A view of damage from the area after Israeli attacks in Gaza City, Gaza on November 2, 2024. [Moiz Salhi – Anadolu Agency]

middleeastmonitor.com

The unfolding events in the Israeli-American war in Gaza and beyond is complemented by the Sunni-Muslim regimes’ attitude towards genocide and the suffering of the people of occupied Palestine, suggesting the shallowness of the much-hyped concept of Islamism. This ideology seeks the political and religious unity of the Muslim community, regardless of ethnic and national boundaries, for the common interests of all Muslims. At this moment in time, is there any more important common interest of the Muslim world other than ending the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians?

However, it seems that the rulers of the Muslim world are indifferent when it comes to Palestinian causes. The recent groundbreaking revelation by insider US journalist Bob Woodward tells a different story. This says that the ruler of the UAE, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and the King of Jordan have supported Israel’s military offensive in Gaza in the name of the supposed “elimination” of Hamas. Nevertheless, one year of Israel’s revenge offensive has exposed the Zionist state’s true colours and the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to depopulate Gaza and the West Bank of Palestinians. The claim about fighting Hamas to free the hostages, it seems, has been a sham all along.

Apart from Iran, regimes across the Muslim world from Morocco to Indonesia have done little to put pressure on Israel and its allies to end this inhuman war which has killed at least 43,300 Palestinians, mainly children and women. Israel treats international laws and conventions with contempt. Despite having a combined population of two billion people and oil as an economic weapon, the Muslim world has failed to impose any joint strategies for ending Israeli hostilities towards the Palestinians, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

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Ineffective — they are dormant in all but name — Muslim organisations such as the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) simply issue hollow statements about the Palestinians and their cause. It is quite remarkable that these organisations, which when founded had the Palestinian cause at the core of their objectives, are becoming irrelevant as far as this issue is concerned. There has been little or no pressure applied on the occupation state and its allies to end the genocide or even get humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave. “The pattern of targeting children is shocking,” said UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese at the UN last month. Her report to the UN is astonishing in the depth of its exposure of Israeli crimes, and yet nothing changes.

Where are the OIC, the Arab League and the GCC? What are they doing?

It has been claimed that UAE troops have been involved alongside the Israel occupation army in Gaza. According to Woodward, both the UAE and Saudi Arabia are complicit in Israel’s genocide as it seeks to destroy the Iran-led Axis of Resistance across the Middle East in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and Yemen. The principle that the enemy of my enemy is my friend trumps the interests of the Palestinians.

Today, the idea of pan-Islamism floated by influential 19th and 20th century personalities such as Jamal Al-Din Al-Afghani, Dr Muhammad Iqbal, Syed Abul A’la Maududi and Sayyid Qutb is dismissed by the regimes in the Muslim world who are more concerned with self-interest and holding on to power rather than pursuing the common interests of the Muslim Ummah, especially in occupied Palestine. Moreover, the indifferent attitude of Arab rulers towards their fellow Arab states is also wrecking the idea of Arab nationalism, as promoted by Arab leaders such as King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Yasser Arafat, George Habash, Michel Aflaq, Ahmed Ben Bella, Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein. Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, the Palestinian cause was led by Arab Leaders who fought bravely for Palestinian rights even at the cost of wars with Israel in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973 in which economic and military support was provided by Arab states, especially Saudi Arabia.

Globalisation, the US-led 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, the growing Axis of Resistance network and a new generation of Arab leaders have all shaped the current situation in the Middle East. Zionist Arab regimes have signed peace treaties with Israel for economic and strategic purposes.

The Palestinian cause has been pushed aside, despite much popular support across the Arab world.

Furthermore, the Arab monarchies have deepened their dependency on the US, which is Israel’s strongest ally, of course.

In the rush to boost their economies and protect themselves from Iran, the UAE and Bahrain (followed by Morocco and, nominally at least, Sudan) signed the Abraham Accords in 2020. This normalisation of relations with the occupation state has done little to curb its genocidal tendencies. It has, rather, boosted Israel’s “legitimacy” in the Middle East in a common front against Iran and its allies. Israel’s crimes — war crimes, crimes against humanity and apartheid, as well as genocide — are overlooked, betraying the Palestinians and the legitimate struggle for freedom from Israel’s illegal occupation. It must be pointed out that Saudi Arabia has said that normalisation with Israel will only happen if and when the Palestinians have a viable, independent state of their own, as well as there being a comprehensive ceasefire in place across the region.

The Arab states in the Middle East are concerned about the outbreak of all-out war between Israel and Iran, which have exchanged barrages of missiles over the past few months. They conveyed a clear message to the US that Israel should not target Iran’s oilfields or nuclear facilities, which could provoke a full regional war. This suggests that the GCC member states have used some leverage with the US to stop the violence from spreading. Why, we must ask, have they not used the same leverage to stop the genocide against the Palestinians? They must realise that an emboldened Israel able to act with impunity will not stop at taking all of historic Palestine; that it won’t stop until it has much more and fulfils the Zionist dream of Greater Israel, stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates.