By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has joined seven other Muslim-majority nations in a strongly worded rebuke of Israel, accusing it of jeopardising the fragile peace process in Gaza after Benjamin Netanyahu’s government rejected the road map for implementing Donald Trump’s plan to end the war.
The joint statement, issued on Sunday by the foreign ministries of Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, said Israel’s rejection of the road map — along with its refusal to countenance Palestinian statehood — amounted to a “direct repudiation” of the comprehensive plan endorsed by the United Nations Security Council in Resolution 2803. Such a stance, the statement warned, had “jeopardised its comprehensive implementation” and “fundamentally undermined the collective efforts undertaken to achieve a just and lasting peace”.
The wording was unambiguous in apportioning blame. “Such rejection confirms that Israel now bears responsibility for obstructing the efforts to bring peace in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory,” the ministers said.
Their statement traced the road map’s origins to months of painstaking diplomacy involving Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, the United States, the High Representative of Gaza and the Board of Peace — the body Trump established to oversee the plan’s execution. The document, they said, had already been accepted by Palestinian factions and represented “a vital milestone” for coordinating the decommissioning of weapons with the withdrawal of Israeli forces, the deployment of an international stabilisation force, the handover of administrative control to the newly formed National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, and the territory’s reconstruction.
By rejecting it, the ministers argued, Israel had issued “an explicit refusal to proceed with the implementation of the comprehensive plan” and had put at risk months of work by Trump to bring the war to a close and lay the groundwork for durable peace.
The statement placed particular emphasis on Washington’s role going forward, calling for “sustained and active” American engagement to compel Israeli compliance with commitments made under the plan. It went further still, warning that Israel would bear “direct and full responsibility” for any fallout from continued rejection, delay or non-compliance — including any worsening of conditions on the ground.
Beyond the immediate dispute over the road map, the ministers used the statement to reassert their long-standing position on Palestinian statehood, describing any attempt to deny or foreclose it — including through unilateral measures — as unacceptable. They reaffirmed that lasting peace could only be built on a two-state solution, with an independent, sovereign Palestinian state established along the 1967 borders and East Jerusalem as its capital, in line with international law and existing UN resolutions.
“Any attempt to deny or foreclose Palestinian statehood therefore directly undermines the prospects for peace, security and stability throughout the region,” the statement said.
The ministers also called for the Board of Peace to be given continued backing as it works to implement the road map and progress to the second phase of Trump’s plan, urging it to take “immediate and concrete measures” — with active US support — to stop any party from obstructing the process.
The joint condemnation follows Netanyahu’s explicit rejection of the plan at a cabinet meeting the previous week, after several days of mounting criticism from the Israeli prime minister as he came under pressure from his right-wing base with elections looming. Netanyahu told ministers the Israeli military would not begin withdrawing from Gaza “until Hamas is genuinely disarmed”, vowing that Israeli forces would continue to “thwart threats” against troops and citizens.
The road map, the latest step in a US-brokered ceasefire agreed in October, had envisaged Hamas surrendering its weapons to a newly formed Palestinian governing authority, with Israel withdrawing its forces in step with that disarmament process — an approach Israel has firmly rejected. Netanyahu’s government has instead insisted that Hamas disarm fully and verifiably before any Israeli pullback begins.
Trump’s Board of Peace appeared to shift in Netanyahu’s direction following talks with the Israeli leader last week, indicating that a full Israeli withdrawal would only follow “complete” disarmament by Hamas — a change that will do little to ease concerns among mediators about the road map’s viability.
Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, is currently locked in a tight contest to retain power, according to opinion polls, and has faced calls from allies on the Israeli right to hold a fresh cabinet vote and abandon the Gaza plan altogether.
Copyright © 2021 Independent Pakistan | All rights reserved
