Why was Saddam Hussein so popular among Palestinians?

Former President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, was a staunch sympathiser of the Palestinian cause, despite his own Iraqi people's discontent. He provided substantial financial support to Palestinian suicide bombers, who targeted Israelis, while his own citizens endured economic hardships during his regime.

Saddam Hussein, one of the most controversial figures in the Middle East, often aligned the Palestinian cause with his own agenda, which primarily focused on his disdain for the West, particularly the US and Israel.

In 1990, when the Allies launched the initial air strikes against Iraq in response to his invasion of Kuwait, Saddam proclaimed, "Satan's follower Bush committed his treacherous crime, along with the criminal Zionism," as quoted by Con Coughlin in his biography "Saddam: The Secret Life."

Even when the Soviet Union attempted to mediate between Saddam and the US, Saddam remained steadfast in his position, emphasizing the liberation of Palestine from Jewish control and the withdrawal of Israel from lands it had forcibly occupied in Lebanon and Syria. This was one of his conditions for leaving Kuwait.

Diplomatic efforts ultimately failed, and Saddam continued to resist Israel and the US.

Saddam's support for Hamas

• The militant group Hamas, responsible for the October 7, 2023 attack in which scores of Israelis were killed, received backing from Saddam Hussein.
• Initially, the former President of Palestine, Yasser Arafat, was the sole Arab leader who stood alongside Saddam in his anti-Western stance.
• However, dissatisfied with Arafat's peace deal with Israel, Saddam began sponsoring Hamas, a militant group that gained prominence after the first uprising in Palestine in 1987.

•  He provided support for suicide bombings, reportedly offering 5,000 Euros to the families of every suicide bomber.

• The Palestinians admired Saddam for his support of their cause, while he maintained his distance from Jews, in line with his religious beliefs. The Israel-Palestine conflict provided him with an opportunity to portray himself as a champion of Islam.

• Saddam's relationship with the Palestinians persisted throughout the 1990s. A hardcore Sunni Islamist, Saddam initially received support from the US and other Arab countries during his ten-year war with Iran from 1979 to 1989.

• However, when he turned his ambitions toward Kuwait, revealing his plans to control the oilfields of the entire Middle East, Arab countries withdrew their support, and the US and Israel became the guardians of these oilfields.

Saddam's initial attack on Israel

• Saddam Hussein was also the first Arab leader to launch an attack on Tel Aviv using Scud missiles. In the 1990s, as the Allies took action against Iraq, Saddam remained resolute, opting to attack Israel.

• His strategy had two main objectives: first, to garner support from Arab masses by confronting Israel, and second, to provoke Israel into a ground war by firing missiles at the Israeli coast.

• On January 18, 1990, Iraq launched three ballistic missiles at Tel Aviv, and another two struck the northern port of Haifa.

• This attack marked a significant embarrassment for Israel, as it was the first time the nation had been targeted since its establishment.

• However, the US urged Israel to refrain from retaliating to prevent the conflict from escalating throughout the Middle East.

• Consequently, Israel refrained from responding and declined to become further embroiled in the conflict.

Palestinians' reactions to Saddam's death

• The Arab population in Palestine mourned deeply when Saddam Hussein was executed in 2006 for his alleged involvement in the 1982 Dujail killings of Shiite Muslims.

• Many Arabs viewed this as a vengeful act by the US against a leader who had challenged their interests.
• Following his execution, several Palestinians living in Iraq faced strong resistance from the Iraqi people and were compelled to leave.

For most Iraqis, Palestine was synonymous with Saddam, whom they considered a malevolent figure. Nonetheless, for Palestinians, Saddam was a heroic leader in the Middle East, a popular figure in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, and the only leader who had dared to challenge the might of the US and Israel.