Arab leaders at a Cairo summit failed to agree on a way to contain the violence between Israel and Hamas or resolve the Palestinian quest for statehood.
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Arab leaders, European officials and the U.N. secretary-general met in Cairo on Saturday to discuss the war between Israel and Hamas. All of them called for international law to be upheld amid an Israeli air campaign that’s killed thousands of civilians and devastated the Gaza Strip’s infrastructure. The calls came just as Israel said it would step up airstrikes in Gaza and as the U.S. deploys additional missile systems to the region. NPR’s Jane Arraf joins us from Amman, Jordan. Hi, Jane.
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: Good morning, Ayesha.
RASCOE: So summits like this one usually end in some statement of agreement – but not this one.
ARRAF: You’re right – not this one. There was no concluding statement that would have indicated a broad agreement. If it did anything, really, it tried to send the message that Palestinians exist, that they have the same right to life as other people and the underlying message that even though Hamas doesn’t speak or act for the Palestinian people, Israel is inflicting collective punishment. Jordan’s King Abdullah spoke in English at the summit because he said he wanted his message to reach Americans and Europeans. And he said if any other country were depriving civilians of shelter, food and water and demolishing infrastructure, it would be condemned. He said Palestinians felt abandoned.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
KING ABDULLAH II: And still, for the most part, global silence. Yet the message the Arab world is hearing is loud and clear – Palestinians’ lives matter less than Israeli ones.
ARRAF: That’s also the message, by the way, that I’ve been hearing from the streets in Amman. One refugee from Gaza here told me that he feels, nobody sees us.
RASCOE: Did the leaders at the summit agree to take any action?
ARRAF: They…
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