West Asia At War: Repression, Resistance and Great Power Games

by Talmiz Ahmad

The Wafd government, that had come to power in the 1950 elections, firmly opposed the British armed forces’ continued stay in the country, abrogated the 1936 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty in October 1951 and demanded immediate British withdrawal from the Suez Canal zone. The British refused to recognize this abrogation. With tacit government support, there were several attacks on British facilities in the canal zone and guerrilla attacks on UK personnel. In a major escalation, in January 1952, about 1,500 British troops besieged Egyptian police at the canal zone and demanded the surrender of their weapons. In the fighting, forty-six policemen were killed. In response, on 25-26 January, referred to as ‘Black Saturday’, there were strikes, riots and arson attacks in Cairo on British, Jewish and other foreign properties; fifty Egyptians and seventeen foreigners were killed, and the Wafd government was dismissed.