Alwaght- On the eve of the Quds Day and amid unfolding Palestinian-Israeli clashes at the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque following recurrent Israeli violations to the holy Muslim site and attacks on the worshipers, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) finally moved out of passivity and on Monday issued a statement after its emergency meeting in Saudi Arabia, calling for unification of efforts to defend Al-Quds (Jerusalem) and its sanctities against the Israeli crimes and support to the Palestinians against heinous Israeli attacks.
The final statement of the meeting also condemned the aggression of the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people, especially in the city of Al-Quds, and the illegal Israeli actions in this city with the aim of completely controlling it and trying to change the historical and legal situation in the city and Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The member states blamed the Israeli government for any consequences of the aggression and illegal actions of the occupiers in Al-Quds, including the attempt to divide Al-Aqsa Mosque spatially and temporally, and demanded an immediate "end to these dangerous and illegitimate actions."
The statement was relatively strong-toned and showed support to the Palestinians, but why are such statements making no difference to the Palestinian developments?
Ineffective move of OIC
The Organization of the Islamic Cooperation is one of the largest intergovernmental organizations and probably the second largest organization after the UN, with 57 member countries from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Caribbean, with a population of about 1.5 billion. Despite the large size of the countries' representation, the organization has not had a high level of influence to support Palestine, as the first and central issue of the Muslim world.
This is while a historical review can tell that the Palestinian cause and the Israeli violations at the Al-Aqsa Mosque were existential reasons for this Islamic bloc which was founded in 1969 under Organization of Islamic Conference title and then was renamed to its current name.
On August 21, 1969, Al-Aqsa Mosque was severely damaged when a hard-line Jew set fire to its building. This terrorist act drew widespread reactions throughout the Muslim world and angered the Muslim public. The same day, the grand mufti of Al-Quds phoned the leaders of Muslim countries and asked them to convene an emergency Islamic summit to discuss the issue.
Following the call, King Hassan II of Morocco invited Muslim leaders to an emergency meeting in Rabat, and as a result, the first summit of the Islamic countries was held in September 1969 in the Moroccan capital.
One of the founding principles of the organization was provision of support to the Palestinians for self-determination and founding their independent state with Eastern Al-Quds as its capital and also maintaining the Islamic nature of the city's holy sites.
Even the Al-Quds Committee is one of the four main committees of the OIC, based in Rabat and chaired by the Moroccan king.
But so far the organization's statements have not moved beyond words and not led to practical actions checking the Israeli crimes. This is while the OIC has great potentials allowing it to send military and economic aids to the Palestinians and condemn the Israeli apartheid in the international organizations.
Actually, all of these statements have not been as effective as a rocket fired at the Israelis by the Palestinian resistance forces in forcing the occupation back.
Notably, the OIC's incapability to condemn the largely treasonous, anti-Islamic, and anti-Palestinian diplomatic normalization of some reactionary Arab states with Tel Aviv has been substantially dullening its statement' power to deter the Israelis.
Certainly, Tel Aviv is not expected to grow concerned about outcomes of the strong OIC statements when ambassadors of Arab countries sit at dinner table and drink with the Israeli foreign minister at the heart of occupied Palestinian territories.
