SDE BOKER, Israel – For many Palestinians, the timing of the Israeli summit brings home the feeling of being abandoned by parts of the Arab world. Sunday, the first of two days of meetings, marked the 20th anniversary of the Arab Peace Initiative, a pact ratified in 2002 by all members of the Arab League, which promised normalization with Israel in exchange for a Palestinian state. Two decades later, the presence of many members of the Arab League at the summit in Israel shows how far this solidarity has gone. Of the five countries invited to the ceremony, only Jordan refused. The King of Jordan, Abdullah II, had an earlier engagement on Monday in the West Bank city of Ramallah with Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority. Support for the Palestinians remains high among the Arab public. However, some Arab leaders now seem to prioritize what they see as their countries’ economic and security interests over the Palestinian issue, whose leaders – divided between the West Bank and Gaza – are at loggerheads. for years and is unable to ascend a united impulse for domination. “Israel has long tried to make the world ignore the occupation and the apartheid regime, and now it seems that these other states are keeping up with it,” said Diana Bhutto, a Palestinian analyst and former advocate for the Liberation Organization. Palestine. “This simply shows that we have been right since then – they are working with Israel for their own limited security benefits, not for the Palestinians. “These regimes are not friends of the Palestinians and should not be considered as such.” As the summit began, the Israeli Ministry of Defense announced that it would allow another 8,000 Palestinians in Gaza to work in Israel, almost doubling the current number. But there was no talk of new peace talks. The meeting in Israel also underscores the limits of an ongoing campaign by Palestinians and human rights organizations to bring Israel as an apartheid state into the global consciousness. Israel vehemently denies allegations of apartheid. If the allegation helped legitimize Israel in the global rights community, the summit shows how Israel’s legitimacy is growing at the same time in the Arab world. The summit was strongly condemned by Palestinian Islamist groups, including Hamas, the de facto militant group in the Gaza Strip. Another militant group, Islamic Jihad, said a terrorist attack in northern Israel on Sunday night was a response to the summit itself, a Palestinian television channel reported. The Palestinian Authority issued a side statement that did not directly address the summit, but indirectly criticized the participants for creating “a new security alliance that bypasses the Palestinian cause,” even as Israel expands Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Despite the fanfare surrounding the summit, Israel should finally return to the negotiating table with the Palestinians, said Mkhaimar Abusada, a political science professor from Gaza. “At the end of the day, they need to realize that they need to make peace with the Palestinians, not with other countries,” he said. But the only Palestinians close to the talks were the few Palestinian workers at the hotel where the summit was held. “You probably know how I feel as a Palestinian for this summit,” said Fares Argan, a 42-year-old cleaner who goes to the hotel daily from the occupied West Bank. “We are used to this kind of treatment by others,” he added. Rawan Sheikh Ahmad contributed to the report from Haifa, Israel. and Lara Jakes from Sde Boker.
