In one of the most hopeful signs to date since the October 7 war began, a declaration by the Arab League calling for immediate installation of a United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Gaza has drawn support from across the world to help put that force together.
The flow of events which led to this began this week when members of the Arab League met starting on May 14 in emergency session to find a way to bring the bloody war in Gaza to a close now. Those nations came together from a humanitarian perspective, to save what lives they still can in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip, and in the interests of bringing an end to the growing destabilization of the entire Middle East because of the bloody conflict.
The Arab League membership consists of 22 nations: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
Representatives of each of those nations were present at the event, as was United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for portions of the meetings.
After extensive deliberations considering a wide range of options for what to do about the war, the League issued its “Bahrain Declaration”. In that brief but commanding document, it makes the makes the following clear and immediate demand for action:
“We call for the deployment of United Nations international protection and peacekeeping forces in the occupied Palestinian territory until the two-state solution is implemented.”
Leading up to that, the declaration also “strongly Israel's obstruction of ceasefire efforts in the Gaza Strip and its continued military escalation through the expansion of its aggression against the Palestinian city of Rafah, despite international warnings of catastrophic humanitarian consequences.”
It goes on to “also condemn the Israeli forces' control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing with the aim of tightening the siege on civilians in the Strip.”
“This has led to the suspension of the crossing's functioning and the cessation of the flow of humanitarian aid, and the loss of the main lifeline of the Palestinian population of Gaza, and in this regard, we call on Israel to withdraw from Rafah, in order to ensure safe humanitarian access,” it continued.
The statement also calls for the “international community to implement the relevant Security Council resolutions issued since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, including resolution 2720, and urge the United Nations Senior Humanitarian Coordinator to expedite the establishment and activation of the UN mechanism stipulated in the resolution to be established inside the Gaza Strip to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid, and to overcome all obstacles imposed by Israel to the entry of aid in sufficient quantities to respond to the humanitarian catastrophe in the Strip.”
The League further asks, “the international community to fulfill its legal obligations and take decisive measures to end the Israeli occupation of the Arab territories occupied in June 1967, including the occupied Syrian Golan and southern Lebanon, and to implement the relevant Security Council resolutions.”
It further emphasizes as urgent actions:
“The need for Israel, the occupying Power, to cease all its illegal actions that violate the rights of the Palestinian people and undermine the two-State solution and the prospects for a just and comprehensive peace in the region, including the construction and expansion of settlements, the confiscation of Palestinian land and the displacement of Palestinians from their homes,” and
“The need to halt all Israeli military operations and settler terrorism against the Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank and to end all measures that impede the growth of the Palestinian economy, including the withholding of Palestinian funds, in violation of international law, international humanitarian law and resolutions of international legitimacy.”
The declaration concluded by demanding the nations of the world "hold accountable those responsible for the crimes committed against the Palestinian people since the beginning of the Israeli aggression.”
Colombia, a nation that has taken multiple strong stands to defend the Palestinian cause since this phase of Israel’s war in Gaza began, despite its vast geographic distance from the conflict, responded to the Arab League’s Bahrain Declaration within hours after it was issued.
In a statement released yesterday, President Gustavo Petro pledged his personal support to assist however possible in organizing and structuring the UN Peacekeeping Force that those meeting in Bahrain had called for.
“The Arab League has decided to support [a UN peacekeeping force in Palestine] and it should also be supported by Africa and Latin America,” he said. “Colombia would be willing to integrate it and bring medical personnel to care for the wounded population.”
President Petro has previously made his administration’s position clear regarding Israel’s brutal war in Gaza. He formally ejected Israel’s ambassador to Colombia earlier this year, announced his country’s support of South Africa’s case filed in the International Court of Justic accusing Israel with the formal Crime of Genocide, and shutting down trade with Israel.
Last fall, after Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced his country’s “complete siege” of Gaza after the October 7 attacks by Hamas, and after Gallant referred to the Palestinians in Gaza as “human animals”, Petro was one of the first world leaders to call out Gallant for such a degrading and disgusting statement.
“This is what the Nazis said of the Jews,” Petro said. “Democratic peoples cannot allow Nazism to reestablish itself in international politics.”