Egypt is not for sale! Harnessing nationalism for alliance building in Egypt’s Tiran and Sanafir island protests

ABSTRACT

Adopting a discourse-theoretical perspective on contentious politics in Egypt, this article investigates how in early 2016 the transfer of the archipelago of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia became a catalyst for oppositional subject formation and the emergence of an unlikely protest coalition. Drawing on a combination of protest event analysis and discourse analysis, it explores how the land swap provided the opposition with an opportunity to challenge the state’s nationalist prestige, and produced relations that favoured cross-movement mobilisation. The so-called ‘Popular Campaign to Protect the Land’ brought together leftists, liberals and nationalists, and thus enabled the articulation of broader socio-political demands in an otherwise closed context. The case study illustrates how dissonance between the discourse and practices of nationalist regimes can trigger cross-ideological collaboration. It furthermore shows how the emergence, as well as the trajectory and goals of such alliances, are shaped by interaction with the state.

KEYWORDS:

• Coalitions
• protest
• social movements
• nationalism
• Arab Spring
• Egypt

Acknowledgments

I thank Donatella della Porta, Teije Hidde Donker, Ellis Goldberg, Cilja Harders, Vickie Langohr, Carola Richter and two anonymous reviewers for their incisive comments. Earlier drafts were presented at the ECPR General Conference 2017 and the POMEPS Annual Conference 2018. A synopsis was published in the Washington Post’s ‘The Monkey Cage’ blog.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. These categories gloss over the fluid character of movement coalitions, which has been identified as a precondition for successful mobilisation despite authoritarian repression. Moreover, they invoke a historical agency of certain groups during the 2011 uprising which is no longer warranted today.

2. The PCPL’s founding statement includes a list of all members. It is available at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScqrP8A9J-7t84Dt42H-GMnauzciv4wiANHGkpMbJQGF-vdnA/viewform (accessed 17 May 2019).

3. When Al-Sisi ratified the island deal, AFTE reported over 100 blocked websites in Egypt: https://afteegypt.org/right_to_know-2/publicationsright_to_know-right_to_know-2/2017/06/04/13069-afteegypt.html?lang=en (accessed 17 May 2019).

4. A record of the speech is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRGXxVGb_yw (accessed 17 May 2019).

5. The full statement is available at http://www.sis.gov.eg/En/Templates/Articles/tmpArticles.aspx?ArtID=103660#.V3EaxzVY_k0 (accessed 18 May 2019).

6. The hashtag alludes to the Egyptian proverb ‘the men died in 1973ʹ, a metaphor for the lack of bravery among recent generations.

7. The announcement of the Anti-Coup movement’s participation is available at http://ikhwanonline.info/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%AE%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B3%D9%84%D9%85%D9%88%D9%86-%D9%8A%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%86%D9%88%D9%86-%D9%85%D8%B4%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%83%D8%AA%D9%87%D9%85-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A7/(accessed 17 May 2019).

8. Available at https://www.facebook.com/Egyptisnotforsale/posts/1003019766402674 (accessed 17 May 2019).