Arab and Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey, signed a declaration Tuesday condemning for the first time Hamas’s onslaught of October 7, 2023, and calling on the Palestinian terror group to release all the hostages it is holding, disarm and end its rule of Gaza, in a bid to end the devastating war in the Strip.
Seventeen countries, plus the 22-member Arab League and the entire European Union, threw their weight behind a seven-page text — obtained by The Times of Israel — agreed at a United Nations conference on reviving the two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.
The “New York Declaration” sets out a phased plan to end the nearly eight-decade conflict and the ongoing war in Gaza. The plan would culminate with an independent, demilitarized Palestine living side by side peacefully with Israel, and their eventual integration into the wider Middle East region.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes a two-state solution and has rejected the meeting on both nationalistic and security grounds. Israel’s close ally, the United States, is also boycotting, calling the meeting “unproductive and ill-timed.”
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon late Tuesday sharply criticized the some 125 countries participating in the conference, saying “there are those in the world who fight terrorists and extremist forces and then there are those who turn a blind eye to them or resort to appeasement.”
The conference, which was postponed from June and downgraded from world leaders to ministers, for the first time established eight high-level working groups to examine and make proposals on wide-ranging topics related to a two-state solution.
“In the context of ending the war in Gaza, Hamas must end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, with international engagement and support, in line with the objective of a sovereign and independent Palestinian State,” said the declaration.
“We condemn the attacks committed by Hamas against civilians on the 7th of October,” the declaration added. “We also condemn the attacks by Israel against civilians in Gaza and civilian infrastructure, siege and starvation, which have resulted in a devastating humanitarian catastrophe and protection crisis.”
It followed a call Monday by the Palestinian Authority delegation at the United Nations for both Israel and Hamas to leave Gaza, allowing the PA to administer the coastal territory.
The text also condemned the deadly Hamas-led October 7 assault on Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage — of whom 50 are still held, most of them not alive — and which sparked the war in Gaza. It marks a first condemnation by virtually all Arab nations of the attack.
It also condemned Israeli attacks in Gaza that killed civilians, calling on Jerusalem to abandon many of its policies throughout the war and beyond, including its limiting of humanitarian aid to the Strip, its military rule and construction of settlements in the West Bank, its failure to prevent settler violence against Palestinians, and its alleged alteration of status quos in Jerusalem.
The declaration also called for the possible deployment of foreign forces to stabilize Gaza after the end of hostilities.
The text also urged the rehabilitation of the Palestinian economy, as well as the removal of inciting and hateful material from the Palestinian Authority school curriculum — a demand also directed at Israel.
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