Saudi Arabia is set to host the rulers of Jordan, Egypt, and the six-member Gulf Co-operation Council on Friday to discuss US president Donald Trump’s proposal to deport Gazans and transform the Strip into a resort. Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas may also attend the meeting.
The aim of the mini-summit is to formulate a solid stand before a full summit at the headquarters of the 22-member Arab League on February 27th where Arab nations as a whole are expected to declare their rejection of Mr Trump‘s plan.
Palestinians regard his call for 2.3 million people to be expelled from Gaza as a plan to repeat the 1948 Nakba, or catastrophe, the mass displacement of Palestinians during the Arab-Israeli war which drove 750,00 people from their homeland.
Egypt and Jordan have flatly rejected Mr Trump’s plan, while Saudi Arabia has angrily dismissed a suggestion from Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu that a Palestinian state be established in Saudi territory.
Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi have postponed visits to Washington. Jordan’s King Abdullah found himself in a difficult position when he met Mr Trump last week, after the US president had announced his plan to move Palestinians and rebuild the Strip.
Mr Trump’s intervention has compelled the Arab states to unify and finalise Cairo’s plan for Gaza’s reconstruction while displaced Palestinians are moved from devastated urban locations to farming areas.
As part of the plan, a committee of technocrats with no Hamas representation would be established to take over administration and rebuilding. Egyptian contractors would be expected to take part while the United Arab Emirates and Qatar would contribute to rebuilding, which could take five years and cost $53 billion, according to the United Nations (UN).
[ With fighting stilled, Palestinians face new trauma: searching for their deadOpens in new window ]
The United Arab Emirates has suggested an Arab force could temporarily take charge of security and training of a local police force once Israel withdraws totally from Gaza.
The Ramallah-based PA opposes the creation of a committee of technocrats as this would divide Palestinians between separate leaderships in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. The PA argues it should take charge. The US had called for the PA’s return to Gaza on condition the PA tackled corruption and reformed, but this has not been done.
Saudi Arabia has assumed the de facto leadership of the Arab world due to the absence of Egypt. It lost that position by making peace with Israel in 1979.
[ Israel receives shipment of heavy bombs cleared by TrumpOpens in new window ]
Having never engaged in hostilities with Israel, Saudi Arabia has no need to sign a peace treaty. It has refused normalisation of relations with Israel until there is a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem, the third holiest city in Islam, as its capital.
As the Saudi monarch styles himself as “custodian of the two holy mosques” (at Mecca and Medina) he would lose credibility and support in the Muslim and Arab worlds if Riyadh failed to take a lead against Israel, particularly at a time of crisis.
