Despite divisions among Muslim countries, particularly between Shias and Sunnis, and occasions in which political, military, and economic factors take center stage (as in the Abraham Accords), the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) stands together firmly against infidel Israel, regardless of wishful thinking to the contrary. It is Islamic religious zeal that drives the OIC as a political entity, and Iran is now being vocal.
“The massacre of Palestinian children today follows the purported normalization,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said. “This criminal and genocidal regime has once again proven that friendly gestures only aggravate its atrocities.”
Now the OIC is calling for an emergency UN meeting, for it knows that the UN is antisemitic, and well-known for its one-sided resolutions against Israel. The UN has, in fact, increasingly become an OIC lackey.
“Islamic nations slam Israel — and each other’s ties to it,” by Jon Gambrel, Associated Press, May 16, 2021:
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A league of Muslim nations on Sunday demanded that Israel halt attacks killing Palestinian civilians amid heavy fighting between it and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, even as fissures between countries over their recognition of Israel emerged.
A statement by the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation hewed closely to previous ones issued by the Saudi-based group, including backing the decades-old call for Palestinians to have their own nation with East Jerusalem as its capital.
However, recent normalization deals between Israel and some nations in the group — as well as their own concerns about Hamas — saw diplomats at points instead criticize each other.
“The massacre of Palestinian children today follows the purported normalization,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said. “This criminal and genocidal regime has once again proven that friendly gestures only aggravate its atrocities.”
The past week has seen some of the worst violence across Israel and the Palestinian territory since the 2014 war in Gaza, with militants launching missiles and Israel pounding the blockaded coastal strip home to 2 million people with heavy fire. At least 188 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza with 1,230 people wounded. Eight people in Israel have been killed.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation statement called on Israel to respect Muslims’ access to Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam, as well as stop settlers from forcibly evicting Palestinian families from their homes.
“The plight of the Palestinian people is the bleeding wound of the Islamic world today,” Afghan Foreign Minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar said.
But the videoconference meeting saw some delegates instead turn their fire toward countries like Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates, Muslim nations which reached normalization deals last year to recognize Israel. While Egypt and Jordan earlier reached peace deals, supporters of the Palestinians criticized the new countries for recognizing Israel before the formation of an independent Palestinian state.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu joined Zarif in criticizing the normalization, though Israel maintains diplomatic ties with Ankara.
“There are a few who have lost their moral compass and voiced support for Israel,” he said. “If there are half-hearted statements within our own family, how could we criticize others? Who will take our words seriously?”
Zarif also accused Israel of “genocide and crimes against humanity.”
“Make no mistake: Israel only understand the language of resistance and the people of Palestine are fully entitled to their right to defend themselves,” Zarif said.
Hamas, which seized power in Gaza in 2007, didn’t take part in the meeting, which came before consultations at the United Nations over the crisis.
Across the Arabian Peninsula, reactions to the fighting similarly has been mixed. In Qatar, home to the Al-Jazeera satellite network, hundreds turned out late Saturday night to listen to a speech by Hamas’ top leader Ismail Haniyeh. Kuwait’s parliament speaker reportedly spoke with Haniyeh on Saturday, as did Qatar’s foreign minister.
Meanwhile, in Bahrain and the UAE, government-linked media hasn’t been covering the current flare-up of violence nonstop like other networks in the region.
There are murmurs of dissent though. In Bahrain, civil society groups signed a letter urging the kingdom to expel the Israeli ambassador. In the UAE, where political parties and protests are illegal, Palestinians have expressed their anger quietly, worried about losing their residency permit. Some Emiratis also have expressed concerns….
“Muslim states condemn Israel’s ‘barbaric attacks’ against Palestinians” , Reuters, May 16, 2021:
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) called on Sunday for an immediate halt to what it described as Israel’s barbaric attacks on Gaza and blamed “systematic crimes” against the Palestinians for hostilities now in their seventh day.
The OIC statement came after a virtual meeting in which Saudi Arabia condemned the violation of the sanctity of Muslim holy sites and evictions of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem.
The 57-member body accused the United Nations Security Council of inertia. Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei issued a separate statement on Sunday, tweeted by Malaysia’s premier, calling for an emergency U.N. General Assembly meeting.
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates called for a ceasefire. The UAE and Bahrain had along with other Arab states last year broken a longstanding taboo in the region by establishing formal ties with Israel, with tacit approval from Gulf power Riyadh.
“De-escalation and the highest degree of restraint are important to avoid dragging the region to new levels of instability,” said UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation Reem al-Hashimy.
Pre-dawn Israeli strikes in the centre of Gaza City on Sunday brought the death toll in Gaza to 181, including 47 children, health officials said. Israel has reported 10 dead, including two children.
Palestinian militants began rocket assaults on Israel on Monday after weeks of tensions over a court case to evict several Palestinian families in East Jerusalem and in retaliation for Israeli police clashes with Palestinians near the city’s Al-Aqsa Mosque during the holy month of Ramadan.
Israel has retaliated with air and artillery strikes into densely populated Gaza.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud opened the OIC meeting by urging the global community to end the escalation in violence and revive peace negotiations based on a two-state solution.
Israel sees all of Jerusalem as its capital. Palestinians want the eastern section as a capital of a future state. Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem is unrecognised internationally…..
Jim says
It seems awfully hypocritical for them to talk like that. But that is how such people view things. The Arab side does not seem to want a two state solution, but rather constantly calls for destroying Israel. And the years of sending missiles and fiery balloons across the border to Israel also reveals no peaceful intention. The terror tunnels are surely not meant to induce a peace process. So, what is there to do. Probably the US should stop electing presidents like Obama and Biden, so that they be less tempted to make such attacks on Israel.
mortimer says
OIC … there they go again … with their SUPREMACIST ideology. No kafir and no kafir country has a right (according to them) to resist the jihad!
OIC wants all kafirs to submit to Islam easily, so they need not spend a dime nor shoot a bullet in jihad.
Meanwhile, everyone knows that the Pallies are spending most of their aid monies on weapons to be used to kill Jews and on monster homes in Cyprus for the corrupt Pally leaders.
BlackSabbath says
OIC has no military capability and it is a club of whiners and losers. All they do is say “Oh … I see” all day (hence the name OIC). However, they do fund islamic terrorism and should be carefully monitored by all intelligence agencies around the civilized word. Follow the money trail including cryptos.
jule says
But it sounds now like any Abraham Accords deals are off. How can Israel trust any of them ? After all the good work and hope for the first time….will any country continuing be so condemned by these despicable people. I thought part of the whole Gaza thing was to end these Accords so no matter if Gaza is overcome this time again, if the Accords are nill, they win. (What was Iran talking to Saudi About recently?)
BlackSabbath says
The only thing Israel can trust is that perfidy is guaranteed by the mohammadeans. All this palestine freedom is utter nonsense because there are about 5 million palestinians that can be easily accommodated in Syria, Lebaon, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. The left wing communists and bloody jihadis want to keep this conflict going with varying spectrum of motives, and there is only military solution to this.
Infidel says
Dear OIC
Stand up to China on the Uyghur issue, and condemn Beijing, if you have the cojones. After that, we might take you seriously
Keith O says
As much as I dislike China and it’s Whiney the Poo look alike dictator, they seem to have the right idea on how to deal with mudslimes.
Infidel says
You’re right, but I was analyzing this from the muslim perspective: they b?h about an imagined genocide by the Israelis, while ignoring a real one by the Chicoms
Also, China is not dealing w/ them the right way by ‘indoctrinating’ them or putting them into Nike sweatshops. First of all, indoctrination never works: if ever they go free, they’ll happily return to whatever they were being suppressed for, which in this case was islam. Just recall the experiences of Sakharov and Solzhenitsyn. Similarly, putting them in such labor camps is giving them skills that they can put into good use whenever they join any jihad
The other mistake China is making is keeping them, and not letting other muslim countries take them. Beijing has agreements w/ almost all muslim countries to extradite any Uyghurs, and since all of them are belt/road participants, they happily go along. This forces Uyghur refugees to look to flee to the West, and we are then forced to take them b’cos muslim countries will turn them back to China. But ideally, Uyghurs should be free to migrate to Kazakhstan, which is pretty capable of settling them anywhere in that vast country, or even the other -stans – Kyrgyz, Turkmen or Uzbekistan. In those cases, the cultures are very similar – they’re all Turkic, all sunni and speak similar languages. The Chinese would be better off too: they’d have undisputed ownership of cities like Qashqar, Urumqi, Hotan and Yarqent.
Burma is the one country that’s dealt w/ muslims right: they kicked out their ‘Rohingya’ population to Bangladesh, and haven’t looked back. It’s that example that China should have followed. But they are too attracted to either enslaving them or trafficking in the body parts of Uyghurs – from their hair to their organs
Westman says
It’s difficult for organizations to understand when they are outdated and unable to point to any real accomplishments. Islam lives in the past, recalling its days of “glory”(gory?), as the world chuckles and leaves it behind. The OIC will never catch up to the new world, nor again be conquerer, because its foundation is rooted in the micro-management of human lives. From such comes only stagnation.
The OIC’s day is over, they just don’t know it yet – even after watching a tiny modern Israel defeat all attacking nations. Islam only knows how to create a physical lockstep bully. Modern society knows how end any Islamic entity with the gentle push of a button. So far, it has refrained.
Infidel says
Actually, no! Palestinians see all of Jerusalem – and all of Israel – as belonging to them. Also, it’s the Palestinians who are more opposed to a 2 state solution than the Israelis. Only difference b/w them – Israel wants Israel to be 1 state, and the Palis to have what in other countries is known as autonomy, where they manage everything except defense, and some key infrastructure assets, such as aquifers. What Palis want is the entire state to replace Israel
RichardL says
I hope I will see the wart on the Temple Mount removed. I really don’t care how. The Holy of Holies is defiled by these devil worshippers…
Infidel says
+10
ROBERT CARRILLO says
Hmmmm….. Here we go again..
Perhaps if you folks would stop bombing, blowing things and people up, and stop the stabbing sprees, things would be different..
Always playing the victim, whilst engaging in all of the above, is not a strategy..
Stop ‘the SPIN’. 1,400 plus years of this sick history, and they still cannot play well with others. NO others..
Rule # 1: Stop starting wars with everyone, including Israel.. A clue? Stop lobbing 4,000 rockets INDESCRIMINATELY in to Israel.. ..and the Israeli’s will not have to fight back and defend themselves..
Rule # 2: Don’t forget rule # 1
OLD GUY says
Who attacked who, Israel has every right to defend its population. War is war and civilians are going to die. When islamic warriors attacked America on 9/11 they totally targeted civilians, as they often do. Islam will kill women and children without a thought about it. They do this murder of civilians around the world on a daily basis, but our liberal news medias keeps it under wraps. The slaughter of women and children in Africa is a good example, but you don’t hear the outrage about that. It appears the liberal media don’t care, is it because they are blacks and they are christians. Where is the great BLM group?