Opinion Editorials, April 2009

 The "Bidoons":

Is There A British Connection? 

By Ali Al-Hail

ccun.org, April 21, 2009

  
   It has to be made clear at the outset that, this reading into the arise of the "Bidoons" in the Arab Gulf States, is mostly, concluded from certain historical events. Although, the "Bidoons", as an issue in the Arab Gulf states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), has recently, been come to the surface, its roots can be traced within the defeat of the Ottoman's empire during 1917, by the British.
 
   Because of its sensitivity perhaps, this historical aspect of the "bidoons", has been neglected over the years. Like many other issues, the "Bidoons" have probably, fallen victims of the chaotic geopolitics, enacted by the British occupation of most of the Middle East, in the aftermath of the Ottoman's collapse.
 
   According to Professor David R Woodward:
 
" The war [WWI] ended with the British occupying the territory that was to become Iraq, Palestine, Trans-Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. With the Ottoman Empire destroyed, Russia paralysed [paralyzed]by foreign intervention and civil war, and French influence limited somewhat by their minor military role in the Middle East, Britain's military success made her the dominant power in the region. The resulting settlement, which fostered an instability that continues to be a source of conflict today, generated much controversy at the time and has continued to do so ever since."
 
   Undoubtedly, similar to almost entirely, anything else in the Middle East, the issue of the "Bidoons", has ever since, "fostered an instability that continues to be a source of conflict today," according to Woodward. For; before the British domination of most of the Middle East, Arab countries, were hardly, having any borders. In other words, their socio-historical, geopolitics, geo-economics, geo-biologies, geo-genetics, geophysics, geo-chemistries etc. seemed to be mixed and interrelated.
 
   The notoriously, selective British mapping of bordering Arab countries especially in the Arabian Gulf (given its countries were dominated by Britain since 1913, except for Saudi Arabia) has deprived some Arabs who happened to be in certain neighboring Arab countries, from returning to their Native other Arab countries. For example, Arab Kuwaities, who were in Iraq or Saudi Arabia or the Emirates of the Omani Coast (United Arab Emirates, UAE, now) or Oman or Bahrain or Qatar, at the time of drawing the borders - couldn't return to Kuwait, after Britain introduced the new borders. Presumably, some of the Kuwaiti "Bidoons" ordeal these days, arose around as early, as 1917. 
 
   According to WoodWard:   
 
"They [Arabs] believed that the western powers, especially the British, had acted with arrogance, drawing borders and creating nations with little or no regard for the wishes of the local inhabitants (The Middle East during World War One By Professor David R Woodward.)
 
Professor, Dr. Ali Al-Hail, Professor of Mass Communication, Twice Fulbright

Award Winner, Fulbright Visiting Scholar, Vice-President Of Qatar Fulbright Group, CSR Award Judge and Board Member of AUSACE, ASC, IABD, NEBAA, BEA, IMDA and EAJMC American Associations.
Can be contacted via: a.alhail@yahoo.com