AS Israel’s atrocities in the occupied Gaza Strip continue unabated, the OIC has issued another statement condemning Tel Aviv’s brutality. While meeting in Jeddah on Monday, foreign ministers of the Muslim bloc issued a verbose 38-point resolution highlighting their outrage. The document is full of noble intentions and calls for action, but contains little else. Meanwhile, Palestinian men, women and children continue to starve to death, if they are lucky enough to survive Israel’s barbaric attacks. Tel Aviv again targeted the Nasser Hospital mowing down multiple Palestinian journalists, including those working for Western news agencies. Yet there is little evidence that the Zionist state will be made to pay for this or its other crimes. For Israel, there is unlimited impunity; for other states there is the law. Reflecting the OIC’s condemnation, the resolution “calls upon all states to take all-possible legal and effective measures” to stop Israeli crimes. The suggested steps include “imposing sanctions [and] suspending the supply … of weapons” to the Zionist entity. But the million-dollar question is: why don’t the states of the OIC and Arab League lead the way by implementing trade and arms embargoes against Israel? What are the kings and rulers of Muslim states waiting for? In fact, many of the states that have endorsed this resolution continue to maintain relations with Tel Aviv. Perhaps knowing that there are wide contradictions between what Muslim states say and do, Israel’s rulers slaughter Palestinians mercilessly, knowing they will not be held accountable.

But once Israel is ‘done’ with the Palestinians — presumably after they are ethnically cleansed or shipped off to other territories — Tel Aviv will set its sights on other regional states. This is not the stuff of conspiracy theories; the OIC resolution also condemned the Israeli prime minister’s ‘Greater Israel’ vision, which Benjamin Netanyahu recently reaffirmed his commitment to. Arab and Muslim states should realise that as per the Zionist vision, ‘Greater Israel’ stretches from “the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates”. A good atlas will reveal what countries are covered in this terrifying vision. And as the Israeli occupation of Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese land has shown, the Zionists very much intend to deliver on their promise of ‘Greater Israel’. Therefore, unless the slaughter of Palestinians is stopped immediately, large swathes of the region may soon be devoured by the Zionists.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2025