the table next to him and asked, “Right?” The two young men in seated there nodded gravely, brows furrowed. Overhearing the conversation, an older man who worked there put his hand on his heart solemnly.

Across the region, millions have taken to the streets in an outpouring of anger against Israel’s ongoing onslaught on Gaza. Other than Bahrain and Jordan’s symbolic recalling of their ambassadors, none of the other Arab countries that have diplomatic ties with Israel have taken stronger action to end the bloodshed, revealing the gap between their leaders’ positions and public perceptions of the war.
Protesters shout anti-Israel slogans during a rally to show solidarity with the people of Gaza after Friday in Cairo on October 20. Photo: AP
Protesters shout anti-Israel slogans during a rally to show solidarity with the people of Gaza after Friday in Cairo on October 20. Photo: AP
The tense sentiments on the street span Egypt, one of the first nations in the Arab world to recognise Israel and establish a peace treaty with it in 1979, to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which normalised relations with Israel through the Abraham Accords in 2020, alongside Bahrain.

In Egypt, the atmosphere is heavy and anxious. The Rafah crossing on its border with Gaza is the sole way in and out of the besieged strip, meaning the country is set to become ground zero for a huge influx of Palestinian refugees if the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate.

According to the Gazan health ministry, as of Friday more than 10,500 people had been killed and around 26,000 injured by Israel’s relentless bombardment and ground invasion, launched in response to a deadly incursion into Israel by militant group Hamas on October 7. Craig Mokhiber, who recently resigned as director of the UN office for the high commissioner for human rights, called Israel’s actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank “a textbook case of genocide”.

“I am frustrated and depressed,” said Amr Mohy, 37, a journalist from Cairo. “This is the feeling of every Egyptian and every Arab. We are watching children, young people and old people being killed every day, live on social media. Israel makes a threat every now and then, like the possibility of dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza, and a plan to evacuate Palestinians to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.”

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