ISLAMABAD, NOV 8 /DNA/ – In his Keynote Address at IPI Conference on Middle East here today, Senator Mushahid Hussain outlined a 5-point Action Plan for Palestine & Peace in Middle East.
He said the first step should be for Arab/OIC Emergency Summit on 11 November to take concrete steps to alleviate the sufferings of the Palestinian people and take the lead by forming an International Leaders Delegation, also comprising leaders from the Global South & Europe, including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkiye, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Africa, Algeria and Brazil, plus PMs of Norway & Ireland (as they have recognised State of Palestine) who should visit Washington immediately to meet President-elect Donald Trump, and urge the new US President to reverse the one-sided American policy of blatantly supporting Israel, have ceasefire immediately, provide humanitarian assistance & take steps for lasting peace through establishment of an independent Palestine State.
Second, given their strong Navies, Turkiye, Pakistan and Indonesia should form a Joint Naval Humanitarian Flotilla for Peace, to help break the Israeli blockade of Gaza after getting authorisation from the UN General Assembly. This will send a powerful and positive message to the oppressed Palestinian people that the Muslim Ummah is not an impotent entity, rather it has the vision and political will to undertake concrete initiatives. Third, recalling the joint initiative of President Erdogan and Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir in 2019 to launch a global Media initiative to promote the perspective of the Muslim Ummah in the ‘battle of ideas and narratives’, Mushahid said ‘now is the right time and opportunity for such an initiative as the Gaza Genocide has demonstrated how biased and one-sided the Western media has been in the current crisis’.
He said journalists, scholars, intellectuals, academics, and think tanks could be powerful instruments in the ‘Battle of Ideas’ crafting and presenting narratives based on truth and facts, while representing the popular aspirations of the Global South in general and Muslim World in particular on such issues as Palestine, Kashmir, Islamophobia, and Rohingya, helping to prepare the ground for an alternative emerging equitable global order. Fourth, OIC immediately establish a Palestine Reconstruction Fund for reconstruction of devastated areas of Gaza as well as Lebanon.
Fifth, establish a Nuremberg-style International War Crimes Tribunal for 2 purposes: a) establish War Reparations Fund for victims of Genocide in Palestine & Lebanon; b) form a global group of eminent jurists, lawyers & jurists to try Israeli political & military leaders for crimes against humanity & all other war crimes committed after 7 October, 2023, including acts of aggression against Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq & Syria.
Mushahid said ‘OIC has lost credibility with Muslim masses as an organization that is suffering from paralysis, unable to act during crises’, adding ‘Muslim states have affluence without influence’. Finally, Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed appealed to OIC Summit host, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince & Prime Minister Muhammad bin Salman, to take inspiration from his late uncle, King Faisal Shaheed, and follow in his footsteps, as King Faisal, during the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War imposed an oil embargo on the US and other supporters of Israel and then King Faisal also took the initiative alongside Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to convene a special OIC Summit in Lahore in 1974, which for the first time recognised PLO under Yasser Arafat as the ‘sole legitimate representative of the people of Palestine’. Mushahid praised King Faisal Shaheed as a ‘great leader of the Muslim World, who was bold, courageous with vision & will to act for Palestine’.
