Recent indications are that some more countries in the Muslim world appear to be lining up to recognise Israel, and normalise diplomatic relations with the Zionist state. It seems that United States President Donald Trump, under pressure from his avowed extremist underwriters, is pushing hard to expand participation in the so-called Abraham Accords.
I have a few simple and straightforward questions for those leaders and their elite backers who are aspiring to please Trump and embrace Israel.
What exactly would they be recognising, legitimising and normalising? What borders would they recognise since Israel does not define its borders? Would they be accepting the concept of political Zionism which grants special status to its Jewish citizens, mostly of recent European descent, and second-class citizenship to its indigenous Arab population? Would they be legitimising a system that is now almost universally designated as apartheid, a brutal system which the world had last seen in South Africa? Would they be normalising war crimes and crimes against humanity for which the International Criminal Court has indicted Israeli leadership, including its prime minister?
Also, would they be accepting Israel’s continuing occupation of Palestine which the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has declared patently illegal? Would they be overlooking the egregious and un-
repentant violation of the United Nations Charter and the Geneva Conventions by Israel when it aggressively and brutally attacked, without provocation, the sovereign, neighbouring nations of Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen?
Moving on, would they be supporting instead of opposing, per mandatory legal obligation, the ongoing ICJ designated ‘plausible’ genocide in Gaza, where Israel has slaughtered tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children?
If so, instead of holding Israel account-able and punishable for its brazen lawless barbarity, would they not be rewarding it with ‘recognition’? Would they not be taking such a morally and legally unjustifiable action just to please the US, without whose full-spectrum, unlimited and unconditional support, Israel would have been unable to sustain itself as a reckless, rogue state?
By doing so, would they not be hammering the final nail in the coffin of any sort of civilised global order, to be replaced by a no-holds-barred law-of-the-jungle system where perhaps their turn as the beast’s prey might arrive much sooner than they expect?
Any government in the Muslim world that is considering having routine diplomatic relations with Israel should answer these questions, and see if the decision- makers can face themselves in the mirror.
IBRAHIM SAIFUDEEN MOHAMMED HUSSAIN
LOS ANGELES, USA
