The Arab world has been heavily fragmented since the emergence of the modern Middle East after World War I. The colonialist British had promised the Arabs to have their own state in return for their support in their fight against the Ottomans. However, they did not keep their promise and paved the way for the fragmentation of the Arab world. The single Arab nation was divided into 22 states. Following the colonialist “divide-and-rule” principle, the Western states have been doing everything to keep the Arab nation fragmented.
Throughout the second half of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century, the Palestinian cause was the main source of motivation for Arab unity. Similarly, it was one of the main sources of unity of Muslims worldwide. However, after the Arab insurgencies and revolutions, the pro-status quo Arab regimes have supported the unilateral projects by Israel and its Western supporters such as the Deal of the Century in order to eradicate any hope for the creation of a Palestinian state in the Palestinian lands.
In the past, Arab leaders used to instrumentalize the Palestinian cause to get legitimacy from their respective populations. Some others such as King Faisal of Saudi Arabia went further and followed a staunch pro-Palestinian policy. On the contrary, nowadays they have been instrumentalizing the Palestinian question in their foreign policies. Most Arab regimes not only remain indifferent to the Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians in the occupied lands but also provide indirect support to maintaining the current Palestinian sufferings.
Former King Faisal bin Abdelaziz Al Saud ruled the Saudi Kingdom between 1964 and 1975. Although he is generally known for his conservative views and his struggle against secular ideologies, including communism, in the Arab world, King Faisal successfully implemented a modernization and reform policy throughout his term. As part of his modernization program, he tried to institutionalize the Saudi state structure, including the bureaucracy. He also attempted to limit the power of Islamic religious officials, thus, eliminating the traditional duality in state administration.
King Faisal was well-known for his pan-Islamic perspective. He tried to achieve a political union among the Muslim people. For this reason, he established the Muslim World League (Rabitat al-Alam al-Islami) in 1962 in order to promote the “true messages of Islam” and the universal Islamic values worldwide. On the one hand, he tried to improve its relations with Shiite Iran, on the other, he tried to promote a more inclusive policy toward other Sunni sects. Eventually, he tried to solve any Muslim-related issue anywhere in the world.
As part of his pan-Islamic worldview, he followed a pro-Palestinian policy since his early years. As a global advocate for Palestinian rights, Faisal rejected the partition of the Palestinian lands by the United Kingdom in 1939 and by the United Nations in 1947. He described the establishment of the Israeli state as a disruptive project ruining political stability in the Arab world. Therefore, he refused to recognize Israel and called the Arab states to unite against Israel and its supporters.
The occupation of East Jerusalem was a turning point in Faisal’s life. After the occupation, he devoted himself to the Palestinian cause. He sent military and economic support to the Arab countries fighting against Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967. He sent thousands of Saudi soldiers to Jordan to fight with the Arab forces. Similarly, he contributed to the economic reconstruction of the warring Arab states.
However, King Faisal is known for his two big steps regarding Palestine. He took two of the most important and effective political steps in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian question.
First of all, he led the establishment of the Islamic Conference Organisation, now the Islamic Cooperation Organisation (ICO) after the arson attack on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of the three holy sites for Muslims, in 1969. He convened the first Islamic Summit in Rabat, Morocco, in September 1969 to discuss the developments in occupied Palestine. The Islamic Summit, which established the ICO, called Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories. Through the ICO, as an organization representing the Muslim ummah and the Palestinians, Faisal called all Muslim states and peoples to defend the Palestinian cause.
Second, King Faisal protested the support of the Western countries toward Israeli aggression against the Arab countries during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War (Yom Kippur War) and imposed an oil embargo. The oil embargo was the primary force behind the global 1973 oil crisis, which led to many dramatic changes in the Western world. After the oil embargo imposed on the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands and Japan, the price of oil rose about 300%. The rise in oil prices triggered the oil crisis, which increased the oil revenue and generated financial gains that contributed to the economic boom in the kingdom.
There is no charismatic ruler in the Arab world today to replace King Faisal who can undertake the responsibilities of defending the Arab world against Israeli expansionism and Western interventions. Despite the violations of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli security forces, no Arab leader has attempted to take concrete measures and take initiative against the Israeli atrocities.
The Arab League, the only pan-Arab international organization, failed to make a final statement after its latest summit meeting in Riyadh. Therefore, the Arab League and ICO have merged the two summit meetings and made a single final statement. While some states have proposed to show their deterrent power to Israel and its Western supporters by threatening to impose an oil embargo against them, some others have asked to sever economic and political relations with Israel and its supporters. However, the Arab countries that have recently normalized their relations with Israel have rejected the proposal. That is, there was no leader at the summit to lead the Arab countries to take concrete and harsh actions against Israel and its supporters.
