Is the Gaza Contact Group or Muslim's day left for hypocritical leaders?

A month after the start of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, Saudi Arabia has called an emergency joint summit of the League of Arab States (ADL) and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The summit established a contact group on Gaza to stop the war. Almost a year has passed since then. Unfortunately, the Contact Group did not take any serious action during this time to implement their governments' decision to cease hostilities. As Israel continues to massacre children, women and the elderly in Gaza, the heads of state have not moved beyond official photo-ops, heated meetings and empty talk.

A month after the start of Israel's genocidal war against Gaza, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia called an emergency joint summit of the League of Arab States (ADL) and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The purpose of the meeting was to stop the Israeli occupation and support the Palestinians.

A total of 57 heads of state gathered in Riyadh after a day of negotiations, adopted a rather lengthy, traditionally worded resolution with no implementation mechanism.

According to the decision, the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, Indonesia, Nigeria and Palestine, together with the general secretaries of the ADL and the OIC, will develop an initiative for international action to stop the war. This group was called the Contact Group on Gaza. Almost a year has passed - Israel has killed about 42,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 95,000. The entire population of the Gaza Strip, 2.3 million people, is at risk of starvation, displacement and death. More than 80% of the buildings in the sector were destroyed due to continuous bombing of the area. The war is still going on and the number of Palestinians killed is increasing. Moreover, US-sponsored Israeli sabotage has spread throughout the region, including Lebanon. On September 23, almost 500 Lebanese people lost their lives as a result of intense bombing by Israeli fighter jets.

Unfortunately, during this period, the Liaison Group did not take any serious steps to implement their governments' decision to cease hostilities. As Israel continues to massacre children, women and the elderly in Gaza, the heads of state have not moved beyond official photo-ops, heated meetings and empty talk.

On September 13, the leaders attending the Madrid Conference, organized by the Spanish government, met only to say that the only way to end the conflict was a two-state solution, which was hinted at but completely rejected by the Zionists. This meeting was also organized in May 2023 in order for Spain to take a bold step to recognize Palestine as an independent state and to end the destructive war.

However, the decisions of OIC and ADL member states to deepen their collective and individual positions on the issue of Palestine have shown to the whole world the shameful and shameful opposition of the organizations to the principles defined in their separate founding documents. Their individual and group positions have been shown to be nothing more than lip service for propaganda purposes. Against the backdrop of the war in Palestine, the hypocritical behavior of the governments of most Muslim countries remains exposed. In fact, since the establishment of the apartheid state of Israel, the leaders of these countries have continued the tradition of hypocrisy and disrespect towards ordinary Muslims. The leaders of OIC and ADL member states are always saying that they value Palestine both religiously and historically, but in practice they are doing the opposite.

For example, among the Contact Group on Gaza, only Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have not established diplomatic relations with Israel. The rest already have close ties to the apartheid state. Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.

If the Muslim leaders were serious about stopping the genocide in Palestine and Gaza, they would move away from silent statements and take a more concrete position. Both organizations represent a third of the UN's membership and more than 1.8 billion Muslims. Now imagine what results can be achieved if this power is used effectively. Unfortunately, organizations and member state officials are instead asking the West to stop Israel.

For example, the two organizations could launch a global campaign to boycott the apartheid state alongside Muslims around the world outraged by Israel's atrocities over the past 12 months. Diplomatically, the OIC-ADL countries should expel Israeli diplomats from their capitals, close Israeli embassies in these countries, and ban any contact with the Zionists until Israel at least stops the genocide in Gaza and accepts the two-state solution they advocate.

Economically, both groups together have immense power. Considering that the world's largest oil-producing countries are also members of these organizations, in fact, they should not provide fuel to Israel to start the death machine.

Unfortunately, a third of OIC countries and ADL members still maintain economic ties with Tel Aviv. And it is equivalent to the indirect financing of the genocide in Gaza and the war in Lebanon. If Israel's Western allies can be blamed for supplying weapons, the IHT - ADL groups are equally complicit .

The total annual trade turnover between the members of the two organizations and Israel is billions of dollars. It is estimated that the volume of trade between Egypt and Israel will exceed 2 billion dollars . The trade volume of the United Arab Emirates with the Jewish state has increased by 16% since 2022. However, Israel's economic trade with the rest of the world has decreased by a total of 18 percent since the start of the war against Gaza last year.

In addition, governments could fully fund UNRWA , the UN agency that cares for Palestinian refugees, despite Washington's frown . The total budget of UNRWA is 1.6 billion dollars, which is not a huge amount when divided among the 57 countries that make up the OIC.

Unfortunately, this did not happen. It is not surprising that the contact group on Gaza will hold many meetings in the future. And Israel kills everything from Muslims to innocent babies.