The summit is the second of its kind since the aggression began in October 2023, though the participating nations have taken no concrete action to stop the genocide.
Arab and Islamic Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Photo: MFA Saudi Arabia
by Aseel Saleh, Peoples Dispatch / Globetrotter News Service.
The Extraordinary Arab-Islamic Summit kicked off on Monday, November 11, in the Saudi capital Riyadh, to address the ongoing Israeli genocidal aggression on the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. More than 50 leaders of Arab and Islamic nations have taken part in the summit organized by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Arab League. At the summit, participating nations, the Arab League, the OIC, and the African Union Commission also passed a joint statement that pushes for broader international support for Israel’s expulsion from the UN and the formation of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Leaders of countries neighboring Israel including Jordan, Syria and Egypt delivered speeches on Monday, as well as Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. These leaders used their addresses to once again condemn the aggression unleashed on the peoples of the region by the Zionist state and implored the countries present to undertake greater efforts to stop its genocidal attacks.
Palestine continues to resist
For over one year, well over 44,000 Palestinians have been killed due to the ongoing Israeli massacres in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. In his speech, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged Arab and Islamic countries to show the highest levels of solidarity and cooperation to end the Israeli aggression in light of the international community’s failure to stop the genocide against the Palestinian people.
Abbas called on these countries to work together to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza strip, and the withdrawal of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) from the besieged enclave. The Palestinian president also emphasized his rejection of any plans to separate Gaza from the occupied West Bank.
Abbas stressed on Arab and Islamic leaders to protect Jerusalem, its holy Islamic and Christian sanctuaries including Al-Aqsa mosque from Israeli assaults. He also urged the United Nations to suspend Israel’s membership, and all countries of the world to review their relations with Israel, and refrain from normalizing with it.
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister
The ongoing Israeli aggression against Lebanon has claimed the lives of more than 3,200 people, according to the latest statement released by the Lebanese Health Ministry on Sunday, November 10. The Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister, Majid Mikati, represented his country in the summit, during which he called for continued global support, particularly for Lebanon’s institutions and its people. The Lebanese premier urged regional and international partners “to respect Lebanon’s sovereignty and unique pluralistic identity”.
Mikati reiterated the need for an immediate ceasefire to end the aggression on Lebanon, and the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which stipulates ending hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, with the Council calling for a permanent ceasefire to be based on the creation of a buffer zone. The Lebanese Prime Minister confirmed that Lebanon will remain committed to peace, security, and cooperation with international peacekeeping forces. He also urged for “finding a just and lasting solution to the Palestinian cause”.
Jordan’s King Abduallah II
Jordan’s King Abduallah II, also delivered a speech during the summit on Monday. King Abdullah’s speech is considered of high importance among other leaders for a host of reasons. King Abduallah is the custodian of Al-Aqsa mosque and his country hosts millions of people of Palestinian origin. Jordan also has the longest borders with Israel. In addition, Jordanian people have been highly outraged by the Israeli genocide in Gaza, which motivated three Jordanian nationals to carry out cross-border attacks against the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) in the last few months.
In his speech, King Abduallah highlighted the need of breaking the siege on the people of Gaza in order to end the humanitarian disaster, and stopping the escalation in the occupied West Bank and recurrent Israeli violations against the holy sites in Jerusalem, which undermine peace and regional security. He also called for supporting Lebanon’s sovereignty and security, ending the aggression and providing the Lebanese people with the needed aid.
The Jordanian King blamed the international community for its failure to end Israel’s aggression on people of the region. “How can we address generations in our countries? How can we justify to them the global failure to stop the Israeli aggression on Gaza and Lebanon? How can we convince them that international law exists to protect all peoples and their right to life, without discrimination between one people or another, or one state or another?” King Abdullah wondered.
The Jordanian monarch stressed on “creating a real political horizon to resolve the Palestinian issue on the basis of the two-state solution”, describing it as the only way to “achieve peace, stability and security in the region”. He also urged the participating country to pay tangible efforts to save and support the people of Gaza.
“We don’t want words; we want serious positions, and tangible efforts to end the tragedy, save people in Gaza, and provide the assistance they need”, King Abdullah said.
Syrian President
Syria has been among the countries subjected to frequent sporadic massacres carried out by Israeli warplanes throughout more than one year. Dozens of people have been killed in these massacres, the latest of which took place Monday afternoon, after Israeli fighter jets targeted a residential building in the Syrian capital Damascus, killing at least seven civilians.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad slammed the countries participating in the summit for their inaction to stop the genocide following last year’s summit, which could not prevent Israeli massacres, which have left “thousands of martyrs and millions of displaced people in Palestine and Lebanon”, from occurring.
“Despite the importance of working to restore all legitimate rights, the priority now is to stop massacres, to stop genocide, and to stop ethnic cleansing, as for the tools, I believe that we possess them together, popularly and officially, Arabs and Muslims, countries and peoples,” Al-Assad stated.
The Syrian President noted that condemnation, boycott, and repeated calls on the international community will never stop Israeli crimes against the people in the region, because Israel is not “a state in the legal sense “, but “an outlaw colonial entity”.
“We are not dealing with a state in the legal sense, but rather with an outlaw colonial entity, we are not dealing with people in the civilized sense, but rather with herds of settlers who are closer to barbarism than to humanity,” Al-Assad said.
Egyptian President
Egypt has been directly connected to the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza strip. On one hand, Egypt has played the role of a mediator along with Qatar in the prolonged ceasefire negotiations, since the beginning of the Israeli genocide in the besieged strip.
On the other hand, Egypt controls the Rafah border crossing, which is the only passageway for humanitarian aid and displaced people, who wish to flee the genocide. Months ago, media reports unveiled Israel’s plans to displace the residents of Gaza to Sinai, which Egypt “has rejected categorically”.
During the summit, Egypt President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi explicitly refused Israeli attempts to displace the Palestinian people from Gaza to other countries, saying that such attempts aimed at liquidating the Palestinian cause.
“I unequivocally declare that we will unshakably defy all attempts to liquidate the Palestinian cause, either through the forcible displacement or transfer of civilians or by rendering the Gaza Strip uninhabitable. This is utterly unacceptable and will absolutely not be tolerated under any circumstances,” el-Sisi stated.
“We reiterate that the essential prerequisite for attaining regional security and stability, and transitioning from a conflict-ridden regional order to one based on peace and development is the establishment of an independent Palestinian State, along the June 4, 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital,” the Egyptian President added.
Although Arab and Islamic countries have held summits and launched initiatives to apparently find a “just and comprehensive solution”, their policies and actions have only shown their subordination to the United States, which has always consolidated Israel’s overreach and brutality in the region. These summits and initiatives have been widely criticized for being mere face-saving sterile debates that are unable to change the status quo.
This article was produced by Peoples Dispatch / Globetrotter News Service.
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