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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 9 -15 November 2000 Issue No.507 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 9 -15 November 2000 Issue No.507
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Books Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters More than moral support?
By Rasha SaadSeven weeks after the Al-Aqsa Intifada broke out, foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) start a two-day meeting in Qatar today to lay the groundwork for an Islamic summit which looks in danger of collapsing. Saudi Arabia announced yesterday it would boycott the summit in protest against Qatar's refusal to sever its ties with Israel. For the same reason, Iran has said it might also stay away.
Dominating the agenda of the summit, scheduled to start Sunday, will be the atrocities being committed by Israeli troops in the occupied territories which has seen over 180 Palestinians killed and 7,500 injured.
Iran, which has chaired the 56-member OIC for the past three years, suggested that the ministers should devote the first day of meetings to consultations on the measures needed to counter Israeli attacks against mostly unarmed Palestinians. Islamic leaders are expected to express strong support for the Intifada but it remains to be seen what else can be offered besides vocal and moral backing.
Palestinian officials are not expecting much to come out of the OIC at this stage. As in last month's Arab summit in Cairo, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat will request political and financial support from Muslim countries as well as their backing for a demand to deploy international peacekeeping troops to provide protection for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.
Mohamed Sobeih, Palestine's ambassador to the Arab League and secretary-general of the Palestinian National Council, said that since Jerusalem is the real battle in Palestine, Palestinians are expecting "a clear message from the OIC summit that Jerusalem is a red line issue that should not be tampered with."
Sobeih demanded that OIC members, in line with the Arab summit's resolutions, sever their ties with any country that transfers its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Support from Islamic countries for the resolution is seen as a stern warning to the United States where presidential candidates George Bush and Al Gore have stated their intention to move the US embassy to Jerusalem if elected president.
Sobeih also expects that the summit will support Palestinian calls for establishing a special international criminal tribunal to try Israeli war criminals "who committed massacres against the Palestinians." He said the formation of an international committee to investigate the reasons behind the outbreak of the violence and to determine the party responsible was also vital. Palestinians, said Sobeih, would also request the formation of an OIC delegation to visit the United States and European countries in order to explain and seek backing for the Arab and Islamic stand on Jerusalem and the ongoing clashes.
The Islamic leaders are expected to donate money to preserve Jerusalem's Arab and Islamic identity. The OIC established a special Jerusalem Committee, headed by Morocco, in the early 1970s, but financial constraints limited its efforts.
Still, OIC efforts might fall short of expectations. Adding to the sense of disillusionment is speculation that the summit communiqué will not include a clause calling for a halt to all forms of normalisation of relations with Israel. Mahmoud Al-Zahar, a leading figure in the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement Hamas, believes the final OIC communiqué "is unlikely to be any better than that of the Arab summit."
Consequently, few expect the OIC to respond to pressure from Arab and Islamic public opinion or from demonstrators who have taken to the streets since the beginning of the Intifada demanding from their governments that a strong stand be taken on the Israeli massacre of Palestinians. However, Sobeih insists that if the Islamic countries succeed in meeting all Palestinian demands, "this will be satisfactory to the Palestinians as a first step towards realising their rights."
The OIC summit is already mired in controversy. Host country Qatar, due to take over the three-year OIC presidency, has been criticised by several Arab countries and Iran for failing to close an Israeli trade office in Doha. Though Qatari officials promised to consider taking such a step at the Arab summit, Qatar's Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem said earlier this week that his country had no plans for the moment to cut trade links with Israel, saying "if this will solve the crisis then we are ready to do it now, but now is not the time." Hamad was speaking after meeting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Gaza on Monday.
Along with Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Mauritania are the only Arab countries that have relations with Israel. Oman severed its ties with Israel after the Intifada began on 28 September. North African states Tunisia and Morocco shut down their interest sections in Israel shortly following the Arab summit.
The Qatari stand has angered Iran which has threatened, according to unconfirmed reports, to boycott the summit. Hizbullah leader Sayed Hassan Nasrallah earlier called upon Islamic leaders not to take part in the Doha summit if Qatar failed to close the Israeli office. He said the OIC meeting should move to another country if Qatar did not change its stand.
Political analysts say Tehran's threatened boycott reflects its frustration over the failure of Arab leaders to take a clear-cut stand at their summit in Cairo to sever all forms of existing ties with Israel. (Instead they announced that no future ties would be established). Iran was also reportedly angry after several Arab countries turned down a proposal by Khatami to hold an emergency meeting of OIC foreign ministers in support of the Intifada. Tehran had called for the meeting to take place on 28 October in Riyadh, the OIC headquarters. According to reports, the initiative was short-circuited by the Arab summit. The emergency meeting needed the approval of one-third of the organisation's members.
Diluting the effect of the Doha summit still further, leaders of Libya and Bahrain announced they would boycott the meeting. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said he will not attend the gathering because it will be not unlike the Arab summit -- "just ink on paper." Gaddafi boycotted the Arab summit as well while the Libyan delegation walked out after expressing reservations over its final communiqué which failed to call for a severance of all Arab ties with Israel. Bahrain will not participate in the OIC meeting because of a simmering territorial dispute with Qatar.
On the fringes of the OIC meeting, Arab foreign ministers will hold their first follow-up meeting since the Arab summit. A committee, comprising Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan and Palestine will discuss how to collect and distribute the $1 billion Al-Aqsa Fund and the Jerusalem Intifada Fund approved by the summit.
Related stories:
See Intifada in focus 26 Oct. - 1 Nov. 2000
Intifada special 19 - 25 October 2000
Palestine pages 12 - 18 October 2000
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