File photo: Minister of State for International Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs HE Lolwah Al Khater.
Doha, Qatar: "Is pushing for Israel exceptionalism really worth it?" a "genuine question" asked by HE Lolwah Al Khater, the Minister of State for International Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as part of her two-part post on X (formerly Twitter), today, November 5, 2023.
In a lengthy statement addressed to "Western secularists and liberal politicians," the top Qatari official stressed that there appears to be no end in sight to the "Israeli exceptionalism" that has been tolerated for seven decades of Palestinian occupation and oppression, until now, amid the almost month-long brutal bombing of Gaza.
According to Al Khater, it is “genuinely puzzling" that for the past 70 years, almost 100 resolutions and proposed resolutions on Palestine combined have been ignored and vetoed in favor of Israel. She also questioned the failure to implement the vast majority of the world's vote to end the war.
She further condemned Israeli leaders’ "heavily use of the holy scriptures in declaring wars and as pretext to kill women and children."
As of today, November 5, the Gaza death toll has risen to nearly 9,800, with at least 26,000 wounded, many of them are women and children.
In part 2 of her post, Al Khater explained that there is now “a huge paradigm shift" not only among the public but also among the secular Arab and Muslim elites- intellectuals, academics and activists- that "seems irreversible” mainly owing to a failure to embody the teachings of life and values.
HE Al Khater posts read:
Dear Western Secularist/ Liberal Politician,
We are genuinely puzzled as to why you have been vetoing and voting for ISRAEL EXCEPTIONALISM for the past 7 decades? For WESTERN IDEOLOGUES we understand; they declared it as a “Holy War”, but how about you? Why does your position towards Israel seem so unconditionally “DOGMATIC”?
1) What’s your take as a dedicated secularist/liberal towards a state the (sic) defines itself on purely RELIGIOUS basis?
2) That defines the “birthright citizenship” on purely RELIGIOUS basis?
3) Whose leaders are heavily using the holy scriptures in declaring wars and as pretext to kill women and children; e.g. Netanyahu said in a speech late October: “You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible. 1 Samuel 15:3 ‘Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass’,"
I am not even talking about Human Rights record here.
Is it about the “Free World” and Israel being a “democratic country”? As some of you have been trying to argue recently in an attempt to justify their support beyond the ideological/ religious language.
Well let’s see how consistent you are about this argument:
1. Iran for example runs regular elections and you still call it theocratic? You never refer to it as “democratic”; remember my point here is not to prove/negate whether or not Iran is democratic, but it’s to test the consistency of your own logic. So you may say democracy is not only “elections” but it’s about human rights and liberal values etc etc; fair enough can we then objectively apply whatever criteria you have on Israel too?
2. In the biggest global representative platform - the UN - you seem to have always either hindered the democratic voting through vetos or just ignored the “Free Will” of the vast majority of the world. All in favor for ISRAEL EXCEPTIONALISM. Some elaboration on this point:
1) Before October 2023 and since 1967 there have been over 45 UN Security Council Resolutions adopted pertaining to the Question of Palestine, which Israel has ignored and not implemented. An additional 44 proposed Resolutions have been vetoed since 1954 in favor of Israel.
2) On the 27th of October 2023 the UN General Assembly adopted Gaza resolution calling for immediate and sustained ‘humanitarian truce’, 120 nations voted to stop the war, only 14 was against it. Yet the Free Will of the vast majority of the world does not count.
You might not know this; there is a huge PARADIGM SHIFT that seems IRREVERSIBLE, about how your values are being perceived by the rest of the world; chiefly because you have FAILED in embodying your own teachings.
In the biggest poll ever surveying Muslims in 35 Muslim majority countries as well as Muslims living in the US and in Europe, published in a book titled “Who Speaks for Islam: what a Billion Muslims really think” the authors, among many other conclusions, concluded the following (P.s. the project lasted for 6 years and was conducted by Gallup):
Despite the apparent political hostilities in the Muslims public discourse towards the US and the West in general, the majority of the surveyed population expressed admiration towards different aspects of life and values in the West and many have wished that these values get implemented in their own contexts; e.g. democracy, freedom of expression.
I really wish Gallup can repeat this survey TODAY even beyond Muslim communities.
There is a huge shift not only among the publics BUT among the Secular Arab and Muslim elites; intellectuals, academics and activists. Those who have long promoted Western Modernity as the only path to “Progress”, confronting all types of accusations- sometimes even beyond- by their cultural and political opponents.
Recently I have been to a lecture at Georgetown University in Qatar, discussing Amal Ghandour’s recent book “This Arab life”. The sense of anger, betrayal and being stabbed cold-bloodedly in the back among secular Arabs who lived and were educated in the West was filling that room, filling it with rage and a silent cry in the face of their shattered dream that they spent a lifetime pursuing.
Is pushing for ISRAEL EXCEPTIONALISM really worth it?
Now Close Your Eyes.. imagine there was no one else in that room of “Self-Confrontation”… and as a liberal/secular person ASK yourself.. WHY do I have to unconditionally support and protect the actions of an openly “religious fanatic” who leads a nuclear power?
THINK FOR YOURSELF DON’T LET OTHERS THINK FOR YOU.
