Papers of Dialogue - 1 - 2011 - English

Editorial InterculturalDialogue

Geopolitics Insights

The beginning of a new journey

no1 December 2011

Papers of Dialogue:no 1 – December 2011

Editor in chief:Roberto Iadicicco

Editorial team coordinator:Daniele Atzori

Marketing & Communication:Laura Brunetti (Coordinator), Patrizia Arizza

Photography:AFP (pages 08, 28)www.123rf.com (pages 16, 23, 34, 35)Carlos Latuff - twitter.com/carloslatuff (page 12)Global Services Incorporation archives (pages 19, 26,30)

Editing and production:AGI, Via Ostiense, 72 – 00154 Rome – [email protected]

Layout Concept & Consultancy:Global Services Incorporation

Printing:Raidy | www.raidy.com

Translated by:Roma Congressi

Publisher AGI SPA:Chairman and CEO: Daniela ViglioneGeneral Director: Alessandro PicaAGI, Via Ostiense, 72 – 00154 Rome – Italy

www.agi.it

Editorial

The beginning of a new journeyRoberto Iadicicco

Intercultural Dialogue

Reading the Papers of Dialogue togetherAmer Al Sabaileh

Egypt: a journey through pluralismRassmea Salah

European policies towards the Mediterranean: an overall assessmentSuhair El Qarra

Geopolitics

The army’s role and potential alternatives Giulio Sapelli

Syria and Lebanon: is a new scenario possible?Hadi El Amine

Egypt and Israel: army and energy securityAhmed S. Fahmy

Insights

The Turkish modelAlice Marziali

Realism in Arab cinemaMajdi Korbai

The scent of jasmineMarta Bellingreri

Cultural dialogue in the kitchen Lilia Zaouali

Editorial InterculturalDialogue

Geopolitics Insights


no 1 December 2011

TABLE OF CONTENT

06

08

12

14

18

22

25

28

32

34

36


of Dialogue” therefore has the potential to be avaluable platform, a place for policy makers,academics and intellectuals the world over todeliberate and compare notes, with a particularfocus on issues pertaining to countries in theMiddle East, North Africa and the Mediterranean.It should come as no surprise that thismagazine came to be in Italy, a country whichbuilt bridges between Europe and theMediterranean at the height of its glory, andflourished owing to the contributions of otherpeoples and cultures. The Mediterranean,open seas for thousands of years, a placewhere trade prospers and cultures meet, hasalways been a shared space in which thepeoples of Europe, North Africa and theMiddle East have come together and come toknow one another. The Mediterranean’s openwaters can be seen as a metaphor fortomorrow’s world. This project came about, infact, within the context of a decision on thepart of the Agenzia Giornalistica Italia (Italiannews agency) to tackle the challenges ofglobalization, launching portals such as AGIAfro, AGI China and AGI Arab.Within the framework of these initiatives, thismagazine endeavours, on the one hand, toprovide prime geopolitical analysis, comparingthe work of Arab and European academics. Onthe other hand, its goal is to explore dialogue’sroots, travelling through the Mediterranean,North Africa and Europe’s history, culture andtraditions. To this end, we aim to place particularimportance on the voices of women and youth,hoping they will play a bigger role in building abetter future, a peaceful one, for our nations.This first edition lays the groundwork for whatwe hope will turn into a fascinating adventure.Our journey is about to begin.

Roberto IadiciccoEditor in chief

06 | Papers of Dialogue

This is the beginning of a journey. A journeywhose aim is to embark on and exploreold and new paths alike, a journey toward

mutual awareness. The title, “Awraq Al Hiwar.Papers of Dialogue”, was deliberately chosen tohighlight our wish to spark an interest in anopen, polyphonic and pluralist dialogue. As theHoly Quran says, “O mankind! We created youfrom a single (pair) of a male and a female andmade you into nations and tribes that ye mayknow each other” (49:13). The sacred scriptureinvites us to ponder the fact that humankind isdivided into different peoples and tribes sothat diversity might constantly act as a triggerfor us to get to know one another in a mutuallyenriching process.This magazine aims to overcome the notion ofa clash of civilizations, that prejudice whichsuggests there is an “us” which stands incontrast to a “them”, for example a conflictbetween the West and the Arab or Muslimworld. Indeed, many of the magazine's authorscannot even be classified as Westerners orArabs. Our authors include young people ofArab descent who have grown up in or gone toschool or university in Europe and feel bothlike European and Arab citizens. We also haveEuropean authors who, after having spent timeliving in Arab countries, fell in love with theirpeople, landscapes and cultures to the pointwhere they, too, feel part-Arab.This publication also strives to tell their stories,to listen to their voices, accepting the fact that aperson's identity is a complex and mercurialphenomenon which cannot be reduced to an“us” and “them” binary rationale. Identities andcultures are not fixed entities, but rather livingand breathing social constructs which constantlyintermingle and blend. “Awraq Al Hiwar. Papers

NEWS BECOMESAN ASSET

From the news and media professionals an additional resource for understanding global events.News, analyses, in-depth coverages and reports on a variety of issues and current events.Everything one needs to grow and address the distant future.With Agenzia Italia you will sail the seas of new opportunities.

www.agi.itAgenzia ItaliaWith

Everything one ne

wa you will sail the seaseeds to grow and addr

.agi.itwwws of new opportunities.ress the distant future.

.


eugolaid larutlucretnI

Reading the Papers of Dialoguetogether

A magazine that prompts interculturalcommunication, focusing on the differentidentities that form the Mediterranean andArab world. A bridge that helps mutualknowledge and understanding.


M any miles distant from the dreamsand memories of a particular life andtime, there persists a recollection of

the history of civilisation and the milestonesof culture with their personalities andsymbols, their deeds and words.Perhaps the most important thing whichdistinguishes the period in which we arecurrently living is the dramatic speed ofchange, which has broken down all barriers,carried people across frontiers and left noroom for restraints. The Papers of Dialogue exist to build bridgesof dialogue, to cross the abyss which all thepompous slogans, all the initiatives incapableof moving from theory to practice failed tocross, despite numerous attempts made by somany of us in the hope of a brighter future forthe Mediterranean.The bridge between cultures remains thegreatest challenge. Our hope today, therefore,is that the Papers of Dialogue initiative willplay an important role in interculturalcommunication at this historical time; at thesame time avoiding errors of the past, such asthe Mediterranean Initiative which stressed theimportance of fusing all the identities of the

Papers of Dialogue | 09

Amer Al Sabaileh


southern and eastern Mediterranean into onesingle identity, and completely overlooked themany different forms of heritage and history,of societal concepts, of local and religiousidentity.Accepting others in their historical truth andtheir local identity is the foundation uponwhich to build pluralism and will be the basisfor intellectual and cultural communication.The Mediterranean Sea, which separates suchexalted historical civilisations, nonethelessreconciles differences, because the sea whichdivides also unites.The Papers of Dialogue will play a pivotal rolein creating the cultural mosaic of theMediterranean, throwing light on the culturaland creative essence of Mediterranean people.It seeks to present itself as a pulpit forcivilisation, a cultural forum set up by men andwomen of culture as a vehicle for their concernsand problems, and as a way to share with oneanother their joys and successes, their hopesand dreams of a better life for everyone.Readers will be able to leaf through the variousPapers of Dialogue, the aim of which is toestablish knowledge and understanding amongthe peoples of the Mediterranean. Intellectualcommunication is the basis for achieving suchunderstanding, and this is the main goal whichwe who dwell in the Mediterranean basin areseeking. Thus we hope that each Paper ofDialogue will have an important role in creatinga better tomorrow, a tomorrow where peace anddignity triumph, where cooperation, harmonyand understanding prevail. The Papers ofDialogue will be the place in which differencesare administered, in which ideological andintellectual contrasts come together, and differentvoices find a receptive and understanding ear.Perhaps the bridging role played by thePapers of Dialogue will not be limited to afleeting contact but will help us return to the

historical roots of cultural relations, andbecome an important factor in identifying thepositive aspects of historical relationshipsamong civilisations. Indeed, rereading thepast in terms of today’s civilisation is thebuilding block with which to reinforce theconcept of cultural cooperation and exchange,in order to build a better present and abrighter future. A wise reading of the past isthe foundation for building culture today andthe brush with which to paint the canvas of aradiant tomorrow.However, cultural exchange faces variousproblems including the thorny inheritance andthe controversies of the past. These have notbeen dealt with thoughtfully and transparently,because many people prefer to paint a rosierpicture and to overlook disputes of former times,seeking to hide them and failing to understandthat a bygone disagreement is not necessarily apresent obstacle, so long as we face up to thesequestions with complete transparency and all ofus recognise our mistakes; for it is human natureto be in error and all of us are at fault. What thenremains are the deep-rooted disputes whichsurface from time to time and represent thebiggest challenge facing any attempt to bringcivilisations together. Thus, the Papers ofDialogue must work to overcome the disputesof the past, to eradicate their divisive influenceand put an end to cultural crises. Yesterday’sdispute can be reread in a completely differentway today, and can become a vehicle forconvergence and understanding.Dialogue remains the best mean for approachingand communicating with others. It is the onlyattribute we possess on this earth and, makinggood use of it, there is no doubt that we willchange our differences from weapons of conflictto elements of attraction and convergence. Atthis historical moment in which the people of theearth share the same destiny, the time has come

Intercultural dialogue


for all of us to contemplate others as if lookinginto a mirror, a mirror of objective truth whichadmits no distortion or diminution, so as to putourselves in the place of others before seeking todescribe or judge them.None of us can deny the important role culturehas in fomenting knowledge and awareness insocieties. It is here that the Papers of Dialoguecome in to complete the picture, creating newcultural circumstances capable of overcomingobjective worldly limitations and geographicalobstacles, and demonstrating that constraintsto our physical movements cannot apply to ourideas, which cross borders and break allshackles. We must work together to promotehumanitarian values, especially among theoppressed peoples on earth whom the politicsof repression and tyranny have caused to losetheir humanity. Any cultural initiative whichhopes to meet with success must understand theimportance of finding a new framework for thesentiments of victims of oppression. Feelings of

humanity and security are a basic humanitariannecessity, similar to the need for food andclothing. We all hope that the Papers of Dialoguewill fill this gap and come to represent the modelwe are still hoping to find, a broad cultural modelwhich has faith in intellectual pluralism, differingschools of thought and opposing opinions, butwhich also believes in the sacredness of humanexistence and strives to find suitable ground fora better life for all human beings withoutexception, within a context of justice, equality,brotherhood, compassion, friendship and peace.

http://amersabaileh.blogspot.com


Building bridges of dialogue



Egypt:a journey throughpluralism

Rassmea Salah

A young woman’s return to her country of origin and the discovery of a new world bubbling with turmoil. A complex, diverse and surprising place.

About a year and a halfago I decided to embarkon a new adventure and

come here to Cairo to see whatmy country of origin might stillhave to offer. I set off with theaim to enhance my knowledgeof Egypt’s culture, to loosen mytongue and practice the dialect,to turn my gaze inwards andengage in a little self-analysis,of myself as a person, as awoman and as a Muslim.Amid the tons of luggage Ibrought with me lay also a lot ofpreconceived notions and preju-dices regarding the world I wasabout to re-enter. The so-calledArab-Islamic world, a post-colo-nial, static world, accustomed toletting itself be led, or to beingstuck with absolutist, hereditaryand oppressive governments. A motionless world, forever trueto itself and chained to its traditions.I was sure this was bound to be a journeyinto the past, yet I found myself facing thedawn of the future. Dazed and astounded, Iwitnessed the beginning of the Arab Spring, theawakening of consciousness, the mass

protests. I watched the history of Egypt unfoldbefore me at one of its most delicate and cru-cial moments. The year had begun with thetragic terrorist attack on a church in Alexan-dria, right when worshipers had gathered to


celebrate mass and bring in the new year. Thebombing was a deliberate attempt to worsenrelations between Muslims and Copts and todraw the public’s eye away from the firstsigns of unrest in Tunisia. It failed on bothfronts. Just a week after that devastating at-tack, I happened to attend the funeral of aMuslim colleague’s father. I went to the fu-neral with a Catholic Egyptian friend (a mi-nority within a minority) who was wearing anecklace with a gold, cross-shaped pendant,offset by her black clothes. The prayer room slowly filled with women, allof whom were wearing a veil, and some ofwhom were wearing a niqab (full veil whichcovers the face). Out of respect, my friend took out a smallscarf she had in her bag and used it to coverher head. A few minutes later, my colleaguecame in, took her aside and gave her someprayer booklets to hand out to the mourners.It was beautiful to see how he had instinc-tively chosen her for the task among manyMuslim relatives and friends, without givingany thought to any differences or to what thefamily members might think or say about hischoice. It was a small, simple gesture, yet itcompletely nullified the misintentioned at-tempts of those who had tried to create walls,barriers and gaps between Egypt’s Muslimsand Christians. That day I watched my friend,with her cross pendant sitting on her chestand her makeshift, lopsided veil, handing outthe prayer books to women who were wear-ing a veil or a niqab. The pain erased all the differences; we wereall just human beings mourning the loss of aman, gathered in prayer for him. The mosttouching thing of all was the way severalwomen approached my friend after the fu-neral to give her their condolences for the vic-tims of the Alexandria bombing. I’ll neverforget that image: looks of deep empathy,handshakes, hugs, kisses and eyes full oftears. Then and there I truly came to under-stand the feeling of unity which connectsEgyptians, who feel they are the offspring ofone Mother, citizens of a single country,notwithstanding their religious differences.

Then came the Revolution, Hosni Mubarakstepped down and this country held its firstreal elections, which many people predict willbe won by the Muslim Brotherhood’s “El Hor-reya Wel Adala” (Freedom and Justice) Party.What many people fail to see, however, is thediversity in Egyptians’ choices when castingtheir ballots. And the spontaneity and open-ness with which they proclaim their preferencefor one political party or another, out loud. Forget the notion that “votes are secret”which we’re used to back home. Over here,every day at work I see my colleagues non-chalantly asking others for whom they’vevoted. And the answer is always given outloud, in public, and backed up by more thanone line of reasoning. I can feel the stirring, the interest and the in-volvement sparked by public matters. I sensean active and heartfelt participation in thecountry’s politics, a great yearning for changeand for freedom of choice. I see colleagueswho support the Muslim Brotherhood tellingCoptic colleagues why they should be votingfor the Horreya Party; I see Muslims with a ze-biba (prayer bump) on their forehead an-nouncing they have voted for the Coptic “ElKotla El-Masreya” Party; I see people clad injeans and a T-shirt voting for the Salafi “Hizben-Nur” Party. And after the political debate,everyone goes off to lunch together.It’s a great mosaic where the different piecescoexist and combine to compose that splen-did heterogeneous Egyptian landscape,multi-ethnic and multi-faith, brimming withcontradictions, but also with original and sur-prising combinations.



The history of the EU-Mediterranean rela-tions has been shaped by many frame-works of cooperation which differ for

nature and rationale. The next section will de-scribe the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP),the Euro-Neighbourhood (ENP) and the Union forthe Mediterranean (UfM): cooperation agree-ments stipulated in order to improve cooperativeeconomic relations between Europe and itsSouthern Mediterranean shore.

Frameworks of Euro-Mediterraneancooperation: From GMC to EMP

Since the beginning of the 1970s, some Euro-pean states have shown a renewed political andeconomic interest in the Mediterranean area2. Ac-

European policies towardsthe Mediterranean:an overall assessment

Suhair El Qarra

A brief analysis of the main initiatives adopted by the European states to its Southern periphery during the last thirty years. Some final suggestionsfor new strategies of cooperation in order to promote an effective constructionof a Mediterranean region of peace, security and shared prosperity1.


cordingly, by the mid-70s the European EconomicCommunity (EEC) elaborated the Global Mediter-ranean Policy (GMC), a series of bilateral co-operation agreements stipulated with SouthMediterranean countries aimed at regulating andguarantying preferential trade relations in ex-change for European grants and loans3.Although a vein of European interest towards theMediterranean region has always been mani-fested during the past centuries, it must be no-ticed that the European involvement in thecooperation with Mediterranean countries gainedmore salience only in the post Cold War era4.In the early 1990s, in effect, the European Com-mission began to consider how it could improvethe Euro-Mediterranean relationship as an at-tempt to tackle regional instability. Therefore, the

1. Peace, security and shared prosperity, The Barcelona Process,http://eeas.europa.eu/euromed/barcelona_en.htm2. In 1978, entered into force both “The Barcelona Convention on Protection of the Mediterranean” (signedin February 1976) and “The Cooperation agreements with Maghreb countries (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia), the Mashreq countries (Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon) and additional financialprotocols with Israel, Portugal and Malta”- http://europa.eu/about-eu/eu-history/1970-1979/1978/index_it.htm3. Ayadi, R. and Gadi, S., The future of Euro-Mediterranean regional cooperation: The role of the Union for theMediterranean, European Institute of the Mediterranean, EuroMeSCo papers No. 7 20114. Ibid.


European Union made it clear from the outsetthat it would pursue political and strategic aimsin the region by using economic tools5. For thesake of this purpose in 1995, with the adoptionof the Barcelona Declaration, the BarcelonaProcess come into begin creating the basis forthe launch of the so called Euro-MediterraneanPartnership (EMP)6. During the Barcelona confer-ence held in November of the same year, Euro-pean member states and some SouthMediterranean countries (Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt,Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestinian Au-thority, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey) gathered to-gether with an attempt to renew the frameworksof cooperation agreements7 in a logic of a widermultilateral regional partnership8.The EMP framework of cooperation focuses onthe stipulation of Association Agreement aimedat establishing a Mediterranean Free Trade Area(EMFTA) and donation of founds to support re-structuring of Mediterranean Partner Countries9.Focused on regionalism, the EMP covers manyaspects of multilateral cooperation aimed at in-creasing the economic growth of both EU mem-bers and South Mediterranean partners.

Frameworks of Euro-Mediterraneancooperation: From EMP to ENP

For almost a decade the EMP has regulated theEuropean relations with its Southern shore but,with the EU enlargement and extension of itsEastern borders in 2004, the EU urged a revi-sion of its external relations policy10. Thus, the

2003 was the ripe year for the European Com-mission to elaborate a new set of bilateralagreements based on a single standard ap-proach valid for both Eastern and SouthernMediterranean countries11: The European Neigh-bourhood Partnership (ENP)12.If the main objective of the EMP strategy wasto strengthen political and socio-economicties between the EU and the twelve SouthernMediterranean partner states, the main ENP’sfocus, instead, has been shifted on a widerexternal approach aimed at establishing abuffer zone of EU’s friends alongside the EUEastern borders (only later the ENP was ex-tended to the EU’s Southern Mediterraneanneighbours)13. Although the new framework forrelations with EU’s neighbours came into ex-istence within the framework of EU’s externalcooperation, it widely differs from the EMPmultilateral approach.The ENP operates on individual bases throughbilateral Association Agreements and ActionPlans. Therefore, within the ENP policy, the re-gional dimension is put aside in favour of lim-ited and specific bilateral cooperation goals14.Although they differ for nature and rationale, theENP and EMP coexist when it comes to regulatethe EU cooperation policies with Mediterraneanpartners. The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM)will be conceptualized with an attempt to revi-talize Euro-Mediterranean relations already reg-ulated by EMP and ENP approaches in order toovercome criticisms over the incompatibility ofthe previous agreements.

5. Schmid D. (2003) Interlinkages within the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership: linking economic, institu-tional and political reform – conditionality within the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, EuroMeSCo PaperNo. 27, p.76. The Barcelona Process, http://eeas.europa.eu/euromed/barcelona_en.htm7. Preamble, Barcelona Declaration adopted at the Euro-Mediterranean Conference, 27-28/11/958. Comelli, M., Approach of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP): Distinctive Features and Differ-ences with the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP), Institute of International Affairs, 2005, p. 79. Kuiper, M., Euro-Mediterranean Partnership State of affairs and key policy and research issues, LEI,2004, p.9 10. Attinà F. and Rossi, R., European Neighbourhood Policy: Political, Economic and Social Issues, The JeanMonnet Centre “Euro-Med” Department of Political Studies, 2004, p. 811. Russia, plus ten Southern Mediterranean countries (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Mo-rocco, Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia) and three Western Newly Independent States (WNIS) (Ukraine,Moldova, Belarus)



portation and illegal migration, the UfM shouldguarantee and increase the security and stabil-ity of the Mediterranean region16. This newframework of relations has been criticised bysome scholars who accused the UfM promot-ers for having recycled obsolete ideas alreadyembodied in previous cooperation agreements.As Kristina Kausck and Richard Youngs pointout: the Union for the Mediterranean is not anew lease of life but another nail in the coffinof the vision that infused the inception of theEMP in 199517. The UfM has been the last ini-tiative promoted with an attempt to create a

Frameworks of Euro-Mediterraneancooperation: From ENP to UfM

The 13th July 2008 signed a new stage in thecontext of Euro-Mediterranean cooperation: theUnion for the Mediterranean (UfM) waslaunched to re-frame EU’s relation towards theMediterranean for the first time conceived intrans-Mediterranean terms15. This new approachrecovered some principles of regionalism alsopresent in the EMP multilateral framework. By focusing on issues such as environmentalsubstitutability, de-pollution, regional trans-

12. See Commission of the European Communities, Wider Europe-Neighbourhood: A New Frameworkfor Relations with our Eastern and Southern Neighbours, Communication from the Commission to theCouncil and the European Parliament, Brussels, 11 March 2003, COM(2003) 104 final; Commission ofthe European Communities, European Neighbourhood Policy - Strategy Paper, Communication from theCommission, Brussels, 12 May 200413. Del Sarto, R. and Schumacher, T., From EMP to ENP: What’s at Stake with the European Neighbour-hood Policy towards the Southern Mediterranean?, European Foreign Affairs Review 10: 17-38, 2005, p. 1914. Attinà F. and Rossi, R., European Neighborhood Policy: Political, Economic and Social Issues, TheJean Monnet Centre “Euro-Med”Department of Political Studies, 2004, p. 12



15. George Joffé, ‘European policy and the southern Mediterranean’, in Y. Zoubir and H. Amirah-Fernández,eds. North Africa: politics, region, and the limits of transformation (London: Routledge, 2008), p. 323.16. Roberto Aliboni, George Joffé, Erwan Lennon, Azzam Mahjoub, Abdallah Saaf and Alvaro VasconcelosUnion for the Mediterranean: building on the Barcelona acquis, ISS report 1, 13 May 2008, p. 24.17. Kausch,K. And Youngs, R., The End of the Euro-Mediterranean vision, International Affairs, 85: 5, 200918. Ibid.19. For further readings on Neoliberalism see R. Keohane and J. Nye20. Solingen, E., Mare Nostrum? The Sources, Logic and Dilemmad of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, Institute of European Studies, 200421. Sarup, M., Identity, Culture and the Postmodern World, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburg, 1996, p. 98

stabile and prosper Mediterranean area, yet.Unfortunately, current cooperation policies donot constitute a sustainable and effective for-ward-looking strategy able to reach that ambi-tious goals18.

Conclusions

The rationale behind the EMP, ENP and UfMframeworks laid on Neoliberal assumptions. Neoliberals generally assert that the promotionof economic cooperation and free trade amongcommunities would help economic growthspreading, therefore, economic prosperity, sta-bility and peace19. This article has shown thatthe Neoliberal paradigm did not prove to beexhaustive when it came to regulate the Euro-Mediterranean relations. An effective forward-looking strategy of Euro-Mediterraneancooperation should be able to integrateNeoliberal claims with social-Constructivist as-sertions. For what concerns the EU’s strategiesadopted vis-à-vis the Southern Mediterraneanpartners, it could be noted how, neither EMPnor ENP have put particular attention to the social interaction between people whichgenerally construct common values and princi-ples of cooperation just by interacting withtheir changeable social environment20. Put dif-ferently, Social interaction would normalize re-lationship among different communitiescreating the values the basis for every suc-cessful socio-economic cooperation plan.To this purpose, the European states membersand the South Mediterranean partner countriesshould invest in youth education. Moreover, EU’sinstitutions should extend student mobilisation

programs (such as Erasmus and Leonardo daVinci) to the students of the Mediterranean part-ners. They should also promote a youth Euro-Med platform for critical dialogue andinformational purposes. In other words, as M.Sarup points out, only by comprehending thatnot only Identity is a construction but it is alsoa consequence of interaction between people,institutions and practices21 that an effective for-ward-looking Euro-Mediterranean strategy of co-operation would come into existence.


References:

- Ayadi, R. and Gadi, S., The future of Euro-Mediter-ranean regional cooperation: The role of the Unionfor the Mediterranean, European Institute of theMediterranean, EuroMeSCo papers No. 7 2011- Attinà F. and Rossi, R., European NeighborhoodPolicy: Political, Economic and Social Issues, TheJean Monnet Centre “Euro-Med”Department of Politi-cal Studies, 2004- Del Sarto, Raffaella and Schumacher, T., From EMPto ENP: What’s at Stake with the European- Neighbourhood Policy towards the SouthernMediterranean?, European Foreign Affairs Review 10:17-38, 2005- Schmid D. (2003) Interlinkages within the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership: linking economic, institu-tional and political reform – conditionality within theEuro-Mediterranean Partnership, EuroMeSCo PaperNo. 27: December 2003 (Lisbon)- Kuiper, M., Euro-Mediterranean Partnership State ofaffairs and key policy and research issues, LEI, 2004- Joffé, G., The Status of the Euro-MediterraneanPartnership, Lisboan Institute of strategic and inter-national studies (IEEI), 2008- Comelli, M., Approach of the European Neigh-bourhood Policy (ENP): Distinctive Features andDifferences with the Euro-Mediterranean Partner-ship (EMP), Institute of International Affairs, 2005


The army’s role and potential alternatives

Giulio Sapelli

The modernization process in North Africanand Middle Eastern countries has often seenmilitary forces play a key role. The military’spower can only be curtailed once qualifieddomestic powers stabilize the political andeconomic situation.

scitilopoeG

There’s no doubt that we have come to aturning point in the transformationprocess underway in North Africa and in

the Middle East. Indeed, we are witnessing theend of the transformation process in the politicaland military – and therefore international – weightand relevance of this region that started as earlyas in 1979. This is an area that is multi-faceted,inhomogeneous and multifarious. The new coursedid not start with the “Arab springs” but whenEgypt put an end to its global alignment with theUnited States in the aftermath of its seriousmilitary defeats. It was thus viewed as thebulwark of the USSR and as the most powerfulfactor (together with Turkey, but this will not beaddressed here) in fostering the irreversiblestability of Israel. This process made a breachnot only in the taboo of Nasser’s pan-Arabismbut also in the ideological postulates ofBaathism, which had its founders in Iraq andSyria. These quickly turned into the builders ofnational powers that were extremely importantin maintaining the Metternich-designed balanceof power in the Middle East and North Africa,which had recently arisen from the Englishdominion only a few decades earlier (it’senough to consider the history of the UnitedArab Emirates to get a clear picture of the

region’s persisting instability). On the onehand, almost with a view to remotelycounterbalancing the power of Iran, right afterWW II Saudi Arabia immediately configureditself as a tribal State although it was woventogether through the most refined techniquesof North American intelligence, which destinedit to be the operating headquarters of alldissuasive operations – whether relatively toenergy or not – which might have turned out tobe necessary anywhere from Morocco to Jordanand from Egypt to the border with Iran, duringthe dramatic and albeit inevitable irreversibledowngrading of the historical role of France andthe UK; a degradation that the Libya war shouldremind us of. The so-called “Arab springs” led usto think that this concert of Nations withextremely diverse ideological origins andeconomic interconnections with the rest of theworld could be configured into a meshwork ofterritorial representations of interests that, for thesake of brevity, we commonly call “democracy”. Ameshwork however in which extreme Islamicfundamentalisms have no hearsay. But the realityis in fact quite different. This is easy to understandif we take the perspective of political scientistsand of modernization. Although they failed toachieve the goal of merging, both in theory andin practice, modernization and democracy, theywere nonetheless right in claiming, alreadyseveral years ago, that all modernization andabrupt transformation processes need asocietal backbone, issuing from rebellion orcollapse, in order for them to solidify. Now, ifsocieties feature very low levels of institutionalintegration and nation-building – according toclassical Anglo-Saxon canons – the backbonecannot be put in place according to political

scitilopoeG

representation models but rather according to apower model centred on the army, and not onlyfrom a military point of view. Indeed, it is thearmy that victoriously comes out as the crux ofthe albeit limited but inevitable statutality thatwill have to be implemented in the aforesaidmeshwork of nations. Dismantling the army

would lead these countries on the brink ofchaos: suffice it to take the example of theterrible bloodshed triggered in Iraq whenimprovident American envoys dismantled thepolice and the army, inspired by the typicalstupidity of ideological fanaticism. Society fellinto an abyss from which it has not yet arisen


ymra naitpygE


consensus, represents the irreversibility ofmilitary dominion. Moreover, the role of thearmy is very strong also in the “sacred”monarchies acknowledged throughout Islambecause of their direct line of descendentsfrom the Prophet: I’m primarily thinking of thehistorical role played by Jordan in amulti-religious, multi-tribal context. The armysurrounds the Hashemite monarchy with itsarmy of Bedouins and Circassian loyalists, whoare ready to fight off all internal and externaladversaries (remember the extermination ofPalestinians). Groups of Western leaderswonder what can be done although, in myopinion, they continue to not understand theregion’s historical specificities that can in noway be eliminated. The Western world or,better said, what remains of it, namely only itseconomic interests, both oil-related and not,thinks that it is necessary to limit the power ofthe army in these States. I think that the West’sprimary duty is to stabilize the area byre-launching its production and miningactivities, by supporting the local forces thatare best-suited to do this. This is the first goalto be achieved in a context in which Iran isincreasingly losing weight, both diplomaticand economic, although it is still capable ofplaying a prevailing ideological role. Thepriority is thus to stabilize Syria, with orwithout Assad, by negotiating a peaceprocess primarily aimed at the security ofIsrael, already threatened by the vacuum ofpower produced in the Sinai, which is nolonger controlled against terrorist infiltrationsas in the past. This shows that the Egyptianmilitary is engaged on too many fronts.This is why the Egyptian elections, just asthose in Tunisia, can only but help strike abalance with the new relevance acquired bythe Muslim Brotherhood, which is far morewilling to dialogue on the current need formodernizing policies than it is made out tobe. But, in order to achieve this, it isnecessary to realistically recognize the roleof the armed forces, whether they bepost-Baathist or post-Pan-Arabian. The timeof old ideologies is over and done with: newones will arise.

and that delayed the withdrawal of foreignground troops by many years. To confirm mystatements, it is enough to look at the otherextreme of the reasoning and of reality. Sufficeit to shift our glance to Algeria, which hasremained immobile with imperceptible wavesof unrest that could be defined by anoxymoron that well represents the force oftechnocracy and of bureaucracy in a rentierState governed through a military dictatorshipwhose backbone is an army that, once itsformer Premier Ben Bella was eliminated, neverstopped presenting and representing itself asthe winner of the revolution for independence.Furthermore functionally speaking, the armybecomes increasingly central when Nations donot coincide with States, as in the case at hand.These, before becoming States, were secularlygrounded on personal and corporative powers,but beware, not only tribal, but mainly on thoseof an Islam that is traditionally more varied anddivided than any other religion in the world.These powers were fought until those States triedto establish a new internal equilibrium betweendifferent Nations after the collapse of the colonialand post-colonial dominion in the yearsimmediately following the Suez conflict (1956).This new equilibrium had to distinguish itselffrom the colonial divide et impera strategy,although they did not always prove to besuccessful. International public opinion foundthis out during the unexpected, and still widelyunexplained, fall of the regime in Libya, whoseregions were still so divided that one of them,Fezzan, never rebelled against the Rais whileCyrenaica started its uprising following in theideological footsteps of King Idris, relying onthe strongest unifying force in the region, afterand together with the army: religion, in thiscase promoted by the Senussi sect. It was notby chance that Gaddafi mortified the army,acknowledging its importance and centralityonly after engaging in a conflict with some ofits historical leaders (Jallud, for example). Hewas extremely careful not to confer to themilitary the power that he instead obtainedfrom the area’s other multi-State nations. Egypt,which is the region’s Germany in how well itexpresses this multi-national and multi-State

scitilopoeG


scitilopoeG

Syria and Lebanon: is a new scenario possible?

Hadi El Amine

The relationships between Syria and Lebanon have alwaysbeen complex. Syria has often had a strong influence on itsneighbor. Now Syrian political situation is going to changerapidly. Will the new era allow Lebanon to build a strongsovereign State?

Lebanon before the revolution in Syria

E ver since I was a boy I, like many others,heard and read about, and had directexperience of the great seismic fracture

between Lebanon and Syria, and the questionof how Lebanon, supposedly a State andsovereign nation, became a kind of portfoliowhich Syria would constantly be studying, andcarry about under its arm to turn profitableaccount whenever it found itself in need. I amnot exaggerating if, like others, I say that thisportfolio - in other words, Damascus' need toturn Lebanon to profitable account - caused agreat deal of blood to be spilt and inflictedmuch degradation and shame over decades ofbitter and chronic conflict. In saying this I donot, of course, mean to impute the reasons forthat catastrophe, for that terrible seismicfissure, to Damascus alone, thus overlookingthe fact that certain Lebanese - Lebanesemilitias, that is - also helped to create it andbring it to maturity.How did this happen? The catastrophicrelationship (or call it rather the malfunctioningrelationship) between the two States depends,to a large extent, on the various forms ofdependency which certain militias callingthemselves the "Islamic Resistance" in Lebanon

have experienced and continue to experience.Their dependency, their subservience orsubjection, certainly cannot be justified byclaiming that such "resistance" organisationsneed support centres to carry out their role ascombatants, especially because the blindobedience they have shown has led (if it hasled to anything) to them paying a heavy price interms of image and credibility, in Lebanon andin the whole world.This brief overview does not perhaps give acomplete picture of the reasons for thecatastrophe, or of the many facets of the crisiswith the Syrian regime, however it does leadus to a point from which we can understandthe methods that regime used in its dealingswith Lebanon over the very years in which Syriawas experiencing the apex of its strength andinfluence. For many years, in fact, Syria workedto undermine the project of a sovereign Statein Lebanon, doing everything in its power toensure that such a project would remain weakand fragmented. Indeed, the regime was notcontent with merely supervising thatfragmentation, but even sought to justify it bygiving legitimacy to various political andmilitary projects which could only exist at theexpense of the project of a Lebanese State.In past years, it was widely believed thatthe Syrian regime has worked to support


meant supplying them the possibility tocontinue to renew and rebuild their power inand from Lebanon. What the Syrian regimeshould have done - not as a gesture of goodwill but out of a desire to respect andreinforce Lebanese sovereignty - is to haveundertaken a full review of its mentalapproach and working methods with Lebanon,defining the nature of its links with thecountry, as a State, a territory and a people. Inother words, for the sake of law, theconstitution, logic, tradition, ethics andreligion, Syria should have stopped giving, assuspected, military and political support tosuch organisations, it should have stoppedsupporting any activities which breachedsecurity, and it should have called upon thoseorganizations (both the Lebanese and thePalestinian) to surrender the arms in their

various armed organizations, both Lebaneseand non Lebanese, organizations about whichthe least that can be said is that they wereoblivious to the concept of the State and itsobligations, and that they overturned legitimateLebanese authority as and when they wished.It can be argued that these organisations drewtheir legitimacy from the Syrian regime, thenused that legitimacy (with the regime'sblessing) as a cover, sometimes for armedoperations which trampled on the prestige ofthe Lebanese State and, at other times, forsmuggling weapons and rockets with theexcuse of supporting the resistance; weaponsand rockets which were then used to destroythe pillars upon which the State rested.The Syrian regime did not of course have anyright, even before the revolution, to supply theneeds of these organisations, which effectively

scitilopoeG


two options: either the regime will step downvoluntarily, or the revolution will continue untilit has been brought down.The fundamental question that now arises isthis: How will Lebanon benefit from the fall ofthe regime in Syria? As we said earlier, thecurrent Syrian regime made use of Lebanonand the Lebanese State for many decades ina way about which the least that can be saidis that it was devoid of pity or ethics, and thatit always had grievous results for thefeasibility and stability of a Lebanese State.Therefore, irrespective of who will come topower in Syria afterwards, the fall of thisregime tells us that the moment has come tobuild a Lebanese State on solid and healthyfoundations. This is not because of thedramatic past which Lebanon went throughon account of the Syrian regime, but becauseof the present that is being constructed bythe free men and women of Syria, and thefuture they are preparing; and because ofLebanese determination to survive andconstruct a free, sovereign and independentState with a single army, no armed militiasand effective institutions.The fall of the regime in Syria will inevitablyreinforce Lebanon's right to the governance ofall its territory, the State's right to exercisesovereignty by extending its complete,definitive and absolute authority to everycorner of its territory. Moreover, the fall of theregime in Syria will inevitably give Lebanon'spolitical forces, parties, government andinstitutions the courage not to recognise anyillegal weapons, even if that weaponry isrecognised as legitimate by Iran. Thisrejection, which must inevitably come, entailsa strong and well-rooted faith in theinevitability and imminence of the creation ofa State in Lebanon, a State which,instinctively but also deliberately, will standagainst the hegemony of that militia mentalityfounded in the sacredness of resistance,confrontation and struggle, and which willintroduce a new strategy, a new mentality,new concepts which block the futile outcomeof the militia's activities: impeding thecreation of a nation State.

possession and behave according to newparameters which sanctioned Lebanon's rightto a sovereign homeland free from the illicitweaponry of the militias.

Lebanon after the revolutionin Syria

It would of course be extremely ingenuous tohave expected Syria to take a clear step suchas the one we have just mentioned. The Syrianregime was never going to renounce all it hadachieved - the power and authority it wieldedthrough the division and partition "treaties" ithad concluded with Lebanese leaders, politicalparties and armed militias - in the interests ofbuilding a strong and sovereign State.But the year 2011 brought surprises for bothLebanon and Syria, when the completelyunexpected happened: the Syrian people roseagainst their regime in an attempt to regainwhat had been taken from them by force. Howdid this happen? Clearly the revolution, whichbegan just a few months ago, is not anuprising of the hungry but a struggle fordignity. The people would not have risenagainst the regime had it not been for thehistorical accumulation of injustice, violenceand persecution which the regime practisedagainst its own citizens. Yet the revolutionunderway in Syria in not just for dignity butalso for existence, because the people therehad come to feel that they did not exist, thatthey had no voice and no opinion, that theywere treated as if they were an entirelysubmissive entity with no other role than thatof raising their fists and voices to cry long lifeto their inspired leader.For these reasons, and many others, we canaffirm that this revolution for dignity andexistence will not stop until it has achieved itsfundamental objective: bringing down theSyrian regime. Any attempt to imposeconciliation by force between government andpeople has become impossible, because theregime has entered an acute structural crisiswhich means that any attempts to introducepolitical participation to restore the status quowill be useless. The solution lies only in one of

scitilopoeG


In order to trace the course of these relations, it is necessary to understandtwo fundamental aspects: the regional setup of the Middle East, and thenature of the political changes currently underway in Egypt.

In order to trace the course of theserelations, it is necessary to understandtwo fundamental aspects: the regional

setup of the Middle East, and the nature ofthe political changes currently underway inEgypt.Over recent years, and particularly followingthe events of 11 September 2001 and the U.S.invasion of Iraq in 2003, the regional setup ofthe Middle East has undergone major changeswhich have brought about significanttransformations to its structure. The U.S.invasion and occupation of Iraq was the firstdirect military intervention of its kind by oneof the great powers in the Middle East sincethe end of the age of imperialism in the mid-twentieth century. The result of that invasion,with the fall of Saddam Hussein and thebreak-up of the Iraqi army, was theemergence of Iran and its attempt to becomethe dominant regional power. The IslamicRepublic is striving, on the one hand, toprotect itself from the dangers of having theUnited States as a next door neighbour and,on the other, is continuing its efforts to exportits Revolution, that being one of the regime’ssources of legitimacy. Iranian activity has ledto the formation of a broad front extendingfrom Iran itself in the east to Hamas in thewest, passing by way of Syria and Hezbollah.In contrast, Israel has entered into two wars

(against Hezbollah and against Hamas) withthe fundamental aim of dissuading suchalliances and enhancing its own power, whilethe United States has been increasingdiplomatic pressure against Iran, using thepretext of the latter's nuclear programme whichmay be being developed to produce atomicweapons. As the region is experiencing suchstrong polarisation – what we could call akind of Cold War – what position is Egypttaking, and how does it coincide with theposition of Israel?The Egyptian stance in the course of this ColdWar has rested on two main pillars: opposingIran’s ascent to the level of dominant powerin the region and in the Gulf, while at thesame time rejecting the use of military forceagainst the country. In this, Egyptian policyhas coincided with Israeli policy on somematters, and differed with it on others: thesimilarity being that both States oppose therise of a politicised Islam, especially in Gaza.Egypt has always dealt with Hamas from theviewpoint that it is an extension of theMuslim Brotherhood, the most powerful ofthe opposition groups in Egypt. Therefore,despite Egypt’s diplomatic condemnation ofIsrael’s “Operation Cast Lead” against Gazafrom December 2008 to January 2009, thecountry persistently refused to open theRafah Border Crossing, notwithstanding the

Geopolitics

Egypt and Israel:army and energy security

Ahmed S. Fahmy


scitilopoeG

huge pressure brought to bear both by itsown people and by the Arab world againstwhat was considered as a siege of Gaza andEgyptian support for Israel in war. Egypt’sposition against a strengthening of Hamas in

the Gaza Strip has always been clear yet, atthe same time, Egypt has clearly opposed anyplans for military strikes against Iran or Syria.In this it has enjoyed the backing (in public atleast) of Saudi Arabia. It appeared that the

Mount Sinai overview


Services and the Ministry of Defence) and thatthey were in no way a civilian function, thereis nothing to suggest that the armed forceswill abandon their role as overseers ofmatters regarding national security (includingrelations with Israel) under any future civiliangovernment in Egypt. And whether the MuslimBrotherhood or a government with a morePan-Arab outlook come to power, they willnot easily be able to take decisive decisionswithout the agreement of the Egyptian army.Another matter worthy of consideration andin which change is expected is that of energysecurity. It is well known that Egypt has beenexporting natural gas to Israel since 2005,and this has always aroused the anger ofordinary Egyptians who see it as Egyptiansupport to the economy of a State thatoccupies Arab lands. Nine times in a rowsince the fall of Mubarak unidentified armedmen operating in the Sinai Peninsula haveused explosives to sabotage pipelinescarrying gas to Israel. However after each explosion the rulingMilitary Council has ordered the immediaterepair of the damage and the resumption ofexportation. In view of the serious securitysituation in the Sinai Peninsula and whatappears to be the emergence of a number ofterrorist organisations there, in addition tothe fact that Egyptian public opinion is not infavour of exporting gas to Israel, it is likelythat this will be a polemical issue in post-Mubarak Egypt and may lead to theamendment or even cancellation of the gasexportation agreements between Egypt andIsrael.

ConclusionIt is likely that the danger threateningrelations between Egypt and Israel will notextend beyond the issue of supplying gas, atleast for the foreseeable future, and will notthreaten the course of peaceful relationsbetween the two States, as long as nothinghappens to arouse Egyptian public opinionagainst Israel, such as a wide-scale warbetween Israel and Palestine or with anyother Arab nation.

two biggest Arab States – Egypt and SaudiArabia – had made a strategic agreement toabort the plans of the Iran-Syria axispolitically while avoiding any militaryescalation.Thus, in our analysis of the first of our twoaspects (that of the regional setup in theMiddle East, the limitations it imposes andthe opportunities it brings) we may concludethat the relationship between Egypt and Israelduring Mubarak's rule was, in the first place,governed by a fear the two States shared ofpoliticised Islam, and this meant that therewas an objective convergence of theirinterests. But at this point the question thatarises naturally is: will the changes that havetaken place in the political system in Egyptlead to a change in Egypt’s definition ofthreats to its national security, and thus to achange in its relations with Israel?Despite international optimism at the eventsof what has been called the Arab Spring, thefew months that have passed since Mubarakleft power have clearly established a numberof facts which were already known to expertson Egypt. Firstly, that the authoritarian systemwas divided into two parts, the political andthe military; the political part fell, the militarypart did not. Therefore, any idea that authoritarianism diedwith the end of the Mubarak era is perhapsunfounded optimism, in no way borne out byEgyptian history or contemporary events. The ruling Supreme Council of the ArmedForces is currently involved in numerousdisputes with the political and revolutionaryforces in Egypt about the future status of themilitary, and about the rules governing theEgyptian Constitution, which will be rewrittenafter the parliamentary elections. Whatemerges from an analysis of these politicaldisputes is that the military enjoy widerespect among the majority of the Egyptianpeople, who have always revered andesteemed the army and protected it fromcriticism. If we also consider the fact thatstrategic relations with the United States andIsrael were always administered by theEgyptian security agencies (the Intelligence

Geopolitics


Turkey is becoming a key playerin the Arab world, thanks to itsgrowing political influence. Can the Turkish model set anexample for the Arab countries?

sthgisnI

The crucial geo-political role played by anon-Arab country during the uprisingswas, without a doubt, a big surprise

among the events of the so-called Arab Spring.Turkey has in fact only recently become arelevant neighbour for Arab Middle Easterncountries. Ankara is undoubtedly increasing itsinfluence in the region, mainly through theArab street, by openly supporting the uprisingsand advancing the Turkish model for politicalIslam as being of value for political transitionsin these countries.The historical “zero problems” policycharacterizing the country’s relations with itsneighbours, based on equal standing and non-interference, had already been questionedbefore 2011. An important step in this shift wasthe 2010 Israeli assault on the Turkish vesselMavi Marmara carrying Freedom Flotillaactivists. This episode was followed by a harshdiplomatic row and a freeze in the onceprosperous and cooperative relations betweenthe two countries. With respect to its role asthe new champion of the Palestinian cause,Turkey strongly backed the PNA’s (PalestinianNational Authority) United Nations bid lastSeptember. However, the most unexpected

The Turkishmodel

Alice Marziali


elections, and that of other national Islamicparties in Morocco and in Egypt, raise the issueof their place in transitions toward democracy.Turkey seems to be a model of integrationbetween Islamic parties and democracy, havingan Islamic party in power leading a secular anddemocratic state. This oft-mentioned “Turkishmodel” was evoked mainly after Ennahda’svictory, underlining the party’s moderateinspiration and its willingness to cooperatewith other political forces, respecting freedomand democratic values. There has always beena dialogic dialectic between the MuslimBrotherhood’s political wing and the AKP,Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party,resulting in mutual influence. Ennahda’sfounder Rashid Ghannouchi has also been aninspirational figure among some reformistbranches within the Islamic movement.Certainly, the differences between Arab andTurkish political and social contexts cannot beignored. It is hard to imagine an identicalpolitical outcome, imposing a positivist modelof evolution, without acknowledging thedifferences in every country. In addition, eventhe Turkish experience is not free fromproblems concerning its regime’s reputation asfar as human rights are concerned, withincreasing allegations of restrictions onfreedom and censorship. Regardless, by takingon a key-role in the Arab world, based mainlyon political influence, Turkey is also redefiningits own until now Western-oriented politicalidentity, starting with a new and not alwaysentirely clear prioritization of its foreign policygoals. Turkey’s relations with its neighboursand eventual regional hegemony are thus“works in progress” and intimately linked tothe evolution of the entire region.

change concerns Syria, with open criticism ofPresident Bashar al Assad following theintensification of protests and the regime’smassive crackdown. Turkey vigorouslysupported opposition forces calling for theregime to stand down and hosted the SyrianNational Council last May. Moreover, Turkishconcern over possible chaos at its borders hasincreased with the deterioration of theuprising, resulting in Ankara threatening to setup a neutral buffer zone between the twocountries. This shift from neutrality and goodrelations with everyone, to an assertive role inthe region, is full of tricky implications forexample in addressing the Kurdish issue andenergy, should relations with Iran and Israeltake a turn for the worse. However, promptTurkish support for popular causes in Arabcountries (before any official reaction from anArab forum, such as the Arab League) withoutdirectly interfering, has enhanced the country’spopularity throughout the region.Cultural, moral and political influence ratherthan power games are the key components ofTurkish influence. This hegemonic combinationalso plays on the rising role of Islamicmovements and political parties in Arabcountries. Ennahda’s victory in the Tunisian

sthgisnI

nagodrE piyyaT peceRyekruT fo retsiniM emirP


sthgisnI

Realism in Arab cinema

Majdi Korbai

Neorealism is used to describe a movement of renewal in Italiancinema which emerged following World War II and abandoned allforms of romanticism for artistic and literary realism. Let usdiscover the meaning of Realism in present Arab filmmaking.

The Night of Counting the Years by thedirector Shadi AbdelSalam (1969)

its foundations in the link between theprivate and the public. Italian Neorealism wasinfluenced and characterised by the poetry ofworking class neighbourhoods, locationfilming and the use of non professionalactors. It adopted some of the features of theVerismo school which appeared in Italytowards the end of the nineteenth century,after the manner of French Naturalism, and

which had its roots in therealism of the Renaissance.Italian cinema, then, wasinfluenced by the literature ofthat time and its polemicalconcern with the problems ofthe rural world, as expressedby such authors as GiovanniVerga, Luigi Capuana, MatildeSerao and Edmondo De Amicis,just as it was influenced bysuch figures as Alberto Moraviaand Pier Paolo Pasolini.Realism in Italian cinema cameabout as a result of the closeunion between the power of artand the common people, inwhich context we may recall anumber of films which havecome to be seen as beaconsfor cinema all over the world,

When we speak of Neorealism we mayimagine that we are talking about anew form of filmmaking today,

however the term Neorealism is used todescribe a movement of renewal in Italiancinema which emerged following World War IIand abandoned all forms of romanticism forartistic and literary realism.Realism in films is an artistic trend which has


Following the war of 1967, realism started tobecome associated with a form of cinemawhich reflected an awareness of defeat. Filmsbecame a social necessity and there was avital need for young cinematographers. ThePalestinian filmmaker Michel Khleifi said that“among the many questions troubling mymind is how to film Arab-Palestinian reality inorder to change it”, and the Egyptian YoussefChahine has stated: “Confrontation ... whatwe need is confrontation ... confrontationwith the reality from which we came, how wegot into this state, how we were duped andwhere we went wrong”. Over recent years,realism in Arab cinema has acquired twoaspects: the dominant and the marginal.While it remains realism, it has become morediffident and blended with other elements,because the reality of Arab cinema today doesnot enable it to cross certain limits of changeimposed by the production and distributionstructures. However, the question that nowarises is: are we going to see a differentrealism in coming years, after the revolutionsof the Arab Spring?

such as Ossessione by Luchino Visconti from1943, or Roma città aperta made in 1945 bythe director Roberto Rossellini. Nor must weforget the film which has exercised an effecton all cinema clubs in the Arab world: Ladri dibiciclette made in 1948 by Vittorio De Sica.Following this brief historical glimpse atrealism in Italian cinema, let us now turn todefine the concept as it pertains to Arabfilmmaking.A number of names have emerged in the fieldof realism in Arab cinema, chief among themSalah Abu Seif, Henry Barakat, YoussefChahine and Tawfik Saleh, all of whom areconsidered by critics as emblematic figures ofArab realism. Thanks to these directors,cinema came to be associated with Arabintellectual concerns such as the classstruggle, the ills of society and otherquestions similar to those raised by Italiancinema. Among the most important of theserealist films were The Night of Counting theYears (also called The Mummy) by the directorShadi Abdel Salam, The Land by YoussefChahine, and El Bari’ (The Innocent Man) byAtef El Tayeb.

Ossessione byLuchino Visconti

(1943)

Roma città aperta byRoberto Rossellini (1945)

Insights


sthgisnI

The scent of JasmineMarta Bellingreri

A Tunisian citizen in Palermo; her peaceful existence thanks toa chance encounter with a multi-ethnic polyphonic choir. All year round, she detects the scent of jasmine, the symbol forher home country and for Tunisia’s revolution.

She seems to smell Jasmine everywhere,every day of the year. Jasmine. Thesymbol of her country of origin, Tunisia,

and of the ongoing revolution: the JasmineRevolution.

Yet to Safa, despite the link she has come todraw between jasmine and images of her homecountry, of her hometown and of the recentevents which are reshaping the history of hercountry, above all else jasmine is the scent

ylatI - ytic omrelaP


the morning, Safa hums the Tunisian tuneswhich have etched themselves into her brain,her senses suffused with the scent of jasmine.She manages to convey the beauty of herpeoples’ oral culture to the choir – in Italian, ofcourse, the language which these three dozen“Arab Palermitans” share.And the choirmaster finds what he was lookingfor. I attended several concerts to which I wasinvited by Safa, concerts she advertisedenthusiastically at our university with her sister.To me, as to others, this was a taste of theArab world and its music, and it took me backto my time in the Middle East.Safa discovered the sounds of her firstmelodies in Palermo. Notes which sang ofmorning joy. Safa discovered those notes andinvented others, which turned into the chorusof her new identity.Aside from regularly promoting classical andworld music concerts, Safa is writing her thesisin order to finish her degree, in Italian, ofcourse, a language foreigners describe as “amelody” one Safa learned through song andthrough her studies.

which wafts through the airas she makes her way touniversity in the morning.Not because there are thatmany jasmine plants inPalermo, in Sicily, but ratherbecause she is gripped bythat beautiful feeling as shegoes to university-positivityand energy as she becomesimmersed in her daily life inItaly.Safa moved to Italy so shecould attend universityhere, which she hopes willenable her to teach inTunisia someday. In themeantime, she has tried tofind work teaching privatelessons. We met in September of 2009. WhenI came back from Palestine, I wanted to keepspeaking Arabic by practicing with a nativespeaker, and she would make her scheduleavailable to the university, also for lessons inthe Palestinian dialect which she spoke almostas fluently as Tunisian, thanks to songs fromthe East which filter through to northern Africa.She still has me down as “Marta Palestine” onher mobile phone, because that’s where I’d justbeen and it’s her I latched on to in an attemptto breathe the air I yearned for and thelanguage I was learning to speak. She thoughtshe spoke Italian well, but she still had a lot tolearn: the Italian language isn’t just a summaryof the grammar rules she had already beentaught. She relearned the new language thatawaited her through song. The polyphonicchoir at Palermo University.A Moroccan classmate and her Italian boyfriendasked her along after class. Off she went,without the slightest hesitation. What a greatopportunity to practice her Italian! Surprisesurprise, only half the participants were Italian,and the rest were all foreigners! What’s more,the choirmaster asked her to bring the lyricsand chords from traditional Tunisian songs. In

Insights

University ofPalermo - Italy


sthgisnI

Lilia Zaouali

I t was the beginning of 1981when I came to Italy for the firsttime. I got on the train at Italy’s

North-Eastern border. At the time,Tunisian nationals were free to enterItaly without an entry visa. The trainstopped for a few minutes, withoutthe police making controls. It wasnight time, and the light in thecoach was off, all the passengerswere soundly sleeping but I wantedto know the name of the station.The only name that I was able tocatch looking out of the windowwas the first part of the notice“Forbidden to cross the tracks”, and

I thought that Forbidden was the name of anItalian city. Then the train resumed its journeytowards the Station of Venice-Santa Lucia. That’swhere I bought my first Italian sandwich: amozzarella sandwich. I was expecting to tastesomething extraordinary and instead I was ratherdisappointed, and for many years I never hadanother. Generally speaking, I was banned fromeating any other sandwich sold at train stationsas they contained prosciutto crudo, cured or Yorkham, or salami. But I had to survive in some way!I had a taste of authentic buffalo-milk mozzarella,soft, tender and light, only many years later, at agourmet shop in Turin. Indeed, Turin is renownedfor being a city of gourmets and this is where I

developed a passion for cooking, to the point ofwriting a book on the history of Medieval Arabcuisine. My research was mainly based on Arabsources ranging from the 9th to the 12thCenturies although I also used earlier sources totrace culinary traditions at the time of theProphet Mohammed. And this is how Idiscovered that the Prophet’s favourite dish wasthe “tharida”, which was made of pieces of breadin a meat or vegetable broth, which very muchresembled Tuscany’s “ribollita”, only withoutblack leaf kale. In cooking this dish 7th CenturyArabs used – and still do in Qatar, which I visitedthis year – a very thin bread called “ruqâq”,which is identical to the Sardinian bread“carasau”!Similarities, blends, things both borrowed andshared can be picked out of the cuisine ofdifferent Mediterranean Countries, in the past asin the present, albeit with one fundamentalpersisting and divisive element represented byan animal: pork, both an object of repulsion andof desire. In Tunisia, the “sandwich jambon”, asandwich whose name is half-English and half-French, is stuffed with turkey ham, made from abird that does not like to fly which was importedfrom Mexico approximately five centuries ago. Iwonder what fate would have been reserved topigs, in Jewish and Muslim culinary traditions, ifthey had only reached us five centuries ago,along with turkeys.

Medieval Cuisine of theIslamic World: A ConciseHistory with 174 Recipes(California Studies in Food and Culture). M. B. DeBevoise (Translator), Charles Perry (Foreword)

Cultural dialogue in the kitchen

Certain similarities between Italian and Arab dishes bear witness to there being contact and a profound impact dating back to the period which ran from the 9th century to the 13th century.


Mediation and another in Arab-IslamicStudies. Her travels have mostly beendedicated to discovering the Middle East:Morocco, Tunisia, Palestine, Jordan, Yemen...and she can’t seem to get enough of it! Herinterests range from Arabic language andliterature to multiculturalism, interreligiousdialogue, integration, second generationnetworks, journalism, poetry and novels.

Suhair El Qarra is an Italian-Jordanian politicalanalyst with Palestinian origins and Europeannationality. El Qarra earned her BA inInternational Sciences and EuropeanInstitutions at the University of Milan in 2008and a MA in International Relation andDiplomacy at the University of Jordan in 2011.

Giulio Sapelli is full professor of EconomicHistory at the University of Milan. He hastaught at some of the world’s mostprestigious universities. He has also served asboard member at several major Italiancompanies and worked as a managerial,formative and research consultant. In 1994 hewas awarded the title of researcher emeritusby ENI’s Enrico Mattei Foundation.He has been a member of the World OilCouncil since 2002 and of the OECDInternational Board for non-profitorganizations since 2003.He is currently focusing his work on thechanges the Theory of the State hasundergone in the realm of economics, politicsand geostrategy. His experience spans manyfields at the international level. Many of hisworks have been published and translatedinto English, French, Spanish, Portuguese,German, Russian and Japanese.

Hadi El Amine is a Lebanese PhD researcher inpolitics with focus on Lebanon, the Hezbollah

Amer Al Sabaileh is a University Professor andjournalist. He was born in Amman, where he currentlylives and where he obtained a degree inModern Languages and Literature, with aspecialization in English and Italian.In 2003 he obtained a Master’s Degree fromthe University of Rome in “Educating forPeace, International Cooperation, HumanRights and European Union Policies”, with adissertation on women’s rights in Jordan.From 2004 to 2007 he lived in Pisa to takepart in a University project on cross-culturaland inter-religious dialogue.Since 2007 he is Professor at the Departmentof European Languages of the University ofJordan in Amman, holding courses onliterature, the media, contemporary thinkersand human rights. Among his works are “Contemplations(Taámulat)”; “When Cultures Talk (The Figureof Ali in the West)”, “Limitations of America’sPublic Diplomacy in the Middle East”,“Managing Dialogue (The Figure of theProphet Mohammed in the West)”, while 5more books are currently being printed.

Rassmea Salah was born in 1983 in CasoratePrimo (in the province of Pavia), in Italy. Shespent her childhood going back and forthbetween Milan, Cairo and Mecca, thendecided to settle down in Milan with herfamily. Daughter to an Italian-Egyptian couple,Rassmea belongs to that so-called secondgeneration category, what we could call “newItalians”. She describes herself as “a treewhose roots are sunk in the southernMediterranean, but whose branches stretchnot only toward Europe, but also to the worldat large”. To put it simply, she is glocal: acitizen of the world, but also Milanese inside.She has a degree in Linguistic and Cultural

BIOGRAPHIES


focus on Middle East Politics and Islamicmovements. She has lived in Jordan for oneyear and half, attending at first a semester atthe University of Jordan and later carrying afield research for her final dissertation onJordanian Islamic movements- in particular onthe Islamic Action Front- for which sheobtained an honorable mention ofpublication. She writes for the Italian reviewof geopolitics Limes and for the on-linereview of the Italian Insitute of InternationalAffairs (IAI). She is currently attending aMaster on diplomacy at the SIOI, based inRome.

Majdi Korbai was born in January 1984. Heobtained a degree in Languages andInternational Commerce from the University ofTunis where he was active in the Cinema Club.He is currently a student of cinema andperforming arts at the University of Roma 3 inRome. He has been a member of the jury atthe Giffoni International Festival of Children'sFilms in Italy, and of the jury for the AmnestyInternational Prize at the Amateur FilmFestival of Kélibia in Tunisia.

Marta Bellingreri is a keen Arabist fromPalermo and an aspiring journalist; her degreein Eastern Languages and Civilizations andspecialization in the History of IslamicCountries was an excellent excuse to travelacross the Middle East, where she lived,studied and worked, sharing her tales andexperiences from Palestine and Jordan. InSicily and in Rome she teaches Italian as asecond language courses and works ascultural mediator for unaccompanied foreignminors, aside from writing about anddenouncing human rights violations. She isfervently awaiting her next trip to “her” Arabworld.

of Lebanon, Syria, Iran and the greater MiddleEast. Hadi has appeared on some televisionnews bulletins and has also been a guest ona number of prime time current affairs showson Lebanese and Arab televisions. He hasbeen interviewed by some leading Arabicnewspapers and his editorials appeared,among others, in the newspapers “L’Orient-LeJour”, “An-nahar” and “Al-mustaqbal”.

Ahmed Shahin Fahmy is currently a PhDCandidate at the School of InternationalRelations, University of St. Andrews, UK. Hereceived his Masters degree in InternationalRelations of the Middle East in 2010 fromDurham University, UK. Ahmed is specializedin the Middle East’s international politics,security affairs and democratization issues. Heis the author of “The Rise of Iran and the NewCold War in the Middle East: SecurityStructure Post-Iraq War”, published in 2010.

Lilia Zaouali is a scholar in 16th centuryMediterranean history. She was awarded aPh.D. at Sorbonne University, and has taughtin the Ethnology, Anthropology and ReligiousStudies department at Jussieu University inParis. She also collaborated with a number ofItalian universities. She is the author of“Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World”,University of California Press “La grandecuisine arabe du Moyen Age”, Officina Librariaas well as of several short stories publishedin collection publications such as “La pupa dizucchero” “The sugar girl” in “Il sogno el’approdo. Racconti di stranieri in Sicilia” “TheDream and the Landing: Tales of Foreigners inSicily”, Sellerio.

Alice Marziali holds a M.A. Degree withhonors in International Relations andDiplomacy from Bologna University, with a

seihpargoiB

Papers of Dialogue - 1 - 2011 - English

Documents

agi arab

new journeyof dialogue

new journeyno1

north africa

agi china

new scenario possible

afp pages

themiddle east