May God curse whoever woke up the sleeping Arab League

by Wael Qandil

Arab League Foreign Ministers convene for a meeting in Cairo attended by (guest seats R to L) during the 162nd meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Arab League on September 10, 2024 in Cairo, Egypt. [Sayed Hassan/Getty Images]

It would have been better for the Palestinian cause, and for all other Arab causes, for the Arab League to remain in its deep “slumber”, remaining committed to its strategic position on the Zionist aggression against the Palestinian people after 7 October, 2023. This position was established on the principle of watching and following, while trying to show some romantic sympathy without claiming the ability to do anything.

However, by rolling up its sleeves on Tuesday and holding a meeting called the Arab Foreign Ministers Summit, coinciding with the Al-Mawasi massacre committed by the occupation at dawn the day before, with heavy bombs that created a huge hole in which entire Palestinian families in Khan Yunis were buried, the Arab League put itself in an unenviable position. The eyes of the Palestinians and Arabs were drawn to its ministerial meeting, anticipating a decision or statement in which the Arabs would say that they are Arabs, and define the enemy as an enemy.

Instead, the meeting ended with phrases that were even weaker and feebler than the phrases that preceded them in similar statements. It was unfortunate that the secretary-general announced, in a final press conference, in a show of extreme clumsiness and shallowness, that it was Palestine Day, and that it would be the focus of the meeting attended by the Turkish foreign minister and the EU representative, especially when the conclusion of the meeting, as announced by the Secretary-General of the League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, was that “the meeting of Arab foreign ministers witnessed the affirmation by all countries of the need for a ceasefire in Gaza.”

It included empty talk about the suffering of the Palestinian people and the brutality of Israel, and an appeal to the international community to push for and adhere to the two-state solution. Even in terms of the language, there was noticeable inelegance in the rhetoric and performance during the closing press conference managed by the secretary-general, who also structured the journalists’ questions, without answering any of them. Instead uttered some vague words, and failed to present a single practical position that the Arab League could use to support the Palestinian rights, except for the childish attachment to the positions and statements of the EU’s foreign policy official, Josep Borrell.

When Aboul Gheit was asked about the EU’s position, he answered that it included different trends, but it changed after seeing the ugliness of the Israeli aggression, using a phrase that we do not typically hear in diplomatic discourse or even sports commentary. He said that the European countries initially presented Israel with a “blank cheque”, then modified their positions that had supported it all along, announcing that the Arabs would join a European meeting held in Spain to discuss the Palestinian issue.

I must refer back to the outcomes of an Arab League meeting that was held before the first Nakba in 1948, and before the Arab state moved from a state of clear European colonialism to a state of (alleged) independence. This meeting was held in the Egyptian city of Inshas, ​​on 28 May, 1946, in which the Arabs decided that, first, the issue of Palestine is the heart of national issues, as it is a country that is inseparable from the rest of the Arab countries. Second, they decided on the need to stand up against Zionism, considering it a danger that threatens not only Palestine, but all Arab and Islamic countries. Third, it considered any aggressive policy directed against Palestine adopted by the American and British governments as an aggressive policy towards all Arab League countries. Fourth, it stated the need to defend Palestine in the event of an attack on it. Fifth, it decided to help the Arabs of Palestine with money, and by all possible means.

It is silly for me to ask you to compare the positions of the Arabs before independence regarding the Zionist aggression and their positions on 10 September, 2024, as this is a waste of time. I only invite you to compare the statements issued by the Arab foreign ministers on that day and the statement issued by an American Jewish film director about the same issue and the same subject. Director, Sarah Friedland, said, during her acceptance speech at the Venice International Film Festival, that Israel is a usurping entity that has occupied all of Palestine for 76 years, and declared her support for the liberation of all of Palestine.

Would an Arab leader or ministerial summit dare to say what the Jewish director, who sees the issue correctly, said?