Arab League calls for immediate Israeli withdrawal from Gaza

The Arab League Summit called for immediate withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from the Gaza Strip and deployment of international peacekeeping forces in the occupied Palestinian territories.

A joint communiqué called “Manama Declaration,” issued at the end of the one-day summit in Manama, Bahrain on Thursday, leaders of the 22-nation Arab League reiterated their firm position for a just and comprehensive peaceful settlement of the Palestinian issue and their support for an international peace conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The 33rd summit was held under the chairmanship of Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa. Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman, headed the Saudi delegation to the summit.

The Arab leaders called on the international community to advance the peace process toward achieving a just peace based on the two-state solution. “We call for the deployment of international protection and peacekeeping forces affiliated with the United Nations in the occupied Palestinian territory until the two-state solution is implemented,” the statement said.

The summit issued a collective call to convene an international conference under the auspices of the United Nations to resolve the Palestinian issue based on the two-state solution, which ends the Israeli occupation of all occupied Arab territories.

The Arab leaders directed their foreign ministers to take immediate action to communicate with the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the countries of the world to urge them to quickly recognize the State of Palestine.

The summit also reaffirmed the Arab League’s adherence to the freedom of maritime navigation in international waters in accordance with the rules of international law and the conventions of the law of the sea, and to guarantee freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Gulf.

The leaders strongly condemned the threats to commercial shipping which threaten freedom of navigation, international trade and the interests of the countries and peoples of the world.

Highlighting Palestine as the core issue of all Arab issues, the leaders said, “We reaffirm the firm and permanent Arab position in support of the Palestinian issue, which remains a central issue and the foundation upon which peace and stability in the region can be achieved, and our categorical rejection of all attempts to displace the Palestinian people inside or outside their land, as a clear violation of international law, which we will collectively confront. We reaffirm our strong condemnation of all illegal Israeli measures and practices that target the Palestinian people and deprive them of their right to freedom, statehood, life and human dignity, as are guaranteed by international laws.”

“We reiterate our firm position and call for a just and comprehensive peaceful settlement of the Palestinian issue, and we support the call of Mahmoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine, to convene an international peace conference and to take irreversible steps to implement the two-state solution in accordance with the Arab Peace Initiative and resolutions of international legitimacy to establish an independent and sovereign Palestinian state on the lines of June 04, 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital, and to accept its membership in the United Nations as an independent and fully sovereign state in common with other countries in the world, and to ensure the restoration of all legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, in particular, the right to return and self-determination, empowerment and support.”

The summit called for an immediate Israeli military withdrawal from Rafah city in Gaza and an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. They also underlined the need to end all attempts of forced displacement and all forms of siege and for full and sustainable access to humanitarian aid.

“We reiterate our categorical rejection of any attempts to forcibly displace the Palestinian people from their land in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. We call for urgent action for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, an end to the aggression in the Gaza Strip, protection of civilians and the release of hostages and detainees.”

“We stress the sanctity of the occupied city of Jerusalem and its place among the monotheistic religions. We reject and condemn all Israeli attempts aimed at the Judaization of Jerusalem, changing its Arab, Islamic and Christian identity, or changing the historical and legal status quo in it and its holy sites, whilst also stressing the need to protect the holy places in Bethlehem and to not compromise its cultural identity and religious sanctity.”

The Arab leaders condemned in the strongest terms “the ongoing brutal Israeli aggression on Gaza and the crimes committed against the Palestinian people, as well as the unprecedented Israeli violations of international law and human rights law.”

According to the statement, these violations include targeting civilians and infrastructure, using siege and blockade tactics, attempting forced displacement, and killing and injuring tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians.

The Arab leaders slammed the extension of Israeli aggression to Rafah city stressing that the city has become a refuge for over a million displaced persons and that any military operations in this area would have devastating humanitarian consequences. They denounced the fact that Israel has seized control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing to tighten the siege on Gaza and prevent humanitarian aid from crossing the border into the strip.

The statement also strongly condemned Israeli settlers’ targeting of humanitarian and media organizations in Gaza and their attacks on aid convoys, including the recent attacks on Jordanian aid convoys, along with the failure of Israeli authorities to fulfill their legal responsibility to protect these convoys.

The Arab leaders called for an immediate international investigation into these attacks, and they urged the international community and influential powers to transcend political calculations and double standards and to fulfil their fundamental and legal responsibilities by reigning in Israel’s aggressiveness and blatant violations of international law and humanitarian law.

The summit underlined the need for activating relevant international bodies to conduct independent, impartial investigations and hold accountable those responsible for the crimes committed against the Palestinian people since the start of the Israeli aggression on Gaza.

The Arab leaders renewed their call to the United Nations Security Council to grant full membership to Palestine State.

“We welcome the decision of the United Nations General Assembly at its meeting on May 10, 2024 on the request of the State of Palestine to obtain full membership of the United Nations, supported by 143 countries, and we call on the United Nations Security Council to reconsider its resolution issued in this regard in its session on April 18, 2024.”

The summit also called for unity among the Palestinians. “We call on all Palestinian factions to join together under the umbrella of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and to agree on a comprehensive national project and a unified strategic vision to focus efforts towards achieving the aspirations of the Palestinian people to achieve their legitimate rights and establish their independent national State on their national soil, on the basis of the two state solution, and in accordance with the resolutions of international legitimacy and established references.”

The leaders reiterated their call for a Middle East free of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction, and support the right of states to possess peaceful nuclear energy.

“We urge them to fulfill their obligations and co-operate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency and not to exceed the uranium enrichment rates required for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy,” the statement said.

The Summit also underlined the need for ending conflicts and establishing peace in Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Libya.

The Arab leaders expressed their full solidarity with Sudan in preserving its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and preserving the institutions of the Sudanese state.

They urged the Sudanese government and the Rapid Support Forces to engage seriously and effectively with initiatives aimed at settling the crisis.

The summit reaffirmed the need to end the Syrian crisis, in line with Security Council Resolution 2254, in a way that preserves Syria's security, sovereignty and territorial integrity, achieves the aspirations of its people, rids it of terrorism, and provides an environment for the dignified, safe and voluntary return of refugees.

The leaders rejected interference in Syria's internal affairs and any attempts to bring about demographic changes in it.

The Arab leaders renewed their firm support for the Presidential Leadership Council of Yemen, headed by Dr. Rashad Mohammed Al-Alimi. They pledged support for the efforts of the Yemeni government in its endeavor to achieve national reconciliation among all components of the Yemeni people, as well as Yemeni unity to achieve security and stability in the country.

 Courtesy: Saudi Gazette

Time to Revive OIC, Voice of Muslim Ummah

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is the second largest organization after the United Nations with a membership of 57 states spread over four continents. The Organization is the collective voice of the Muslim world. It endeavors to safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony among various people of the world.

The Organization was established upon a decision of the historical summit which took place in Rabat, Kingdom of Morocco on 12th Rajab 1389 Hijra, September 25, 1969 following the criminal arson of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem.

In 1970 the first ever meeting of Islamic Conference of Foreign Minister (ICFM) was held in Jeddah which decided to establish a permanent secretariat in Jeddah headed by the organization’s Secretary General. Hissein Brahim Taha is the 12th Secretary General who assumed the office in November 2021.

The first OIC Charter was adopted by the 3rd ICFM Session held in 1972. The Charter laid down the objectives and principles of the organization and fundamental purposes to strengthen the solidarity and cooperation among the Member States.

Over the last 40 years, the membership has grown from its founding members of 30 to 57 states. The Charter was amended to keep pace with the developments that have unraveled across the world. The present Charter of the OIC was adopted by the Eleventh Islamic Summit held in Dakar on 13-14 March 2008 to become the pillar of the OIC future Islamic action in line with the requirements of the 21st century.

The Organization has the singular honor to galvanize the Ummah into a unified body and have actively represented the Muslims by espousing all causes close to the hearts of over 1.5 billion Muslims of the world. The Organization has consultative and cooperative relations with the UN and other inter-governmental organizations to protect the vital interests of the Muslims and to work for the settlement of conflicts and disputes involving Member States. In safeguarding the true values of Islam and the Muslims, the organization has taken various steps to remove misperceptions and has strongly advocated elimination of discrimination against Muslims in all forms and manifestations.

The Member States of the OIC face many challenges in the 21st century and to address those challenges, the Third Extraordinary Session of the Islamic Summit held in Makkah in December 2005, laid down the blue print called the Ten-Year Program of Action. It successfully concluded with the close of 2015. A successor program for the next decade (2016-2025) has since then been adopted.

The new program OIC-2025 is anchored in the provisions of the OIC Charter and focuses on 18 priority areas with 107 goals.

The priority areas include issues of Peace and Security, Palestine and Al-Quds, Poverty Alleviation, Counter-terrorism, Investment and Finance, Food Security, Science and Technology, Climate Change and Sustainability, Moderation, Culture and Interfaith Harmony, Empowerment of Women, Joint Islamic Humanitarian Action, Human Rights and Good Governance, among others. 

Among the OIC’s key bodies: the Islamic Summit, the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM), the General Secretariat, in addition to the Al-Quds Committee and three permanent committees concerned with science and technology, economy and trade, and information and culture.

There are also specialized organs under the banner of the OIC including the Islamic Development Bank and the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, as well as subsidiary and affiliate organs that play a vital role in boosting cooperation in various fields among the OIC member states.

 

Big money for Trump by big US oil companies

A new analysis explores the possible payout if fossil fuel companies—who have already shown a willingness to put a price tag on the value of planet Earth—agree to the presumptive Republican nominee's election year "quid pro quo" deal.

The analysis reveals that the alleged US$ one billion election year "quid pro quo" offer that presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump made to executives of major oil company's could, if they agreed to the deal, bank them a handsome profit.

According to the study by Friends of the Earth Action, first reported by The Guardian on Thursday, the "remarkably blunt and transactional" offer from Trump—in which US$ one billion in campaign funding put together by the nation's major oil companies would be repaid upon his election with massive deregulation of the oil and gas sector as well as tax relief for the industry—would yield a major windfall for those same corporations, including an estimated US$110 billion from the tax breaks alone.

Republicans in Congress last year confirmed that if Trump wins back the White House and the GOP resume control of both chambers, they will move aggressively to make the Republican's 2017 tax cuts, which largely benefited the wealthy and corporations, permanent. As some of the most profitable companies in the US, oil and gas companies stand to benefit greatly from that outcome.

In Florida last month, not long before his meeting with oil executives, Trump told a different crowd of "rich as hell" supporters gathered at Mar-a-Lago: "We're gonna give you tax cuts, we're gonna pay of our debt."

The problem with the second half of that claim is presented in a recent CBO report which found that another wave of tax cuts like those passed by the GOP in 2017 would skyrocket the national debt by an estimated US$4.6 trillion over the next ten years.

 

Earlier this week, House Democrats, led by Oversight Committee Ranking Member Rep. Jamie Raskin, launched a probe into the "quid pro quo" allegations between Trump and Big Oil, including letters to company executives believed to have been in attendance.

The blatant nature of Trump's corrupt intent, according to some political observers, is an opportunity that Democrats and champions of climate action and other progressive causes should not miss.

Writing about the circumstances in The New Yorker on Wednesday, journalist and veteran climate activist Bill McKibben argued that the stakes of this election are made plain in what Trump has offered the fossil fuel industry in exchange for its financial backing.

"Trump's reported billion-dollar offer to fossil-fuel executives shows that this is the key year to save the planet," McKibben writes.

"Given four years to finish the implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act, a second-term Biden Administration might finally be able to break the hold of fossil fuel political influence," his essay explains. "Another term of Trump, however—and with all that it means for undercutting global efforts at climate regulation, as well—offers an entirely plausible and entirely opposite outcome: climate chaos combined with continued fossil-fuel dependence."

What's true, according to McKibben, is that the fossil fuel industry "might well decide that defeating Biden in November is worth a lot of money." Citing recent profits by Chevron of US$21 billion and ExxonMobil's US$36 billion, he said the oil giants will "definitely give Trump something, and the return on investment on that donation—if successful—would be better than the luckiest well they ever hit."

Courtesy: Common Dreams

US military pier moving towards Gaza

According to Reuters the US military has started moving a pier towards the Gaza coast, a US official said on Wednesday, one of the last steps before the launch of a maritime port promised by President Joe Biden to speed the flow of humanitarian aid to Palestinians.

The US military opted to pre-assemble the maritime pier at Israeli port of Ashdod earlier this month due to weather conditions at the Gaza site where it will now be installed.

Officials hope the pier can be anchored to the coast of Gaza and aid can start flowing in the coming days.

"Earlier today, components of the temporary pier ... along with military vessels involved in its construction, began moving from the Port of Ashdod towards Gaza, where it will be anchored to the beach to assist in the delivery of international humanitarian aid," a US official said.

A British shipment of nearly 100 tons of aid has left Cyprus bound for a new temporary pier in Gaza, the British Foreign Office said on Wednesday.

Israel launched a relentless assault on Gaza, killing more than 35,000 Palestinians, local health authorities say, in a bombardment that has reduced much of the enclave to a wasteland and triggered UN warnings of looming famine.

Over time, the civilian toll from the Israeli offensive has triggered global protests and strained relations with Washington, Israel's biggest backer.

Israel has sought to demonstrate it is not blocking aid to Gaza. Although the US officials and aid groups say some progress has been made, they warn it is insufficient.

Dan Dieckhaus, the response director at the US Agency for International Development, told reporters earlier on Wednesday Israel still has more work to do to address concerns about the killing of aid workers in Gaza.

"Overall we are still not satisfied. And we won't be satisfied as long as we continue to see aid worker deaths and injuries," Dieckhaus said.

 

76th Anniversary of Nakba

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) issued a statement on the 76th anniversary of the Nakba when Palestinians were violently expelled from their lands to make way for the formation of Israel.

The statement said the Nakba continues today through crimes of murder, destruction, forced displacement, and genocide as a result of the continuing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people, Al Jazeera reported. 

“The OIC reaffirms the responsibility of the international community towards the necessity of putting an end to the Israeli occupation and activating international justice mechanisms to hold Israel, the occupying power, accountable for the crimes it has committed against humanity, and to rectify the historical injustice that continues to befall the Palestinian people,” the statement added. 

 

Donald Lu in Dhaka again

Visiting United States assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu is scheduled to hold meetings with the ministries of foreign affairs and environment, forest and climate change.

During his visit, he would meet with government officials, civil society leaders, and other Bangladeshis to discuss US-Bangladesh cooperation, including addressing the climate crisis and deepening economic ties, according to a statement of the US embassy in Dhaka.

The US assistant secretary is scheduled to pay a courtesy call on foreign minister Hasan Mahmud and hold a meeting with foreign secretary Masud Bin Momen at the ministry.

Arriving in Dhaka on a three-day visit, Donald Lu on Tuesday had a meeting with civil society representatives at the residence of the US ambassador to Bangladesh Peter Haas in the afternoon before joining a dinner at the Gulshan residence of prime minister’s private industry and investment adviser Salman F Rahman, officials in Dhaka confirmed.

The Daily Star editor Mahfuz Anam, rights activist Nur Khan Liton, environmental activist Sohanur Rahman and labour leaders Kalpona Ahter and Babul Akter were present in the meeting with Lu at the ambassador’s residence.

Law minister Anisul Huq, state minister for commerce Ahsanul Islam, state minister for information and broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat, former state minister for foreign affairs Md Shahriar Alam and foreign secretary Masud Bin Momen, among others, attended the dinner hosted by Salman F Rahman.

During his previous visit in January 2023, he had a breakfast meeting with Salman at his residence.

Asked about specific reason why on the third visit to Bangladesh within 17 months the US assistant secretary was not holding meeting with any political party leaders unlike his previous two visits, the US state department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told a routine press briefing in Washington on May 13 that a lot of factors went into whom their government officials met with or not.

‘A lot of factors go into who our government officials meet with or not—the schedule, time of day, lots of other things. Assistant secretary Lu is on a swing through a number of South Asian countries—specifically India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. He is there to strengthen bilateral cooperation with each country and to demonstrate US support for a free, open, and prosperous Indo-Pacific region,’ he said,

‘In Bangladesh, he will meet with government officials, civil society leaders, and other Bangladeshis to talk about deepening our US-Bangladeshi cooperation, including deepening our economic ties in ways that we can collaborate further to address climate issues,’ Patel said, responding to a question whether the US had shifted its position on internal political matters of Bangladesh.

Foreign minister Hasan Mahmud said that the issues relating to the US visa policy for Bangladesh announced before the January 07 elections and Dhaka’s call for withdrawal of restrictions on the Rapid Action Battalion might come up during the visit of Donald Lu.

He said that Bangladesh had a very good relation with the US, and president Joe Biden, in a message to prime minister Sheikh Hasina conveyed on her assumption of office for the fourth consecutive term in January, expressed his willingness to take the relation to a new height.

In September 2023, the US Department of State announced that it had started imposing visa restrictions on individuals involved in undermining the democratic election process in Bangladesh.

The announcement came at a time when the Election Commission of Bangladesh started making preparations for the January 07 election.

In December 2021, the US imposed sanctions against seven former and serving officials of the RAB and the force itself over allegations of rights abuse.

Dhaka on several occasions called upon the US authorities for the withdrawal of the sanctions.

 

 

 

Abandon Biden

As public anger grows over Israel’s assault on the Palestinian people, US government officials and mainstream media are desperately trying to control the narrative.

Speaking about the student protests in New York, CNN anchor Kasie Hunt said late last month: “Some pretty stunning images coming to us overnight … We also are just learning at this hour that banners have been hung from the hall. They read ‘Hind’s Hall’ and ‘Intifada’. Hind is a reference to a woman who was killed in Gaza. Intifada, of course, a reference to uprising, violent struggles the Palestinians has had over the years against Israel.”

Where does one even begin? Someone purporting to be a journalist apparently won’t even pretend to make an effort to check on a story that went around the world, when a five-year-old Palestinian girl, Hind Rajab, called out from a besieged car where several family members had just been killed. 

As the young girl waited for help to arrive, the two Palestinian Red Crescent medics coming to her aid were also killed by Israeli fire. Hind’s last words to emergency service workers over the phone, before a volley of bullets was heard, were: “The tank is next to us. We are in the car and next to the tank.”

CNN later tweeted saying that Hunt “misspoke and corrected herself on the show immediately after”.

As for intifada, the iconic images of the First Intifada – launched in December 1987 after an Israeli vehicle hit and killed four Palestinians in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp – were those of boys and young men armed with rocks and slingshots, facing down Israeli tanks, snipers and bulldozers. 

The Second Intifada, which began in September 2000, was accompanied by another iconic image: that of a father, Jamal al-Durrah, clutching his 12-year-old son in an attempt to shield him from Israeli gunfire. The boy was hit and died soon afterwards.

More than 10,000 children were wounded during the Second Intifada, and nearly 5,000 Palestinians of all ages were killed. Durrah has lost more family members since Israel declared war on Gaza last October. 

Apparently “violence” is only something committed against Israel, while Palestinians mostly “die” rather than being “killed”, according to the vagaries of western mainstream media syntax. 

On that same CNN segment, New Yorker journalist Evan Osnos told Hunt, “There was an interesting moment last week. You were beginning to see university administrators come to an idea, a principle. You saw the president of Princeton say the goal should be the maximum expression without intimidation or obstruction … This is something else, because students, Jewish students on campus at Columbia, are going to wake up this morning and say this does not satisfy that standard.” 

Even though many campus protesters are themselves Jewish, these comments suggest that “Jewish students” are only those to whom harm is caused by pro-Palestinian demonstrators – not those who are outraged by Zionist manipulation and the instrumentalization of their very identity and history in order to carry out a genocide.

This is not even to mention the anger and disappointment that many people feel at seeing university presidents and government officials calling on fully armed police to protect the policies of a foreign government, rather than the rights of US citizens.

Much depends on whether Israel can be stopped. It is the US that holds almost all the leverage

Such grotesque twisting of reality does not take place in a vacuum, but rather infects every nook and cranny of US propaganda and mainstream rhetoric, imagery, culture and institutional norms, as more and more aspects of “public life” face a relentless assault by corporate and governmental power. 

The irony is that as this has taken place, and as the truly ignominious Antisemitism Awareness Act has been passed by the US House of Representatives to put another nail in the coffin of the First Amendment, more Americans than ever are aware of the atrocities being committed against Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. 

Perhaps more importantly, they understand that these atrocities are paid for by US tax dollars, and fully supported by a political class that has given up any pretence of representing its constituents.

The desperate attempt to expand the definition of “antisemitism” in the US and Europe, while imposing new legal codes to prevent scrutiny of Israel’s actions, is a last-ditch effort by western powers and their representatives to maintain control over the narrative. But as they have abandoned their constituencies, their constituencies are abandoning them.

As the sitting US president mumbles a warning for Israel not to invade Haifa (instead of Rafah), or goes on about an uncle who was allegedly eaten by cannibals during the Second World War, an increasing portion of the US ruling class – from university presidents to mainstream journalists – find themselves in the position that Joe Biden was in as a candidate: hunkered down in their bunkers, as public contempt rises.

This disappearance of almost any stable reference point in the public sphere is truly a precarious moment in the life of the nation, and seems like a harbinger of some kind of dystopian totalitarianism – many aspects of which are already present. 

While all state and corporate power remains focused on further fragmenting and demonizing the populace, keeping everyone at each other’s throats and inventing new classes of victims, we can only hope that some glimmer of human commonality will finally emerge, before this century is plunged into a catastrophic spiral of killing and destruction like that of the previous century. 

Much depends on whether Israel can be stopped. It is the US that holds almost all the leverage, and this is where more pressure must be placed. 

Courtesy: Information Clearing House