A diplomatic firestorm erupted after Israel’s new map, which claims “historic territorial rights” for Israel in Palestine and large parts of Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, was uploaded by the Israeli Foreign Ministry on its Arabic-language Twitter and Instagram accounts.
Gulf countries, including Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, strongly condemned the publication of the Israeli map on Wednesday.
Official Israeli social media accounts have published a map falsely claiming that parts of Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are within Israeli territory.
Qatar’s foreign ministry called the publication of the Israeli map “a flagrant violation of international legitimacy resolutions and provisions of international law.”
The ministry said in a statement that publishing the alleged map “would hinder the chances of peace in the region, especially amid the ongoing brutal war in the Gaza Strip.”
He called on the international community “to fulfill its legal and moral responsibilities by pressuring the Israeli occupation to comply with the resolutions of international legitimacy and confront its expansionist ambitions in Arab lands.”
The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for its part, called the Israeli action “a deliberate attempt to expand the occupation and a flagrant violation and violation of international law.”
He underlined the “categorical rejection of all provocative practices by the United Arab Emirates aimed at changing the legal status of the Occupied Palestinian Territories and all measures that violate resolutions on international legitimacy.”
The ministry warned that these practices “threaten further escalation and tensions and hinder efforts to achieve peace and stability in the region.”
He reiterated the need “to support all regional and international efforts to advance the peace process in the Middle East, as well as to end illegal practices that undermine the two-state solution and the creation of an independent Palestinian state.”
In a statement, Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry stressed that “such extreme allegations underscore the intention of the (Israeli) occupation authorities to consolidate their occupation and persist in flagrant violations of state sovereignty and international laws and norms.”
The kingdom reiterated “its appeal to the international community to assume its responsibility to stop Israeli violations against the countries and peoples of the region and to emphasize the importance of respecting the sovereignty and borders of nations to mitigate regional crises and supporting efforts to achieve a just and comprehensive peace.”
In March 2023, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich spoke at an event in Paris while standing next to a map of greater Israel depicting Jordan as part of the self-proclaimed Jewish state.
For decades, Israel has seized territory in Lebanon, Palestine and Syria, resisting international calls to withdraw and opposing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital based on pre-1967 borders.
The map depicts Israel (the Jewish state) as mentioned in the Bible. Several Arab nations have condemned it, arguing that the map directly violates sovereignty. These countries argue that the newly shared map includes occupied Palestinian territories and parts of neighboring Arab lands as part of “Greater Israel.”
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