31 May - 6 June 2001
Issue No.536
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 31 May - 6 June 2001 Issue No.536 |
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A clear message to Israel?
An OIC meeting failed to show enough solidarity with the Palestinians. Dina Ezzat reports
The Palestinians did not get very much out of a foreign ministers' meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) which took place in Doha on Saturday. While support -- moral and financial -- was pledged, not much was secured. Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, who had asked the Qatari presidency of the OIC to convene this meeting, is not hiding his disappointment with the results. While expressing diplomatic gratitude for the convention, Arafat's statements clearly indicated disenchantment with the result, particularly in regard to providing immediate financial support.
"It is very nice that these meetings convene, but the problem is that when they convene and end with no serious plan of action they send Israel a clear message that it can simply go ahead with its aggression against our people without reprimand. We Palestinians, however, have stopped hoping for much,'" commented one senior Palestinian official, requesting anonymity.
The only committed resolution to come out of the OIC foreign ministers' meeting, concluded last Sunday in the Qatari capital, was the same as a resolution adopted earlier this month at the Arab League. This was to suspend all political contacts with the Israeli government for as long as it continued its aggression and blockade against the Palestinian people and the Palestine National Authority.
As was evident from the response at the Arab League, adherence to this resolution will not be strictly observed by all Islamic countries. Turkey, for one, was open about its intention not to adhere to the resolution. Ankara, despite the protests of the Palestinians and the Arab League, believes that maintaining high-level political contacts with the Israeli government can only serve to revive the Arab-Israeli peace process.
"Turkey is the only country that objected [to this resolution], since it argues that its role [in the Middle East peace process] depends on its contacts with Israel, despite the fact that our Turkish brothers were repeatedly told by many [Arab officials] that such contacts are useless," commented Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa. Moussa has recently been very vocal in cautioning Ankara against inciting widespread Arab anger by maintaining its close ties with Tel Aviv in spite of the harsh military action against the Palestinians. Observers said he was sure to tell the Turks in Doha that their contacts with Israel were useless, as they were neither on behalf of nor binding on other Arab countries.
"The objective of this resolution of suspending political contacts with Israel for as long as it sticks to its current stance is to send a clear message to Israel about the popular and governmental support we will offer to consolidate the steadfastness of the Palestinian people, and its heroic Intifada, in face of Israeli aggression," Moussa said in his statement before the opening session of the OIC meeting. The objective was to undermine the Israeli policy which, he said, aimed at forcing the Palestinian people "to abandon their political will and surrender to the Israeli version of peace." This, Moussa warned, should neither be accepted nor tolerated, but rather vehemently opposed.
"But this is not the overwhelming inclination of many of the Arab or Islamic governments who have serious economic and political interests at stake with the United States or Israel," commented one senior Arab diplomat.
As a case in point, Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad Bin Jassim told a press conference following the conclusion of the OIC meeting: "Qatar is not prepared to impose an oil embargo. This I am telling you outright." He added: "Let us forget about the oil embargo imposed in 1973 by Arab countries during the war with Israel. This is not going to happen again, so let us be practical."
It was under the same pretext of practicality that Ankara decided to be overt about its violation of the OIC resolution, something other members of the three-decade-old Islamic organisation were doing "under the table," an informed diplomatic source commented.
And unlike Mauritania, which was openly criticised by the Arab League for violating its resolution to suspend political contacts with Israel, Turkey was not criticised by the OIC. Bin Jassim defended the presence of an Israeli trade office in Qatar. The pretext, according to Bin Jassim, is that such meetings were not central to the issue. "This bureau is not the crux of the current deteriorating situation in the Palestinian territories," he said.
So what the Palestinians emerged with from the Doha meeting was a shaky stamp on a resolution to suspend high-level political contacts with Israel, a public embarrassment to the countries which disagree with the resolution, and a call from Arab League Secretary-General Moussa for all Islamic and Arab governments to open the door for public donations in order to help support the steadfastness of the Palestinian people.
"The OIC resolutions are positive, but they are by no means sufficient in view of the atrocious Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people," permanent Palestinian representative to the Arab League Mohamed Sobeih said.
"Those resolutions failed to meet the expectations of the Palestinian people living under siege," he added.
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