Since 1948 Until Today..How Egypt supported the Palestinian Cause?

Egypt has been and will continue to be the first defender of the Palestinian cause and supporter of the rights of the Palestinian people in an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital on the June 1967 borders .

Over the past decades, Egypt has provided about 100 thousand martyrs and 200 thousand wounded during its wars with Israel for the Palestinian cause.

The Egyptian state has always strived to bring the views of the Palestinian factions closer and achieve reconciliation to end the division and heal the Rift, and to form a unified national position that meets the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people for a secure and stable life.

It should be noted that the UN General Assembly adopted the resolution on the division of Palestine into two states, “Resolution No. 181”, one Arab and one Jewish, considering Jerusalem as a distinct entity subject to a special international regime, with the approval of 33 countries, the rejection of 13 countries and 10 abstentions..

The origins of the partition decision date back to 1937, when the “bell committee”, tasked by Britain to investigate the causes of the Great Palestinian revolution in 1936, issued its report in which the partition proposal was mentioned for the first time.

And on May 14, 1948, the establishment of the state of Israel was declared on most of the territory of historical Palestine without clarifying its borders to this day.

We review the most prominent stations of Egyptian support for the Palestinian cause over the past 75 years as follows:

-1948, Egypt opposed the decision to partition Palestine, considering that it denied the right of the Palestinian people to exercise full self-determination on the whole of its territory.

-1950: Egypt opposed the plans that targeted the West Bank, asserting that it belongs to the Palestinian people, and demanded the need to recognize the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people on their land Palestine.

-1964, Egypt welcomed the establishment of the Palestine Liberation Organization and adopted the decision of the organization to establish a Palestinian Liberation Army and defined the obligations of the member states to assist them in the exercise of their functions.

– 1967, president Nasser called for the Khartoum conference and raised the slogan “no recognition, no reconciliation, no negotiation” with Israel.

– 1969, Nasser supervised the signing of the “Cairo” agreement in support of the Palestinian revolution, and continued his defense of the cause until his death in 1970.

– 1972, President Sadat proposed the idea of establishing a provisional government of Palestine in response to the claims of Golda Meir, the then prime minister of Israel, that there was no Palestinian people.

-1973, Egypt strongly assisted the efforts of the Palestine Liberation Organization until it was able to obtain full recognition from the Arab countries as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, during the sixth Arab Summit held in Algeria.

– 1974, thanks to the efforts of the Egyptian state, the UN General Assembly, in Resolution No. 3236(29th Session), affirmed the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, including the right of self-determination, the right of independence and the right of return.

– 1975: on the basis of an Egyptian proposal, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution No. 3375 ( 30th session) inviting the Palestine Liberation Organization to participate in all efforts, discussions and conferences related to the Middle East..

– 1976, a proposal submitted by Egypt to grant the Palestine Liberation Organization full membership in the league of Arab states was unanimously approved, thereby giving the organization the right to participate in discussions and in the formulation and adoption of decisions related to the Arab nation, after its role was limited to participating in discussions on the Palestinian issue only..

– 1977, during his famous speech in the Israeli Knesset, President Sadat demanded a return to the pre-1967 borders.

-1982: the Egyptian ambassador was withdrawn from Israel after the Sabra and Shatila massacre of 1982 under President Mubarak.

-1988, as a result of intensive efforts in which Egypt participated, the first American decision was issued to open a dialogue with the Palestine Liberation Organization, thus opening the door to a new stage of peace efforts.

– 1989, President Mubarak put forward his peace plan, which included the need to resolve the Palestinian issue in accordance with the Security Council resolution, the principle of land for peace, and the establishment of political rights for Palestinians with the cessation of Israeli settlements.

–  1993: Egypt participated in the signing of the “Oslo” agreement on the right of Palestinians to self-government.

– August 1995, Egypt played a prominent role until the Cairo protocol was signed, which included the transfer of a number of powers to the Palestinian Authority.

–  September 1995: in the city of Taba..The interim agreement was signed to expand the Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank, and then it was finally signed in Washington on September 28, 1995 under the auspices of the Egyptian state, and in accordance with the Taba agreement, the Israeli withdrawal from the major cities in the West Bank, namely Jenin, Tulkarm, Nablus, Bethlehem, then Qalqilya and Ramallah.

– 1997, as a result of the Egyptian efforts, the Hebron Agreement was signed on the general framework of security arrangements in the city of Hebron and the next stages of redeployment.

– 1998, Egypt supported the Palestinian side in its demand to abide by the “Wye plantation” agreement reached with Israel as an application of the Oslo Accords, which gave the impression that there was a breakthrough on the road to peace.

– October 2002, Egypt participated in the efforts that led to the adoption of the road map plan adopted by the quartet, which includes a comprehensive vision for resolving the Palestinian issue leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state by 2005.

-Since November 2002 : Egypt sponsors the Palestinian-Palestinian dialogue and hosts its tours with the aim of helping the factions achieve Palestinian reconciliation.

– 2003, Egypt supported the “Geneva” document between the Israelis and the Palestinians as a peace model to calm the situation in the region.

– 2004, Egypt launched an initiative to play a direct role in creating the conditions for the implementation of the Israeli withdrawal plan from the Gaza Strip.

–  2008, Egypt confirmed its commitment to continue its contribution to supplying the Gaza Strip with electricity, as the Ministry of electricity and energy installed voltage capacitors on the electric lines extending from Egyptian Rafah to Palestinian Rafah to increase the power supply capacity in the cities and villages of the Gaza Strip isolated from the grid to meet the needs of the Palestinian brothers and relieve the burden of the blockade imposed on them by Israel, especially in the field of electricity and energy.

– Opening the Rafah land crossing for the sick, injured, humanitarian cases, Umrah pilgrims and students residing in Egypt and the Arab countries.

– In May 2014, Egypt succeeded in persuading the “Fatah and Hamas” movements to sign a reconciliation agreement under interim president Adly Mansour.

– After Abdel Fattah al-Sisi assumed the presidency of the Republic in June 2014, he stressed during his participation in the meetings of the UN General Assembly that the Palestinian issue is the top priority of the Egyptian state, and that there is no way for peace except by establishing the Palestinian state on the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

– 2016: Sisi appealed to the Israeli people and their leadership to move towards peace with the Palestinians.

– 2017: the Fatah and Hamas movements signed an agreement to end the Palestinian division in Cairo, where Egypt invited a meeting to be held with the participation of all Palestinian factions that signed the Palestinian National Accord agreement in 2011. The two movements agreed on measures to enable the government of National Accord to exercise its functions and assume its full responsibilities in managing the affairs of the Gaza Strip, as in the West Bank, no later than on 1/12/2017, while working to eliminate all problems caused by the division.

– In 2018, during a youth conference at Cairo University, Sisi called on public opinion in Israel to seize the “great opportunity for peace” currently available.

– In 2021, Sisi announced that Egypt will provide 500 million dollars as an Egyptian Initiative allocated for the reconstruction process in the Gaza Strip, as a result of the Israeli aggression against it.

– Sisi directed the opening of Egyptian hospitals to receive the wounded of the ongoing Israeli aggression against the defenseless Palestinian people.

– Since the brutal Israeli aggression that followed the “Al-Aqsa flood” operation in October 2023, Sisi has held intensive contacts with world leaders to discuss efforts to de-escalate and inject blood into the Gaza Strip.

Sisi stressed that there is no solution to the Palestinian issue except the two-state solution, while rejecting and deploring the policy of displacement or attempts to liquidate the Palestinian issue at the expense of neighboring countries.

He declared that Israel’s reaction in Gaza goes beyond self-defense to collective punishment.

He said that what is happening in Gaza now is not limited to directing military action against Hamas in order to liquidate the Palestinian resistance, but is an attempt to force the civilian population to seek refuge and migrate to Egypt, which is “unacceptable and unworkable”.

The Houses of Representatives and the Senate declared that attempts to forcibly displace Palestinians from their homeland and push them to seek refuge in Egypt are a war crime and an immoral attempt to liquidate the Palestinian cause.

The Egyptian state refused the exit of foreign nationals from the Rafah crossing from Gaza to Egypt before allowing the entry of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian brothers.

The president directed the sending of convoys to the Rafah crossing loaded with huge amounts of food and medical aid, including doctors from all specialties and medical devices, and waiting for the brothers in Gaza to enter.

The largest nationwide Blood Donation campaign has been launched in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

– On October 21, 2023, Egypt hosted the “international peace summit” called by President Sisi in order to contain the worsening crisis in the Gaza Strip and reduce the military escalation between the Israeli and Palestinian sides.

Egypt will remain strongly supportive of the Palestinian cause and will do its utmost to ensure that the Palestinian people enjoy security and peace, achieve their dream of establishing their independent state and end the Israeli occupation.