in the introduction " the first episode " I discussed the false idea taken by the westerners, to look and think about middle east as its a one block of countries that share the same ideas, same social life, and they practice their daily life in the same way, yet I wont deny the kind of similarity between each country and another, although we have to admit that there were always much more differences than similarities between each middle eastern country and another, and this created a kind of " natural " social deviation.
when we go back to the late 90's and the beginning of the new millennium. everybody in the Iraqi society who had a kind of knowledge and awareness, knew that Saddam regime will reach an end soon.
nobody knows when and how, but it was very notable that this regime wont last for a long time.
during that time, the Iraqi society was suffering a continuos economic crisis, a continuos basic services crisis, especially the educated class, from doctors to professors and teachers, they all suffered and they all needed to do extra jobs in order to pass the month and feed their family in a decent way. " the average monthly wage for people who works in the private sector goes from 3 to 10$ a month " while the price of pack of cigarette was almost 50 cents "
on the same time, the Iraqi government opened the door to receive thousands of " arabic university students ", gave them the opportunity to choose what ever they want to study in Iraqi universities for special prices, and the one who would apply for membership in the " Arab Baath Socialist Party - Saddam's political party ", would get a free study scholarship with an extra monthly pocket money.
most of the students who were accepted in the free scholarship were from palestine. we are talking about an amount of several hundreds per university.
looking from the Iraqi side perspective, there were always a kind of sensitive relationship between Iraqis and palestinians, its important to mention, that Saddam regime during many years, put the speech about the palestinian struggle and issue, as a main subject that can fit his Arabic/anti-Israeli ideology, even I remember when I was in high school, the ministry of education obliged and forced all the students to attend a summer camp, called " Jerusalem army" where young kids in high school, had to learn how to use weapons and be ready to " liberate palestine from the zionist " as they used to teach us at that time.
in add with the two points mentioned, Iraqis in general and especially middle and high-class main city citizens during 60s and 70s, were known as an open minded society, more related into the leftwing ideology regarding to working class way of thinking, less attention toward religion, nationalism and the " arabic nation dream", more toward praising the Iraqi individual as a person who had a history and a pride of exporting writers, artists, apart from the normal professional Doctors, engineers, military officers....etc.
the Palestinian part and due to their own difficult situation for decades, they raised with an ideology that feeds the Arabic nationalism way of thinking, a part of the Islamic religion as a way of an identity, that shows that you dont need to be that much religious in order to be a proud arabic and muslim, you only have to live and feel that idea.
the un-match encounter between both ideologies, one seeing that palestinians are just a bunch of " Saddam's ass kisser" in order to get benefit VS seeing the Iraqis as the arrogant un-faithful arabic toward the arabism and the society heritage, and above all, not supporting the " greatest arabic leader of all time president Saddam Hussein " as most of palestinians still believe in that,
one last point between both ideologies, 60% of Iraqis are from Shia families, while almost 100% of palestinians are sunnies. between sunnies and Shia, its more a kind of race conflict, than its about religion.
this made a kind of a real encounter and an un match in the social way of life inside Baghdad.
I remember going to some universities to meet friends, I was seeing in the university's cafeteria, big groups sitting in tables or outside, while you notice the isolation between Arabic and Iraqis, no need to talk nor making friendship, saying Hi and move on, no need to share a table nor having a long conversation with them, this feeling was mutual for both sides, some fights used to happened in some incidents that you see, that a normal discussion, can create a big fight between " Iraqis VS Palestinians " and mostly it wont end peacefully.
after several years, and until now we still feel that distance between both ideologies, even now when I meet a group of arabic in general and especially palestinians, you feel that we both know that, no need to open a discussion about politics or social value, we can talk about any other subject with no problem, but when it comes to politics and middle eastern social talk, its way better to keep the distance, and share different tables as it used to be years ago in the cafeteria of Baghdad university.
Talk to you soon :)
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