Sheikh Hassan al-Banna used to say about the relationship between Egypt and Sudan: “Egypt is the northern Sudan, and Sudan is the southern Egypt.” Similarly, we can say: Palestine is northern Egypt, and Egypt is southern Palestine, due to the historical reality and proximity. As Dr. Gamal Hamdan mentions in his book “We and Our Four Dimensions,” neighbors are almost always related, as a quasi-general rule in anthropogeography. For most of Islamic history, Egypt and Palestine were one country.
Dr. Gamal Hamdan says: “Just as Palestine is the beginning of the Asian dimension in the entity of Egypt, Egypt is necessarily the beginning of the African dimension in the entity of Palestine. Both are like the button and the loop that join the two dimensions or like the halves of a capsule. It is no coincidence that the city of Rafah is split on both sides of the border, a rare symbol indicating this broader and deeper integration.”
Abbas Al-Akkad, in his book “The Life of a Pen,” says: “The Palestinian society is similar to the Egyptian society in its composition, and in most of its customs and traditions. They differ only in some traditions. There are migrants from Palestine in Egypt and from Egypt in Palestine. A Palestinian may live in Egypt for a while and then return to his homeland. Among them, you may find those who are nicknamed Al-Anshasi, Al-Belbisi, and Al-Tantawi, just as you find among us those who are nicknamed Al-Ghazi, Al-Ramli, and Al-Akkawi, as if they are competing or catching up with each other in one arena, not leaving it, nor rushing to change its rules, whether in social traditions or household living. Even “Mulukhiyah,” (jute mallow) an Egyptian dish mastered only by cooks in the Nile Valley, is eaten in the house of Abu Khadra as it is eaten at our finest tables that are proud to serve it because the people of this house have maintained their old heritage since they were in rural Egypt and still are related to it. The relationship between Egypt and Palestine is closer than a geographical one; it is also a historical and population relationship.”
Dr. Hamdan also says: “Throughout history, Palestine has been a refuge and escape or exile for many Egyptians during times of persecution, unrest, or crises. This started from the French campaign, to Muhammad Ali's campaigns and wars in the Levant and Palestine itself, to forced labor during the digging of the Suez Canal, to the Urabi movement, and even the conscription of men during World War I. Some of these returned to Egypt after a short or long stay, but it is certain that a significant number settled and integrated into the Palestinian entity. Their traces and memories are still noticeable in complexion, dialect, customs, and names.”
This is further explained in detail by Major General Ibrahim Muhammad Al-Fahham in an article in the Kuwaiti “Al-Arabi” magazine, issue 287, October 1982, titled “Egyptians and Palestinians Are One.” He says: “Many Palestinian families settled in the Egyptian countryside, bringing their expertise in fruit tree cultivation. Some Egyptian villages bear the names of well-known villages and clans in Palestine. For example, the village of Al-Sama’ina in Al-Sharqia is named after the Al- Sama’ina Arab clan from Palestine who settled there, as mentioned in 'Taj Al-Aroos.' The village of Burqin in Al-Daqahlia derived its name from the Palestinian village of Burqin, and Ahmed Lutfi Al-Sayyid suggests that the ancestors of the current inhabitants migrated to it from Palestine, as mentioned in his memoirs. Many Palestinian families live in Cairo, engaging in trade, most of them from Nablus and Hebron. Conversely, many Egyptian traders settled in Palestinian cities, where they practiced trade, especially those from Bilbeis in Al-Sharqia, to the extent that it is said there is at least one person from Bilbeis in every Palestinian city. The commercial, social, and cultural ties between the people of Damietta and Jaffa exceeded any ties between the people of two cities within one country.”
In the book “History of Gaza” by Arif Pasha Al-Arif, he says: “Egyptians were the most significant element of the population who settled in Gaza over the ages. You can find similarities in dialect, customs, celebrations, funerals, complexion, facial features, buildings, food, and everything.”
When Napoleon captured Jaffa in March 1799, he found 400 Egyptians there, including the head of the Ashraf (nobles), Omar Makram. When French occupation forces suppressed the popular resistance led by Hassan Toubar, he fled to Gaza. When it was decided to exile Abdullah Al-Nadim, the orator of the Urabi Revolution, to the Levant, he chose Jaffa, where he was received at the port by many scholars and notables. The city's Mufti, Mr. Ali Abu Al-Mawahib, hosted him in his home for a month until he rented his own house.
Palestinian writer Omar Al-Barghouti estimates that “more than a tenth of the population of Palestine has Egyptian origins since the arrival of Ibrahim Pasha's army.” In Jerusalem, there were at least 200 Egyptian Coptic families who had settled for generations.
Mohammad Kurd Ali, in an article titled “The Egyptian Outside His Land,” published in Al-Hilal magazine, issue 6, April 1940, says: “If you did not see the beautiful tan in the complexions of the people of Gaza, Jaffa, Haifa, and Acre, and did not hear the word “Al-Masry” (meaning Egyptian) in some of their names, you would think they are Levantines from various clans.”
Major General Al-Fahham says: “The Palestinian people have been deeply affected by events in Egypt, and Palestine has been one of the Arab countries most influenced by the Egyptian national movement. The Egyptian people, in turn, have been highly sensitive to and deeply affected by the conditions and events faced by the Palestinian people because the bond between these two peoples is not merely derived from agreements or official policies but is a real bond between two peoples who each contribute significantly to the social fabric of the other.”
Dr. Hamdan says: “It is clear at present that the largest part of contemporary Egypt's national policy is directed towards the Asian front, undoubtedly due to the Palestinian issue. This issue has become, in one way or another, whether we like it or not, the core and axis of Egypt's foreign policy in reality.”
After this historical narration proving the historical relationship, integration, and intermarriage in all aspects between the Egyptian and Palestinian peoples, and between the countries of Egypt and Palestine, can anyone say that the Palestinian cause concerns only the Palestinian people?
Dr. Hamdan answers in his book “Palestine First”: "The Palestinian cause does not concern the Palestinians alone. They are truly its first victims, but not the last. They are undoubtedly at the forefront of liberation, but not its tail. The danger threatens everyone, rather it urges them all. The cause is as Arab as it is Palestinian. It is not, as might be thought, Palestinian first and Arab second. Indeed, Palestine no longer hypothetically possesses the right to dispose of its cause alone, without this meaning at all to usurp its will or to impose guardianship. The danger surrounding it surrounds all Arabs, and the problem of 'Israel' is in fact greater than the problem of Palestine. It does not parallel or concern it alone but extends to be the problem of all the countries of the Arab East directly and the entire Arab world indirectly.
Palestine has become in a very real sense an essential dimension in the existence, entity, and destiny of every Arab state. It has become a part of Syria, a part of Egypt, a part of Jordan, a part of Iraq, etc., just as each of these countries has become a part of Palestine in fate and outcome. This represents the pinnacle of Arab national integration and unification in theory and practice. This defines practical responsibilities and destroys retreating operations.
We say this because some defeatists and pessimists wanted to say that the cause is Palestinian first and Arab second, so as to lay the burden of liberation on the Palestinians to wash their hands of it and evade responsibility.
The correct position is the integration of Palestinian and Arab struggle: the Palestinian as the vanguard of the struggle, the owners of the cause and the body of the crime, and the Arab as the sum of force and the heart of resistance and liberation.”
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Egyptian writer interested in Islamic and political thought.
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