At a time when the world, Arab and non-Arab, Muslim and non-Muslim, are rallying to the Palestinian cause, it is utterly shameful and bitterly disappointing to see Oman agreeing to receive the visit of the Israeli prime minister.
And at a time when the Zionist apartheid state continues unabated its criminal policy of ‘shoot-to-kill’ against unarmed Palestinian civilians of the Great Return March, a decision by any country, especially if it is both Arab and Muslim, to host a visit by the odious Netanyahu is totally reprehensible, disgusting and deserving of condemnation.
Boycott, Divest, Sanctions Malaysia (BDS Malaysia) unreservedly condemns the decision by the Sultanate of Oman to allow Netanyahu to visit the country.
Israel is using the spectre of Iran to advance its own interests. It will waste no time to use any normalisation of relations with Oman and the Gulf countries as evidence that its apartheid and oppressive policies towards Palestinians are accepted without protest by its Arab neighbours.
If it is really fear of Iran that is prompting Oman and the other Gulf states to consider Israel favourably, the government of those countries would do well to reflect on history. The Nakba of 1948, the Suez War of 1956, the June 1967 war, the 1982 invasion of Lebanon are episodes in a series of naked and brutal aggression perpetrated by Israel, not Iran, against its Arab neighbours. That series is not likely to end if the Gulf states decided to embrace the Zionist apartheid state.
If it is regime security and the fear that Iran will foment internal unrest in the Gulf countries that is pushing those countries towards Israel, their unelected rulers would do well to reflect on the sentiments and feelings of their own population were they to normalise relations with Israel. It will be a decision that may quite possibly foment unrest among their own peoples — without any need for outside interference.
BDS Malaysia therefore strongly urges Oman and other Gulf states to continue not having any diplomatic or any other kind of ties with the Zionist apartheid state and maintain all efforts to isolate it internationally.