Limitations on Organisation of Islamic Co-operation, Palestine, a pestering wound, Israel an outlaw State and perspectives for peace

A.A. Latief u Zaman Deva

OIC, founded in 1969, has 57 members articulating the collective aspirations of worldwide Muslim population of 1.8 Billion in order to safeguard & protect their interests in conformity with the mandate of secular international & regional institutions for promoting international peace and harmony. The charter of OIC is focused on peaceful co- existence of all faiths and denominations with dignity & multi-prong approaches to be resorted to wherever State policies of non- member
countries impinge on its declared objectives.OIC has treaded into the scheme of world order by shunning the approbation of military alliances like NATO etc and the shortfall in its functionality in this behalf has saved the world from getting fragmented into military blocks on religious grounds which could have resulted in horrendous consequences atleast for Muslims by getting isolated .

Most of the regional & continental fora for trade and security have inherent scope for disorder
which the OIC has skilfully averted from happening by not substituting UN but co-ordinating in
world bodies for pushing the fulfilment of the charter of UN.The non involvement/ involvement
with failure in intra & inter Muslim countries disputes may have disquietened Ummah
especially the one in Syria epitomised by the savagery in the brutal response to Arab spring &
other conflicts witnessed in Iraq, Yemen & Libya & earlier in Afghanistan, Bosnia & kosova but
even the ethnic cleansing of Rohingyas by Myanmar military jaunts defended by country’s political
parties has not evidently stirred up the conscience of the Muslim world perhaps considering the
communal & sectarian response may negate the prospects of universal actions backed by UN. The
Muslim vs Buddhist approbation suited Myanmar regime to deflect the threat it otherwise could
attract but for Veto exercised by China and lop sided role of India ceding space to others & in the
process denting its hunt for leadership in its neighbourhood.
Never in the past the Govtt in any country has escaped from the scrutiny of Muslim states On
anti- muslim allegations but China is an exception for obvious reasons and also owing to the

quiet use of diplomatic channels by the communist party held Govtt which is admittedly non-
Interventionistic in its relations with foreign countries. The so – called reforms underway for

Uighur in Xinjiang (Eastern Turkistan ) are claimed for their development in order to bring them
at par with Han Chinese population in all facets of economy, education, Health etc qualifying
them to be proud Muslim Chinese even in rituals as against ghettoisation, Islamophobia,
disempowerment, marginalisation and demonising practiced by extremists and medieval myth
promoters in other countries . However the methods employed by China are questionable so
long as the exercise remains shrouded in mystery as the allegations galore about the intent
behind the programme being total transformation in culture, faith, language, unique birth control

policy & disconnect with the ethnicity and history. This sugar coated paradigm shift has endeared
China with many Muslim countries which notably Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei in ASEAN have
manifested by distancing themselves from QUAD & large no of countries in South – West Asia/
middle east also pitching for Sinofication in trade and security but no sooner the realities emerge
the apple cart shall fall like a pack of cards unless the truth about the reforms & re-education
indicates what the Govtt claims & sofar acquiesced by OIC but twenty two countries mostly
European & USA have dismissed Chinese versions before UNHRC.
The mere factum of heads of states/ Govtts assembling for debate on the crucial issues confronted
by Ummah followed by endorsement of resolutions by all the participants with course of action
for implementation through OIC Taief based HQs sets the stage for greater involvement of world
leaders which is by itself a spectacular achievement and rarely in such circumstances the global
community in general has disillusioned the OIC except in cases evoking rhetoric and theatrics only
in the pursuit of individual State interests overriding the collective spirit of the Constituent
members of the OIC . The veritable reality unveils the spirit of Muslim solidarity & vision for
sacrificing respective interests and comforts existing in Ummah across the green world but not
subscribed to by the rulers particularly Monarchies who are least bothered about the plight of
their have not co- religionists except extending the largesse limited to aid and other doles for
construction of Masajid & Islamic seminaries which a democratic transition can reverse in the
larger interests of the Ummah or by ascendency of Islamists as substitutes of existing ruling
classes .The Ummah largely appreciates the limitations attracted to the fulfilment of their
expectations from OIC as it is beset with negative indices in core sectors of member countries
economies and an enlightened way out can alone push it upwards the ladder. By way of parallel
India with1.4 Billion population and GDP of 2.87 trillion (USD -2019 for all ) , against 22.149 trillion
of OIC 57 countries inhabited by about 1.5 Billion Muslim population, is far ahead in almost all
sectors & can’t be replaced with Muslim man power let alone substitution of imports even in
Islamic countries. China with 14.34 trillion GDP having 1.5 billion population and USA 21.43
Trillion with 33 Crore population are also worth pondering examples. Hence G- 20 from 57 by
earmarking an agreed per centage of their GDP for pooling for Higher education in Science and
technology, Computer sciences, IT& AI, Oceanography and Space sciences, shall churn out highly
resourceful manpower from institutions of higher education to be set- up for piloting the joint
research on Artic, Antarctic, solar systematology, medicine realms & 21st century needed
technology and research. Once the Muslims establish themselves as a useful instrument for
eradicating the disease and poverty and assume a reckonable position in dissemination of
knowledge especially science the geographical outreach would be akin to USA & China. So the
impatience for decisive roles need be tamed till OIC is United in deeds and word & fossil
leadership replaced.

Palestinian impasse
Zionism as a movement came into being in early 19th century for creation of a Jewish State in
Palestine but failed to attract the Jewish population scattered in Europe and USA & instead the
majority of intellectuals from the community were for adopting the new places of their domicile
dating centuries together from 70 AD as permanent abodes. During this period ending ist decade
of 20th century relationship between various ethnicities of Europe and Jews had reached
horrendous low levels & further compounded by Codification by Govtts in various States
foreclosing the option for latter to permanently reside in those States being deemed as aliens.
While in the ist decade of 19th century the Jewish population in Palestine didn’t exceed 3% but by 1910, before the 3rd wave of Jewish migration, it had climbed to 10% & by 1914 nearing the
world war ist 94000 Jews are stated to have had become inhabitants of the country. By the time
the caliph Omer was handed over the control of Masjid Aqsa by Byzantine Clergy in 637/638 the
Jewish presence had almost diminished but the great Caliph allowed their pilgrimage to
Jerusalem and not resettlement which covenant was scrupulously executed by the executive heads
of Ottoman empire till WW ist despite myriad entreaties by the Jewish leadership to the
Ottoman leaders (1517 -1917) who even in later years faced with vulnerabilities but rejected the
financial bonanzas offered to them. The disproportionate spike in Jewish population from 3000/
9000 in 19th century to 94000 in 1914 points out to the administrative inertia or collusion as
factors attributable to it under supposedly watchful monitoring of the State. Meanwhile the
Zionists had succeeded in developing empathy in European leaders for them resulting in the
Balfour Declaration on Nov 02.1917 by Arthur Balfour, British Secretary Foreign Affairs, for creation
of the Jewish State in Palestine. With the defeat of Ottoman empire as an ally of Germany in the
WW ist the State of Palestine came under the mandate of Great Britain and during this mandate
period 1922 – 1948 the unabated migration followed by settlement of Jews spiked their population
to 6.30 lakh in Palestine forming 32% of total population. Against the backdrop of fast changing

political landscape after the conclusion of the WW 2nd accompanied with the programme for de-
colonisation the British plan for partition of Palestine into two States of Israel and Palestine was

approved by UN on Nov 29, 1947 leading to creation of Jewish State of Israel on May 14, 1948 which
was not consented to by majority community inhabiting in Palestine & by all Arab nations
pushing the two parties to ist war of middle east and Israel occupied more territories from the area
earmarked as Palestine under UN partition plan and simultaneously expelled about 8 lakh
Palestinians. The two full fledged wars of 1967 & 1973 between the Arabs and the Jewish State
ended yet again by more territory falling under illegal occupation of Israel not only of the
Palestine but Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian. Egypt & Jordan concluded peace talks separately with
Israel under the aegis of USA while Syria continues as a pariah State for Israel justifying the
occupation and annexation of Golan Heights actually belonging to Syria in line with territorial plan
executed by French for division of Syria into the two States of Syria and Lebanon in August 1920.
Presently 80% of the geographical area of Palestine of 1947 is with Israel(21643 Sq Kms) when
Jewish population held only 6% of the area before the partition & this position is contrary to the
partition plan approved by UN & the post 1967 conflict UN resolution about the illegal occupation
of Palestinian territory by Israel . As a result of peace talks brokered by USA Osla Accord of Sep
1993 led the Palestinian liberation Organization to abandon the armed struggle & in return to
begin with got limited authority for civic matters in west Bank for areas falling within the
jurisdiction of Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian refrain for the Accord was as ‘’ a Palestinian
Versailles’ of last decade of twentieth century. The Israeli disinclination towards the peace
process by trading land resulted in emergence of Hamas in 1987 aiming at the liberation of
Palestine from Israeli occupation through means including the armed struggle . Out of five
uprisings initiated by Hamas against Israeli provocations the savage and horrendous Israeli
response destroyed major pockets of Gaza only to be reconstructed for brute destruction again
on flimsy & small grounds as a response to firing of small rockets without any noticeable impact on
Israel . It in recent conflict of eleven days 10% rockets did escape the Iron Dome interceptors
hittng the ground in Israel & this is the maiden occasion ever since 1948 exhibiting the
nervousness and sense of insecurity writ large amongst larger sections of Israeli society but
admittedly no substitute for the sufferings inflicted on defenceless civilians in Gaza.
The never ending hostility between the Two parties shall come sooner or later to end but the
outcome may not be to our liking unless the Palestinians adopt pragmatism . Egypt , Jordan and

lately UAE, Bahrain and Sudan have befriended with the merciless occupier and other Arab
countries including Saudi Arabia are waiting for opportunity to strike which got delayed by the
outcome of Presidential election results in USA & policy pronouncements of Democratic Party
covering Human Rights etc . None can deny the fact that Al Aqsa is 3rd holiest pilgrimage centre for
muslims but the fatigue, strategic developments & yearnings in people for socio-economic
positions akin to western countries leads to formulation of foreign policies conditioned by
recognition of Israel in Arabia both Asian & African. The non- Arabs are fiercely in the vanguard of
protecting the 3rd holiest pilgrimage centre through the creation of a Sovereign & independent State
of Palestine barring a few individual heads of these countries treating it an Arab issue for material
considerations. An isolated Israeli in the middle east does not augur well for alleviating the sufferings
of Palestinians and pushed to wall the occupied areas may countenance worst consequences if the
superiority of the occupier in war machines far ahead of indifferent Arabia continues to be ignored
by the Ummah. Ever since the State of Israel came into existence small numbers of people in
recent years from different parts of the country have undertaken 4th migration who yearn for
living a life in peace and harmony with neighbouring countries and this development should not be
undermined as the number of people falling in the same category is increasing Coupled with the
impact of media on younger generations across the communities and faiths in the world dubbing
Israel in their estimation as a brute & merciless illegal occupant of Palestinian lands. Coincidentally
the curtains are in all probability likely to fall on the era of megalomaniac Benjamin Netanyahu
both in the Govtt & political party and the coalition of eight Parties including religious ultra

nationalists led by Naftali Bennett & Yair Lapid, a secular centrist supported by United Arab-
Palestinian list is a reality now . Even as the parties in coalition have opposing stances on two

State solution, additional annexations from occupied west Bank, return of Palestinian refugees,
future of Jerusalem, exploitation of water resources, respect for territorial integrity of
neighbouring countries and political & social assimilation of Israeli Arabs, the fact of this diverse
political landscape of Israel forging unity in the backdrop of Naftali’s statement that ‘’ I am more
right wing than Bibi ( B. Netanyahu) but I don’t use hate or polarization as a tool to promote myself
politically ‘’ is a path breaking development for new dawn to herald in the middle east with
utmost responsibility on all stakeholders to contribute in successful running of the coalition on
mutually agreed upon common minimum programme without being utopian about performance on
perennial disputes entangling the country for last over seventy years. All parties must divulge their
perspectives in fast changing debates about the future for a practical solution to world’s pestering
wound. The twin planks of ‘’Farewell to arms ‘’ and ‘’chance for diplomacy ‘’ ought to be the
mantra & simultaneously eliminating the scope for provocative measures for emergence of an
independent country of Palestine or a secular Palestine Israel State. The latter option can never
materialise as in a joint state the Palestinians outnumber the Jews but the advancement of the
argument by the Palestinians would force the hardline & ultra nationalist Israeli Jewish population
on back foot as the solution bereft of division on religious, ethnic & linguistic planks shall have an
unprecedented impact on youngsters and secular population across the globe in the battle of
narratives in favour of Palestinians. In this setting the confabulations for two States may emerge as a
permanent solution in conformity with the UN resolution 181(II), based on British partition plan,
about which the International Court of Justice on a reference to it by UNGA has opined the
entitlement of Palestinian people to a state of their own as contemplated in the above UN
resolution of 1947. In the bargain the impasse shall narrow down to the territorial positions
preceding 1967 war with scope for swapping the swaths of respective interests subject to
geographical contiguity and permanent uninterrupted access between west Bank and Gaza. The
permanent settlement of refugees on as is where is basis together with acknowledging the city of
Jerusalem as a convergence for Abrahamic faiths under the control of UNESCO & the Capitals for both the States fixed permanently in Tel Aviv and Jericho shall be a substitute for outdated narratives.

Intransigent or outlawed State of Israel

As ordained by Allah the prophet Musa commenced the emigration from Egypt towards the
promised land along with 163000 devotees in the 13 century BCE by crossing the Red sea at
Gulf of Suez which incidentally the Napoleon Bonaparte also followed in the year 1778.During forty
years in Sinai Peninsula 30000 persons from the caravan lost their lives and Prophet Musa too
didn’t enter into the promised land during his life time due to his passing away on outskirts of
Canaan at Moab and thereafter while sporadic adventures were made by occasional forays into
the destined land it actually was Prophet Dawood who entered & occupied Jerusalem by defeating
the Canaanites for the Bani Israelis, descendants of Prophet Yaqoob. Even as the construction of
Haykel e- Suleimani ( place of worship and safe custody of Taboot – e – Sakina containing certain
sacred items) in Jerusalem began during the reign of Prophet Dawood, to whom Allah revealed
Holy Zabur, but its main components were taken up & whole scheme completed during the rule
of Prophet Suleiman by 957 BCE. This place of worship was martyred ist time in 587 BCE by Bakht
Nasar, a Pantheist Babalian as Commander of his father’s forces, the king of Babylon, & after its
reconstruction again 2nd time by Titus Carsor Vespasianus, a Roman pagan in 70 AD .on both the
occasions the Israelites were killed in thousands and huge numbers arrested taken to respective
countries as slaves with ultimatum for remaining to leave the place for good. Earlier the Assyrians
in 722 BCE had conquered Israel and Israelites deported to Mesopotamia. Under these suffocating
circumstances the mere survival demanded mass migrations and the places chosen were in nearby
Arabia, Persia & Turkish vast lands and later on towards Europe & USA but animosity against them
grew steadily on grounds like economic monopolisation , patriotism by ethnicity , National
interests & security resulting in anti-Semitism treating all Jews as aliens which gory phase saw also
holocaust and eventually acquiescence to separate country for them by powers who mattered after
WW2nd. During migration the golden age for them was stints in Muslim Spain, Turkey and Iran
apart from countries they stepped into from 722/ 587 BCE & onwards. The Principal characters
responsible for Jewish carnage & their ethnic cleansing were Assyrians, Babalian, Romans,
Crusaders and during 20th century in Germany, Poland and other places in Greater Europe the
non- Muslims & yet uncalled for animosity towards Muslims in whose laps during their
catastrophic eras they sojourned and themselves rated the era as rewarding golden periods in
their chequered history. Having undergone the ordeal of untold macabre deaths and migrations
they on getting homeland under UN Partition plan should have been sympathetic and caring for
Palestinians who mostly being progeny of non- Jewish Canaanites are as aboriginals of the
Palestinian-Israeli territories as the Jews. Over one lakh Palestinians have embraced martyrdom at
the hands of Israeli forces ever since the Jewish State came into existence and Palestinian
refugee diaspora transcending over twenty countries with a population of twenty two lakhs &
remaining sixty five lakhs split in disjointed areas of Israel, West Bank and Gaza perpetually in fear
of atrocious violence unleashed by the product of holocaust & the refugees in highest density
laden clusters in respective countries forgetting how Caliph Omer enabled their return to the
promised land atleast for pilgrimage purposes & the manner in which the Muslims embraced
them in neighbouring & far away countries. Albert Einstein, one of the greatest physicists of all time,
having fathomed the ‘’Religious Fundamentalist Terrorism’’ to be employed as a State policy by the

State of Israel wrote on April, 10 1948 to Shepard Rifkin, Ex Director, American Friends of the
Fighters for the freedom of Israel as under:-
‘’ when a real and final catastrophe should befall us in Palestine the first responsible for it would be
the British and the second responsible for it the terrorist organisations build up from our own
ranks.
I am not willing to see anybody associated with those misled and criminal people ‘’.
What remains for building a solid case for notifying Israel as an outlawed State is
supplemented by the text of Hatikvah, a Jewish national song, based also for its National
Anthem( abbreviated & edited version) the relevant extracts translated into English from the
said song are reproduced herein below:-

Umpteen instances suggest the Israel is an out law State, an euphemism for a rogue State, which
is substantiated by its disregard for many a resolution passed by UNGA particularly 476 rejecting
abinitio its claims on Jerusalem by declaring them null and void together with the wantonness
exhibited sofar in the matter of application of Human Rights Conventions to the occupied
territories. Indeed the prominent UN conventions approved & ratified with reservations by the
Jewish State are brazenly invoked for non- compliance when its attempts fail miserably in face
of global opposition & outreach of peace nicks to Palestinians. The latest instance is about the
contemptuous & outrageous reaction against the International Criminal Court for hearing the case
against Israel for war crimes against humanity in occupied Jerusalem and Gaza. Just as sequencing
of Jews in walled areas in Poland or in concentration camps in Germany was a blatant violation of
not only human rights but amounted to genocide of innocents for professing a geo- ethnic centric
faith, the same is pari passu the position of two million Palestinian in Gaza besieged by inhuman
forces reducing the area akin to a big concentration camp with patent hatred and indignation
for the Gazans. Whatever the pretensions of the apartheid like regime which it portrayed in vaccinations programme for its own people and the subjugated ; the Muslims must come forward
with a well defined settlement plan for Jerusalem guaranteeing the unfettered access & use of holy
place by all the three branches of Ibrahamic faith even as it is the duty of Muslims to protect the
Al Aqsa mosque as we have been chosen for it by Allah after forfeiture of its entitlement by Bani
Israeli but without any scope for disturbing the position existing for last fourteenth centuries the
reconstruction of Haykel e Soleimani in space leading to the wailing wall ought to be the option
which , even if not agreeable to rabid Rabbis, would portray muslims as accommodative ready
for reconciliation thus further accumulating anger against the reluctant Israeli Govtt in the minds
of people in the world who stood for Palestinians in recent stand off by maintaining that ‘’
Palestinian lives also matter. ‘’ The more obduracy the higher possibility of growing abhorrent
antisemitism in Europe and to prevent its growth &.spread the centralists in Israel should
lead the nation for negotiating the implementation of UN resolution for administration of the
Holy city sans control of either side & removal of settlements in occupied territory found contrary to
the relevant UN resolutions.
Atleast a reconciliatory forward movement by the Palestinians in face of rigidity of modern day
war mongers in the battle of narratives in line with the mantra of ‘’Farewell to Arms’’.

The Author is former Chairman of J&K Public service Commission and can be reached on aaluzdeva_221256 @ymail.com.