Given Israel’s prolonged military occupation of Palestinian Territories since the 1967 war, and its grossly unfair and unjust treatment of the 5 million Palestinian people desirous of national freedom, human dignity and basic rights; the deception, duplicity and betrayal that marked its state conduct even after the signing the Oslo Peace Agreements with the Palestinian national movement in the early 1990s, especially its high crime of obstructing the emergence of a viable and independent Palestinian State in the illegally-occupied and confiscated territories; the October 7 declaration of 'Operation Al Aqsa Storm' by the Hamas military wing marks a transformational moment in the wider region.
Seeking to avenge its
sense of national humiliation over the killing of over 300 soldiers and around
800 civilians as well as hostages taken away into Gaza, Israel lost a sense of
proportion in its war against Hamas, unleashing rampant bombing of Palestinian
cities and villages- including schools, hospitals and UN refugee camps;
displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians from their habitats; killing
thousands of innocent children, women and the aged. The already long-besieged
enclave of Gaza- the largest ‘open-prison’ in the world with Israel controlling
entry and exit points of the Strip- is now facing a humanitarian
disaster with the blockade of even essential food, clean water, medicine and
fuel.
The attitude of the
United States, as well as the European states betray their indulgence of
Israeli military excesses against the civilian population in the occupied
territories. As against the fundamental rules of international law and the
demands of international humanitarian law, Israel somehow seems to have an
exception crafted into the rules of conduct when it comes to equal application.
Such glaring injustice invites resistance, one way or the other. Against
the backdrop of the ongoing bombing of the Palestinian territories, and
collective punishment of the people by Israel, leaders of Arab States assembled
in Egypt to share a message of peace and prudence to the international
community; outlining the immediate steps required to address the conflict, as
well as the contours of a shared future for Jews, Christians and Muslims in the
region. Reproduced Below is the full text of Jordan’s King
Abdullah II remarks at Cairo Summit for Peace on 21 October 2023.
In the name of God, the Compassionate, the
Merciful
Prayers and peace be upon our Prophet
Mohammad,
My brother, Your Excellency President Abdel
Fattah El Sisi,
Your Majesties, Highnesses, Excellencies,
Peace, God’s mercy and blessings be upon you.
My thanks to His Excellency the President for
convening this meeting during these difficult times, so we can work urgently
together to stop this humanitarian disaster pushing our entire region into the
abyss.
Allow me to speak in English to our friends
from Europe and the world who join us here today. My message is to them.
My friends,
Peace, God’s mercy and blessings be upon you.
This is how Muslims and Arabs greet others:
with a wish for the other to be blessed with peace and the mercy of God.
Our religion came with a message of peace.
The Pact of Omar, issued at the gates of Jerusalem almost 15 centuries ago,
more than a thousand years before the Geneva Conventions, ordered Muslim
soldiers not to kill a child, a woman or an old person, not to destroy a tree,
not to harm a priest, not to destroy a church.
Those are the rules of engagement that
Muslims must accept and abide by, as should all those who believe in our common
humanity. All civilian lives matter!
My Friends,
I am outraged and grieved by those acts of
violence waged against innocent civilians in Gaza, in the West Bank, and
Israel.
The relentless bombing campaign underway in
Gaza as we speak is cruel and unconscionable—on every level.
It is collective punishment of a besieged and
helpless people.
It is a flagrant violation of international
humanitarian law.
It is a war crime.
Yet, the deeper the crisis cuts of cruelty,
the less the world seems to care.
Anywhere else, attacking civilian
infrastructure and deliberately starving an entire population of food, water,
electricity, and basic necessities would be condemned. Accountability would be
enforced, immediately, unequivocally.
And it has been done before—recently, in
another conflict.
But not in Gaza. It’s been two weeks since Israel put in place the
complete siege of the Gaza Strip. And still, for the most part, global silence.
Yet the message the Arab world is hearing is
loud and clear: Palestinian lives matter less than Israeli ones. Our lives
matter less than other lives. The application of international law is optional.
And human rights have boundaries—they stop at borders, they stop at races, and
they stop at religions.
That is a very, very dangerous message, as
the consequences of continued international apathy and inaction will be
catastrophic—on us all.
My friends,
We cannot let raw emotions dictate the
moment; our priorities today are clear and urgent:
First: An immediate end to the war on Gaza, the
protection of civilians, and the adoption of a unified position that
indiscriminately condemns the targeting of all civilians, in line with our
shared values and international law, which loses all value if it is implemented
selectively.
Second: The sustained and uninterrupted
delivery of humanitarian aid, fuel, food, and medicines to the Gaza Strip.
Third: The unequivocal rejection of the
forced displacement or internal displacement of the Palestinians. This is a war
crime according to international law, and a red line for all of us.
This conflict, my friends, did not start two
weeks ago, and it will not stop if we continue down this blood-soaked path. We
know all too well that it will only lead to more of the same—a zero-sum game of
death and destruction, of hatred and hopelessness played on repeat.
Today, Israel is literally starving civilians
in Gaza, but for decades, Palestinians have been starved of hope, of freedom,
and a future.
Because when the bombs stop falling, Israel
is never held accountable, the injustices of occupation continue and the world
walks away, until the next round of violence. The bloodshed we are witnessing
today is the price of that, of failing to make tangible progress towards a
political horizon that brings peace for Palestinians and Israelis alike.
Israeli leadership must realise that there is
no military solution to its security concerns, that it cannot continue to
sideline the five million Palestinians living under its occupation, denied of
their legitimate rights, and that Palestinians lives are no less valuable than
Israeli lives.
The Israeli leadership must realise, once and
for all, that a state can never thrive if it is built on the foundations of
injustice.
Over the past 15 years, we have seen how the
dreams of a two-state solution and the hopes of an entire generation have
turned into despair. This has been the policy of hardline Israeli leadership—to
focus solely on security over peace and create new illegal realities on the
ground that render an autonomous Palestinian state unviable. In the process, it
has empowered extremists on both sides.
But we must not—we cannot—write off this
conflict as too far gone, for the sake of both the Palestinians and the
Israelis.
Our collective and unified message to the
Israeli people should be: We want a future of peace and security for you and
for the Palestinians, where your children and Palestinian children should no
longer live in fear.
It is our duty as the international community
to do whatever it takes to restart a meaningful political process that can take
us to a just and sustainable peace on the basis of the two-state solution.
The only path to a safe and secure future for
the people of the Middle East and the entire world—for the Jewish people, for
Christians, for Muslims alike— starts with the belief that every human life is
of equal value and it ends with two states, Palestine and Israel, sharing land
and peace from the river to the sea.
The time to act is now.
Thank you.
Thank you all.
Peace, God’s mercy and blessings be upon you.