Entire Arab League Condemns Oct. 7, Urges Hamas to Disarm

Arab and Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey, signed a declaration Tuesday condemning for the first time Hamas’s onslaught of Oct. 7, 2023, and calling on the Palestinian terror group to release all the hostages it is holding, disarm and end its rule of Gaza, in a bid to end the devastating war in the Strip.

Seventeen countries, plus the 22-member Arab League and the entire European Union, threw their weight behind a seven-page text — obtained by The Times of Israel — agreed at a United Nations conference on reviving the two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.

The “New York Declaration” sets out a phased plan to end the nearly eight-decade conflict and the ongoing war in Gaza. The plan would culminate with an independent, demilitarized Palestine living side by side peacefully with Israel, and their eventual integration into the wider Middle East region.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes a two-state solution and has rejected the meeting on both nationalistic and security grounds. Israel’s close ally, the United States, is also boycotting, calling the meeting “unproductive and ill-timed.”

Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon late Tuesday sharply criticized the some 125 countries participating in the conference, saying “there are those in the world who fight terrorists and extremist forces and then there are those who turn a blind eye to them or resort to appeasement.”

The conference, which was postponed from June and downgraded from world leaders to ministers, for the first time established eight high-level working groups to examine and make proposals on wide-ranging topics related to a two-state solution.

“In the context of ending the war in Gaza, Hamas must end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, with international engagement and support, in line with the objective of a sovereign and independent Palestinian State,” said the declaration.

“We condemn the attacks committed by Hamas against civilians on the 7th of October,” the declaration added. “We also condemn the attacks by Israel against civilians in Gaza and civilian infrastructure, siege and starvation, which have resulted in a devastating humanitarian catastrophe and protection crisis.”

It followed a call Monday by the Palestinian Authority delegation at the United Nations for both Israel and Hamas to leave Gaza, allowing the P.A. to administer the coastal territory.

The text also condemned the deadly Hamas-led Oct. 7 assault on Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage — of whom 50 are still held, most of them not alive — and which sparked the war in Gaza. It marks a first condemnation by virtually all Arab nations of the attack.

It also condemned Israeli attacks in Gaza that killed civilians, calling on Jerusalem to abandon many of its policies throughout the war and beyond, including its limiting of humanitarian aid to the Strip, its military rule and construction of settlements in the West Bank, its failure to prevent settler violence against Palestinians, and its alleged alteration of status quos in Jerusalem.

The declaration also called for the possible deployment of foreign forces to stabilize Gaza after the end of hostilities.

It urged an end to Israel’s ban of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, UNRWA, while reiterating the Palestinian “right of return” to places in Israel they left or were expelled from surrounding the 1948 creation of the State of Israel — a notion ruled out by successive Israeli governments which contend this would undermine its existence as a Jewish state.

The text also urged the rehabilitation of the Palestinian economy, as well as the removal of inciting and hateful material from the Palestinian Authority school curriculum — a demand also directed at Israel.

France, which co-chaired the conference with Saudi Arabia, called the declaration “both historic and unprecedented,” calling on U.N. member countries to support the declaration, which outlines “tangible, timebound, and irreversible steps” toward implementing the two-state solution — which is strongly rejected by the current Israeli government.

“For the first time, Arab countries and those in the Middle East condemn Hamas, condemn Oct. 7, call for the disarmament of Hamas, call for its exclusion from Palestinian governance, and clearly express their intention to normalize relations with Israel in the future,” said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot.

However, while the declaration included general pledges for “full regional integration” and “tangible steps in promoting mutual recognition, peaceful coexistence, and cooperation among all States in the region,” it did not include an explicit intent by the signatories to establish full diplomatic ties with the Jewish state.

The declaration, spearheaded by France and Saudi Arabia, was signed by the Arab League, the E.U., Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, Turkey, Indonesia, United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Norway and Senegal.

“We call on you to support this document before the end of the 79th session of the General Assembly by contacting the missions of Saudi Arabia and France in New York,” Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud told the conference on Tuesday. The 80th U.N. General Assembly is due to start in September.

The first step outlined in the declaration is to end the 22-month war between Israel and Hamas.

“Following the ceasefire, a transitional administrative committee must be immediately established to operate in Gaza under the umbrella of the Palestinian Authority,” it reads.

The declaration supports the deployment of a temporary international stabilization mission, mandated by the U.N. Security Council, and welcomes “the readiness expressed by some member states to contribute troops.”