Israel’s blatant aggression that has resulted in the death of women and children must be recognised as a ‘war crime’, according to a leading Arab politician, and it should be held accountable for the killings, displacement and the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.
Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Minister Ayman Safadi opened the first plenary session of the Manama Dialogue 2023 with a strong speech in which he echoed the sentiments of many towards the displaced Palestinians and Israel’s apparent ignorance of international law and de-escalation.
“The conflict, as many of you have heard, did not start on October 7, there is a history to it,” he said.
“For years we’ve been saying that the fallacy of assuming that you can parachute over the Palestinian issue to create regional peace is wrong.
“It will only bring disaster and, here we are, with more than 11,000 Palestinians killed so far, almost 67 per cent of them children.
“This is not a time for mincing words but a time to state facts as they are. This is not self-defence but blatant aggression.”
He said 61pc of health infrastructure had been destroyed in the Gaza Strip since the war erupted, creating a shortage of medicine and basic services.
“This war is not taking us anywhere but to more conflict and more suffering,” he added.
Mr Safadi was speaking yesterday during the first plenary session titled: ‘War, Diplomacy and De-escalation’ in which he described Gaza as one of the most densely populated places in the world being attacked.
He said the ongoing conflict had displaced about 1.65 million Palestinians – which he said in percentage terms was the same as displacing 275 million Americans.
“We all condemned the killing of Israeli civilians on October 7,” he added. “Jordan wants to look at how we can solve this conflict once and for all, secure the rights of Palestinians to live in peace and ensure the security of Israel too.”
However, he said Israel’s actions were a ‘war crime’.
“I have to point out the selective application of international law in the conflict,” he stated. “If there was any other country in the world that did even a fragment of what Israel did, then it would face sanctions from every corner of the world.”
Mr Safadi warned the future of Gaza looked bleak once the Israeli aggression ends.
“Israel is destroying Gaza and doing whatever it wants without anyone stopping them. And, once it is done, we will clean your mess? No, we will not.
“We want peace as a strategic objective and we do not want our region to have to relive the horror that is being imposed on it right now.”
He described Gaza as an ‘open prison’ that had been besieged from every direction and called for an end to the senseless killings.
Palestinians have been left with nothing to lose, according to Mr Safadi, and Hamas was only present because of continued Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.
“Hamas is an idea – you cannot bomb an idea out of existence,” he said dismissing suggestions that the group could be compared to the Islamic State.
“Hamas did not create conflict, the conflict created Hamas,” he said. “The US, EU and Arab States always push a two-state solution, but Israel does not want this solution.”
Also speaking at the session was European Commission’s vice president Josep Borrell who called for humanitarian aid to be stepped up for Palestinians.
“We have repeated on several occasions the need for a two-state solution for the past 30 years, yet nothing was done to implement it,” said Mr Borrell.
“We have been given a tactical coverage to the strategy of expanding settlers in the West Bank as the Palestinian territory has been reduced to an archipelago – which makes a two-state solution difficult.”
He called on Arab leaders to play a more responsible role and said the conflict was a wake-up call for the international community to take the matter seriously.
Israel began its campaign to wipe out Hamas, which rules Gaza, after the October 7 attacks in southern Israel. Israel says 1,200 people were killed and some 240 captives taken in the deadliest day of its 75-year-old history.
Since then, Israel has put Gaza’s population of 2.3 million under siege, battering the crowded strip with air strikes.
Israel has ordered the entire northern half of Gaza evacuated and around two-thirds of residents are now homeless.
With the war entering its seventh week, there was no sign of a let-up, despite international calls for a ceasefire or at least ‘humanitarian pauses’ to tackle critical shortages of food, medicine, drinking water and fuel.
Israel has so far rejected all such calls claiming it would benefit Hamas but reports suggest a pause in the fighting may be part of negotiations mediated by Qatar in return for the release of some of the hostages.
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