The Arab League after Gaza genocide: reform or die
No one can deny the fact that the Al-Aqsa Flood operation of 7 October, 2023, has changed almost everything in the region, making it a pivotal and turning point for the Middle East and how it should be handled by world powers.
After nearly nine months of Israeli genocide in Gaza in which nearly 40,000 people, and counting, have been killed, the impact of the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation has been globally felt as much as it has been dismantling old dogmas about Palestine, the Palestinians and the entire region. First and foremost, it has forced the hypocritical Western powers to not only accepting the fact that Israel is a colonial power and must be treated as such, but also Palestinians are here and will not go away, however murderous Israel becomes. It has also mobilised peoples across the world into the streets in support of the Palestinians and condemnation of Israel, driving a wedge between many people and their own governments in countries like France, Germany, the United Kingdom and many others.
In the Arab world, Al-Aqsa Flood’s most obvious impact has been two-fold: one, it challenged the ideological divide claimed among Arabs. Many, in the earlier days of the Operation, believed Hamas was playing a political game aimed at short-term political gains in line with its Islamic roots, as being an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. But, by the end of the first week, what most Arabs believed was a simple fact: what Hamas launched on that day was another episode of the liberation struggle that the majority of Arabs have been supporting and even ready to take part in, if given the chance. And, two, any Arab regime considering any form or normalisation with Israel had to stop and reconsider, while forcing those who normalised their ties with apartheid Israel to slow down the process and refrain from any public “friendly” gestures toward Israel, denying it the gradual benefits of slow normalisation.
Yet, the only Pan-Arab organisation which appears to be hardly touched by the impact of the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation is the League of Arab States (LAS). The organisation is acting like it exists in a vacuum or on another planet and is completely isolated from the very peoples it is supposed to represent and serve.
Founded in 1945 by five countries, the first signatories of the Alexandria Protocols were, namely: Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Yemen, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and Syria. The founding document consisted of a short preamble and 20 different articles spelling out why the organisation was founded and areas of cooperation between its member states.
While membership is open to all Arab countries provided that they accept its articles, pay their membership dues and, most importantly, being independent sovereign states, the founding principles say little in terms of benefits for the peoples, supposedly represented by their governments who joined LAS in their names.
The founding Protocol contains all the nice words and noble intentions member states strive to achieve, including close cooperation among member countries in all areas, except defence, which was talked about in general terms as establishing a united military structure and common defence budget. This would be the subject of a more specific document signed in 1950 known as The Treaty of Joint Defense and Economic Co-operation of the League of Arab States. However, in reality, it does not exist. The Protocol was later amended several times to accommodate changing world and regional political facts and even borders of member states—former member, South Yemen, is no longer a country after uniting with North Yemen.
Yet, the most important amendment is yet to be made: amendments that make the body close to the peoples, representative to their aspirations and, above all, more legitimate among the nearly half a billion inhabitants of the Arab Homeland making up the entire populations of the 22 member countries.
Despite everything that has happened in the Arab Homeland since LAS was created 79 years ago, the organisation has remained rigid, unresponsive and inherently resistant to change. Being so outdated, LAS has, over the decades, lost any shred of legitimacy it once had like in the earlier days of its existence. Back then, even its former and first Secretary-General, Abdul Rahman Azzam (1893–1976), was a well-known Arab anti-colonial fighter, particularly in Libya where he took part in fighting against the Italian colonialists. With such a background when he was elected to lead LAS, the organisation gained from his personal credibility and belief in Arab unity, not the other way around. He also led the Arab mobilisation against the creation of apartheid Israel after its founding in 1948.
In the following years, almost all LAS leaders have been retired Egyptian diplomats, given the job only to have comfortable retirement from public duties. In fact, over the years, the LAS Secretariat became so close to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, despite being a collective Pan-Arab organisation. Many observers think LAS has evolved into another department of Cairo’s Foreign Ministry, doing what Egypt wants and shying away from anything Cairo dislikes.
By the time Egypt signed its peace treaty with Israel and started normalising relations, LAS lost its entire legitimacy and many called for it to be reformed or dissolved and replaced by a modern organisation built on common Arab polices and benefits for all of its 22 member countries, including Palestine.
Nowadays, LAS has become a debating club with almost no respect among the Arab nations who compare it to a dead entity, particularly when it comes to Palestine.
It is unlikely that LAS will become any more effective after the Gaza genocide ends than it did after the 1967 war, or when Lebanon was invaded in 1982, or when Libya was bombed in 1984 before it was destroyed by Western powers in 2011.
But we have to remember that the power of LAS is actually the collective power of its members. Unfortunately, nearly one-third of such members have already normalised ties with Israel or are in the process of doing so. This translates into a clinically dead LAS that should no longer be considered anything but a vehicle for Arab disunity and indirect loyal assistant to Israel. Many Arab countries are now closer to Israel than to other Arabs, as if they believe that brotherly Arabs are more dangerous to them than Israel, which intends to dominate the entire Arab Homeland from Morocco to Bahrain.
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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.