Celeste abou rjeili

When I last phoned an Egyptian-American friend to catch up, I did not imagine that I would spend hours defending the existence of an pan-Arab identity.

Much of the older generation in Lebanon would like to believe that we belong to the group of Phoenicians, that we classify as white and not Arab, or that we belong to the West more than the rest. Cohorts among our co-habitants have signed petitions to revert to the French mandate in a feat of reverse-colonialism that I doubt exists elsewhere.

I will not challenge the validity of these claims and actions, but I must cede that the Lebanese are undeniably Arab. As defined by Oxford Languages, this means we are “a member of a Semitic people, originally from the Arabian peninsula and neighboring territories, inhabiting much of the Middle East and North Africa."

Yet the Arab world is bound together by more than just the glue of its label and the political Arab League.

Modern Standard Arabic, the infamous language we all know and struggle with, allows us to communicate and collaborate among ourselves. It lets Arabs benefit from uniform news, media, entertainment, culture, and business. It is why we can enjoy the same memes, devour the same books, and share TV channels.

We are conjoined by shared staples of our cuisines, from falafel to kebab.

My friend posited that geographical proximity is the unique basis for our national similarities. I retort that geographical proximity is a veritable basis for any common identity, like that of South American or South East Asian countries. Transitively, yes, our geographical proximity is the basis of our Arab identity because it allows us to develop a shared history, language, and culture that are the true root of our identity.

No matter the differences between, say, the Maghreb and the Levant, or two individually far-off countries, we as Arabs share a cultural and historical bond relative to the rest of the world that benefits us all.