SAY what you want about Arab unity, but amid the Hamas-Israel war, it is at its most solid compared with previous Arab-Israel conflicts.

Egypt President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, for instance, has been consistent that Egypt would not allow Palestinians in Gaza from using the Rafah crossing as he does not want to see the Greater Israel (Eretz Yisrael) project succeed, with an aim of depopulating Gaza of Palestinians.

In fact, Egypt allows its Rafah crossing to be the starting point for all humanitarian assistance from around the world to enter war-torn Gaza.

When the Hamas political bureau made an appeal to Egypt to let those in need of intensive medical attention, including premature babies, to cross into Egypt for treatment, the latter agreed promptly due to the dire state of hospitals in Gaza due to Israel’s bombs.

Jordan has been more aggressive by issuing an ultimatum that any attempt by Israel to depopulate Gaza of Palestinians would be a declaration of war.

It not only recalled its ambassador to Israel, but told the Israeli ambassador, who fled home in fear due to the massive pro-Palestine protest in Amman, not to return to Jordan until he had solved the issue of Palestine’s statehood.

Jordan and the United Arab Emirates led the efforts of the Arab group in the United Nations, with Russia, China and Brazil, to urge the UN Security Council (UNSC) to adopt a resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Although these efforts initially failed due to the United States’ veto, the Arab group didn’t give up and pushed for the same resolution in the UN General Assembly, which voted overwhelmingly for the resolution.

Later, the Arab group persisted in its efforts to push for the same resolution in the UNSC, which finally adopted it without a US veto.

Due to the efforts of the Arab group in the UN, which was supported by Muslim countries, the Global South, and Brics nations, there was for the first time in 75 years a sea change in global public opinion, which began to condemn Israel onslaught on Palestine civilians as a genocide.

Massive pro-Palestine protests take place all over the world. Demonstrators from all walks of life chant “Free Palestine!”, “Stop the Genocide!”, and “Stop Killing Palestinian Children and Babies!”, and demand Israel’s political and military leaders be arrested and put on trial for war crimes.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia leads the way in a joint session of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to discuss the Arab Muslim world’s response to Israel’s atrocities in killing tens of thousands Palestinian civilians.

Held in Riyadh on November 11, the summit adopted a resolution that underscored the centrality of the Palestinian cause, their support for the legitimate struggle of Palestine to liberate all its occupied territories, and the need to end Israeli aggression that separates Gaza from the West Bank, including Al Quds Al Sharif.

The resolution affirmed Israel and all states in the region would never enjoy security and peace unless Palestine reclaimed its usurped rights.

The resolution contained political, legal, and humanitarian steps, including breaking the siege on Gaza, ensuring the entry of Arab, Islamic, and international humanitarian aid convoys, and supporting Egypt’s efforts to deliver aid.

Most importantly, it established two specialised legal monitoring units to document all the crimes of the occupation authorities in Gaza since October 7 and prepare evidence on the Israeli violations, and affirmed its support for the legal and political initiatives of the Palestine at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Criminal Court (ICC), and the Human Rights Council (HRC).

It also requested the ICC prosecutor of the ICC to continue its investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by Israel against Palestine.

The resolution mandated foreign ministers of the joint summit and secretary-generals of the two organisations, and any other interested country to start immediate international action on behalf of all member states to stop the war on Gaza.

The resolutions also demanded all countries stop exporting weapons and ammunition to occupation authorities used to kill Palestinians and destroy all their property.

Many analysts and Muslims prefer to see these resolutions in a negative light, highlighting the disunity of the Arab Muslim world, and forget all these resolutions are unprecedented.

They failed to see that specialised legal monitoring units have galvanised many civil society groups to start the process of arresting Israeli politicians and military leaders for war crimes and genocide at the ICJ, ICC and HRC.

These monitoring teams are working hand-in-hand with the UN to get a resolution either through the UNSC or the general assembly for the ICC or ICJ to issue warrants of arrest against the Israeli political and military leaders.

The critics also failed to see that most of the resolutions such as ensuring the entry of humanitarian aid convoys, and supporting Egypt’s efforts to deliver aid have already become a reality.

Granted, there was a delay in making this a reality, but this was due to Israel’s intransigence and the US’ impotence to ensure Israel to allow this to happen as soon as possible.

Of course, there is a valid point to the criticism on the slow pace of ensuring the resolution was acted upon, in the sense that it would take a certain number of Palestinian civilian deaths – 20,000, 50,000 or 100,000 – that will finally goad not only the Arab Muslim world but the whole world into action and tell the Israelis enough is enough!

Again, this thinking ignores the fact the combined military prowess of Israel’s immediate Arab neighbours (Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon) is not strong enough to defeat Israel, which is backed by the US, to speedily enforce the resolutions, hence a diplomatic approach – slow-going in nature – is employed.

When the resolution calls for the countries to initiate international action to stop the war in Gaza, this is a call for military action not limited to just Israel’s immediate Arab neighbours, to enforce a ceasefire.

But is the world ready for such action? Many world powers like Russia and China would prefer to prevent the present conflict from evolving into a major war that could lead to a world war.

This is the right thing to do, for every human would suffer horribly in a world war. They are waiting for the right time for  joint military action to enforce a ceasefire that won’t escalate into a regional war.

Does this wait mean the lives of Palestine civilians would just be statistics pending this endgame?

No, every noble endeavour – in this case the war (military action) to stop the genocidal war – requires major sacrifices for the greater good.

As former US marine officer who’s also a former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter said: “If you ask the majority of Palestinians if you could die, give your life for the birth of the Palestinian nation, they would say yes because for 75 years that’s all they have dreamt of, and now thanks to Hamas they have that possibility.”

Since the majority of the Palestinians are Muslims, they were very much aware of the concept of martyrdom in Islam.

The words of God must have rung clear for all Palestinians – “Do not say regarding those who are slain in the path of God that they are dead; rather they are alive but you are not aware” (Quran 2:154) or “Do not consider as dead those who are slain in the path of God; rather they are alive and well-provided for in the presence of their Lord” (Quran 3:169). – November 29, 2023.

* Jamari Mohtar reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.