THE Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has done well by convening an extraordinary summit of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) to discuss the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, where Israel is continuously engaged in genocide of the Palestinian people. An announcement from the OIC Secretariat says the heads of state and governments of the member countries would meet in Riyadh on November 12.
The OIC is the collective voice of the Ummah but unfortunately the platform is not being used the way it should be to safeguard interests of the member states. There are growing concerns among Muslims all over the world about the rationale to have such an entity if it cannot react to extreme threats as are being confronted by Muslims in Gaza. No doubt, the Secretariat and the OIC Secretary-General have remained active throughout ever since eruption of the latest conflict in the Middle-East but, as highlighted by protestors in almost all Muslim countries, there is need for collective action to prevent killings and destruction in Gaza at the hands of the Jewish State, which is fully backed by some powerful western countries, that otherwise claim to be friends of the Muslim countries. The conflict in Gaza has assumed dangerous dimensions as over ten thousand people including women and children have been martyred. The gravity of the situation is also highlighted by the fact that the Israeli forces dropped 30,000 tons of ammunition on the Gaza Strip in a month, surpassing even the US which dropped 15,000 tons of ammunition on Japan in the Second World War. And both Netanyahu and his backers are not listening to the demands of the world community for an immediate ceasefire. In this backdrop, mere issuance of condemnatory statements or recall of ambassadors from Tel Aviv would not do and instead some practical measures are needed to prevent further killings and destruction in Gaza. The Jewish State is hurling threats of dropping a nuclear bomb in Gaza but the Muslim countries have become so impotent that they could not, so far, provide even humanitarian assistance in required volumes. The OIC Executive Committee met on October 18 but it failed to send a strong message to the powers concerned and, therefore, the Secretariat and the member countries must interact meaningfully before the summit so that it agrees on measures as per aspirations of the Ummah.
