Muslim and Arab leaders have failed to respond to the call of scholars and the wider Ummah for armed intervention to save the Palestinians amid the ongoing Israeli genocide.
A meeting of the 22 members of the Arab League and the 57 members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), concluded an emergency meeting in Saudi Arabia over the weekend but limited their final statement to condemnation of Israel and calls for a ceasefire.
Specifically, their final communique called for:
- An immediate ceasefire
- An end to the siege of Gaza
- The free entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza
- All countries to stop exporting weapons and ammunition to the occupation authorities
- Israeli occupation authorities to be held responsible for their crimes against the Palestinian people
- The peace process to be revived
Here is their statement in full:
The Final Statement of the extraordinary joint Arab-Islamic summit which concluded in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia today, condemns the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip and the war crimes and massacres committed by the colonial occupation government against the Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The Statement demands an immediate stop to aggression.
The Statement rejects describing this retaliatory war as self-defence or justifying it under any pretext. It calls for breaking the siege on Gaza and imposing the immediate entry of Arab, Islamic, and international humanitarian aid convoys into the Gaza Strip carrying food, medicine and fuel. It calls for the participation of international organisations in this process and protection for aid crews to enable them fully to carry out their role. It also calls for support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
The Final Statement supports all steps taken by the Arab Republic of Egypt to confront the consequences of the brutal Israeli aggression on Gaza and to support its efforts to bring aid into the Strip in an immediate, sustainable and adequate manner.
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The Statement calls on the UN Security Council to take a decisive and binding decision that imposes a halt to the aggression and curbs the colonial occupation authority in its violation of international laws and legitimate resolutions.
The Statement also calls on all countries to stop exporting weapons and ammunition to the occupation authorities, which are used by their army and terrorist settlers to kill Palestinian people and destroy their homes, hospitals, schools, mosques, churches and infrastructure.
The Final Statement calls on the Security Council to take an immediate decision condemning the barbaric Israeli occupation forces’ destruction of hospitals in the Gaza Strip, their prevention of the delivery of medicine, food and fuel to them and their cutting off electricity, water and basic services, including communication and Internet services.
The Statement says this constitutes collective punishment that represents a war crime according to international law. It adds that the resolution should require Israel – as the occupying power – to abide by international laws and resolutions and immediately abolish these brutal and inhumane measures (the latest relevant resolution being UN General Assembly Resolution No. 25 of October 26th).
The Statement says that the UN Security Council’s failure to act represents complicity that allows Israel to continue its brutal aggression that kills innocent children, the elderly and women and that leaves Gaza devastated.
The Statement also stresses the need to lift the siege that Israel has imposed on the Gaza Strip for years. The final statement also calls on the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to complete the investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israel against the Palestinian people in all the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem.
The Statement also stresses the importance of supporting the legal and political initiatives of the State of Palestine to hold officials of the Israeli occupation authorities responsible for their crimes against the Palestinian people. These initiatives should include the advisory opinion process of the International Court of Justice. The Statement says the committee established by the Human Rights Council resolution to investigate these crimes must not be obstructed.
The Statement calls for assigning the Secretariats of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to establish two media monitoring units to document the crimes of the occupation authorities against the Palestinian people, and to create digital media platforms to publish them and expose these illegal and inhumane practices.
The Statement instructs the Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (in its capacity as Chair of the Islamic and Arab Summit) along with the Foreign Ministers of Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, Indonesia, Nigeria and Palestine, as well as any other interested countries, and the Secretary-Generals of the two organisations, to initiate immediate international action on behalf of all member states of the OIC and the League to stop the war on Gaza and exert pressure to launch a serious and real political process to achieve lasting and comprehensive peace in accordance with approved international references.
The Statement calls on the member states of the OIC and the League to exercise diplomatic, political and legal pressure and take any deterrent measures to stop the crimes of the colonial occupation authorities against humanity.
The Statement denounces the double standards in the application of international law, warning that this seriously undermines the credibility of the states that protect Israel from international law and the credibility of multilateral action. It says this exposes selectivity in applying the system of human values and emphasises that the positions of Arab and Islamic countries will be affected by double standards, leading to a rift between civilisations and cultures.
The Final Statement also condemns the displacement of about 1.5 million Palestinians from the North of the Gaza Strip to its South as a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and its annex of 1977. It further condemns the killing of journalists, children and women, the targeting of paramedics, and the use of internationally prohibited white phosphorus in the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
It condemns repeated Israeli statements and threats to return Lebanon to the “stone age,” and calls on the states party to the agreement to take a collective decision to condemn and reject such actions and statements.
The Statement calls on all United Nations organisations to confront the attempt of the colonial occupation authorities to perpetuate this miserable inhuman reality. It emphasises the necessity for the immediate return of the displaced to their homes and areas and the necessity of preventing the expansion of the conflict.
The Final Statement calls for reaffirming adherence to peace as a strategic option, to end the Israeli occupation and resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict in accordance with international law and relevant international resolutions, including Security Council resolutions.
The Statement emphasises adherence to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative with all its elements and priorities and the holding an international peace conference.
The Statement says that as soon as possible, a credible peace process should be launched on the basis of international law, legitimate international resolutions and the principle of land for peace. It says this should be within a specific time frame and based on the implementation of the two-state solution with international guarantees, leading to an end to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, the occupied Syrian Golan, the Shebaa Farms, the Kafr Hills, Shoba and the outskirts of the Lebanese town of Al-Mari.
The Statement urges the activation of the Arab and Islamic financial safety net in accordance with the resolution of the fourteenth session of the Islamic Summit Conference and the resolutions of the Arab Summit, to provide financial contributions to pay for financial, economic and humanitarian support to the government of the State of Palestine and UNRWA. It stresses the need to mobilise international partners to reconstruct Gaza and mitigate the effects of the comprehensive destruction caused by the Israeli aggression.
The Statement instructs the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States and the Secretary-General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to follow up on the implementation of these resolutions and present a report to the next session of their councils.
