In the fall of
1951 anti-British riots broke out in the streets of Egypt demanding
the evacuation of the British from the Suez Canal zone. British
teachers were dismissed from government schools. British officials were
removed from government posts. Streets with British names were replaced
with appropriate national names. Schools almost stopped functioning as
students went on in perpetual demonstrations. Thousands of Egyptian workers
quit their jobs with the British army in the Canal Zone and came to Cairo
to claim the promise of the government to find them employment.
The Muslim Brothers,
Socialists, and other nationalists formed guerrilla bands to fight and
harass the British in the Canal Zone. As a result, the bodies of
many British "Tommies" were found floating in the Sweet
Water Canal near al-'Isma`iyliyah Others were kidnapped.
Grenades were thrown into British Officers' Clubs. The rattle of
gunfire broke the stillness of the desert night after night as guerrillas
attacked British outposts under cover of darkness. British installations
were blown up, roads were mined, trains were derailed, communications
were wrecked. The government feebly tried to bring these civilian
armies under some kind of official control but never succeeded
Al-Nahhas Pasha,
under popular pressure, abrogated the1936 treaty, but he was powerless
to force the British to evacuate. It soon became clear that al-Nahhas
gamble
was bound to fail as it could not offer even a vague plan for achieving
Egypt's
aspirations.
Anti-British demonstrations
were flaring up in al-Isma`iyliyah and Port Sa`yid,
these led to clashes with patrolling British army units. Key bridges,
such as al-Firdan (near al-qantarah)
linking the Delta with the Sinai, and other vital communications
points were occupied by British forces; so was the Suez Customs
house. Soon the whole Canal Zone was effectively cordoned off
by the British troops. All communications between Suez and
other parts of the country had been cut. Moreover they isolated the Egyptian
forces posted in the Sinai, with their headquarters at al-`Ariysh,
from those west of the Canal. As I recall they virtually occupied
al-Sharqiyah
province (Mudiyriyah) with its vital center of Tall al-Kabiyr.
Egyptian guerilla squads were quickly formed, consisting mainly of students,
peasants and workers (especially from the Canal area). It was then
that armed clashes began to intensify into pitched battles between the
Fida'iyin
and the British army during the period between
November 1951 and
January
1952.
Detention centers for
the Egyptian population in the Suez Canal zone
The British began
to strike back. They had a massive military base at Fayid,
lying along the Canal, and they were not inclined to give it up.
They built up their forces till they reached a formidable force of 80,000
men
in the Canal Zone. In an attempt to regain control of the situation,
they placed a tight cordon around the Zone and searched the entries and
departures of all Egyptians. Even Egyptian judges entering the zone on
official business were forced to submit to a full body search. This
was an unacceptable indignity in the eyes of Egyptian nationalists.
A foreign power was enforcing this kind of thing on Egyptian soil, not
even asking permission, and the Egyptian government did nothing about it.
The Egyptian people were fuming.
British soldiers terrorizing
and rounding up Egyptian women
The humiliation was
bad enough, after the recurring trouble in al-'Isma`iyliyah,
more injury was added to insult on January 25, 1952 when the British
moved in the half-way point on the Canal, to take over the town.
The British surrounded a battalion of Egyptian auxiliary police (buluwkat
al-Nizam) with heavy tanks and artillery and demanded their
immediate and unconditional surrender. The Egyptian auxiliary police
refused to give up, and the British opened fire. The Egyptian police
fought to the last bullet and before the end of the day, seventy Egyptian
soldiers were martyred and their barrack was reduced to rubble.
Battling the Egyptian
"Buluwk al-Nizam" in al-Isma`iyliyah, January 25, 1952.
The news of the assault
on the police barrack spread over Cairo like a prairie fire and
the people considered the incident as yet another massive "humiliation"
for Egyptians; their police slaughtered on Egyptian soil, by a foreign
power. As usual, the government did nothing. However,
the people spontaneously reacted in indignity. In a matter of hours,
a screaming sea of humanity filled the streets. These events were to lead
to a violent reaction in Cairo in the following day: January 26, 1952;
the burning of Cairo.
The bloody confrontation
between the Buluwk al-Nizam and the British forces
in al-Isma`iyliyah was a turning point in our history. The
effects of this event still reverberates to this day. |
