As it Happened: The Other Side of Suez
Directed by Eron Sheean
SBS, Saturday March 25, 7.30pm
REVIEW BY JENNY LONG
A ruthless and bloody imperialist policy, using dodgy intelligence, against an independent country of the Middle East, in order to secure Western strategic interests against the influence of a diabolical counterposing force. Sound familiar?
Actually, this documentary tells the story of the 1956 Suez Crisis, when Israel and Britain invaded Egypt to take back the Suez Canal, which had been nationalised by Egyptian President Gamal Abd al-Nasser and which Western ships needed to travel between the Gulf of Suez and the Mediterranean and Europe. But the makers of the documentary show the many compelling parallels with the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, ending with a chilling message about the folly of expecting people to accept invasion and colonial domination, either in Egypt in 1956 or in Iraq today.
One of the best aspects of the film is the interviews with those who were directly involved, including British foreign office officials and several Egyptians, including members of Nasser's cabinet, as well as journalists and participants in the civilian national guard.
The film chronicles the events that led to the Israeli and British attacks on Egypt - at that time including Gaza, resulting in terrible Israeli atrocities against Palestinians in Gazan refugee camps - and the aftermath, including the vigorous entry of the US to the region, with Eisenhower's infamous cold-war doctrine, "you're either with us or against us" in opposing Soviet influence.
One of the key points of the film is to show the impact of dodgy intelligence reports, "sexed up" by British Prime Minister Anthony Eden, decrying the leader of Egypt's nationalist revolution as a puppet of Soviet influence. The film documents the secret agreement made in Paris on October 25, 1956, between the British, French and Israeli governments for Israel to invade Gaza and the Sinai, which allowed Britain to send in troops to "protect" the Suez Canal after an impossible ultimatum from Britain and France for the two sides to stop fighting.
A significant question is over the film's insistence that in 1967 Nasser became the victim of his own rhetoric of victory, leading to him provoking the 1967 six-day war between Egypt, Syria and Jordan and Israel, resulting in the illegal annexation by Israel of the Sinai desert, the Golan Heights, Gaza and the West Bank. including Jerusalem. In fact, this later war was far more complicated than this, with other more significant players, including Israel, Syria and the newly radicalised Palestine Liberation Organisation.
This is a fascinating documentary compelling us to learn from a long history of Western attempts to impose their interests on the Third World and to understand just how costly these plans can be. It's also a useful reminder of a different era of "goodies" and "baddies" in world politics, when the West's enemy was the Soviet Union and the many victorious nationalist movements that swept the colonised world with its strategic support.
From Green Left Weekly, March 22, 2006.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.