Eight Muslim countries, including those relatively friendly to Israel, such as the United Arab Emirates, released a joint statement condemning Israel over Jewish activists’ occupation of the al-Aqsa mosque.
On Sunday, roughly 200 hard-line Israeli activists stormed one of the holiest sites of Islam, the al-Aqsa mosque. The group raised the Israeli flag at the site, sang the Israeli national anthem, and performed Talmudic prayers. The storming was a significant violation of the decades-old arrangement that Israeli authorities had agreed to, under which only Muslims are allowed to worship at the site. The mosque is managed by the Jordanian-protected Islamic Waqf.
In response, on Tuesday, the foreign ministers of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UAE, Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkey “strongly” condemned the “continued incursions by extremist Israeli settlers into the Blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif under the protection of Israeli forces, as well as the raising of the Israeli flag within its courtyards.” The group said the “provocative and unacceptable acts” were a “flagrant violation” of international law, United Nations resolutions, and the historical and legal status quo in Jerusalem’s holy sites.
Notably, the statement sought to draw on Christian sympathies as well, saying Israel was carrying out “systematic and illegitimate measures” that were “undermining the sanctity and status of its Islamic and Christian holy sites.”
“The Ministers hold the Israeli authorities responsible for halting these escalatory measures and warn that the repeated Israeli violations lead to the exacerbation of tensions, the fueling of instability and extremism, and the undermining of international efforts aimed at achieving peace, while also constituting a clear breach of Israel’s obligations under international law,” the statement read.
The statement concluded with an expression of the group’s “steadfast solidarity with the Palestinian people and their unwavering support for the realization of their legitimate and inalienable national rights,” the foremost of which was the establishment of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Though condemnation of Israel from Muslim countries isn’t unusual, notable among the signatories was the UAE, which has grown considerably closer to Israel over the past few months.
Last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office revealed that he had taken a secret trip to the UAE in the middle of combat operations against Iran. During the visit, Netanyahu personally met with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, and the meeting resulted in a “historic breakthrough in relations between Israel and the UAE.” Ensuing media reports revealed that Mossad chief David Barnea and Shin Bet chief David Zini also visited the UAE during the war and that the two countries closely coordinated on security and defense matters.
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The UAE was one of the first signatories of the Abraham Accords, and has often clashed with the more politically Islamist countries named in the Tuesday statement, such as Qatar. The statement shows that the UAE has clear limits to its public support for Israel, and that Israeli moves against Jerusalem could jeopardize its burgeoning alliances with Muslim powers, such as the UAE and Azerbaijan.
Israeli incursions into the al-Aqsa mosque are some of the biggest flash points in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, frequently drawing the ire of Muslims worldwide. Hamas claimed its Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack against Israel, which has triggered a deluge of bloodshed across the region, was in retaliation for Israeli actions against the holy site. The attack itself was codenamed “al-Aqsa Flood.”