KUALA LUMPUR: Certain Arab countries decided against punitive action against Israel for committing war crimes against Palestinian people to protect their own agendas, said geopolitical observers.
The proposed punitive actions was to sever all diplomatic and economic relations with Israel, prohibit Israel flights to enter Arab airspace to Israel flights and also using oil trade to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza.
Nusantara Academy for Strategic Research senior fellow Dr Azmi Hassan said that the Arab countries knew well that cutting off oil would have been a strong leverage to force Israel to cave in, but it would receive backlash through other pro-Israel countries.
Besides that, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain amongst the few rejecting such strict action, due to the existing relations from the Abraham Accords agreement which normalises relations with Israel.
"The problem is that they have their own agendas to protect.
"For instance cutting off oil would hurt the Arab countries," he said when contacted today.
He said the next best thing to do in order to put more pressure on Israel is to continue to pursue the 31 resolutions agreed from the 8th Extraordinary Summit of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) held in Riyadh.
This includes calling on the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to complete the investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed by Israel against the Palestinian people in all the occupied Palestinian territories.
As certain countries are members of the Rome Statute signatories, Azmi said that it would be the next best bet to end the conflict.
Meanwhile, Singapore Institute of International Affairs senior fellow Dr Oh Ei Sun said that certain countries who voted against the punitive actions, do have sympathy towards the fate of the Palestinians.
Aside from the countries normalised diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv through the Abraham Accords, he said that some countries do not like Hamas.
He said that the Arab countries do see Hamas as an offshoot of Islamic Brotherhood which is bent on toppling some Arab regimes.
"So it is everybody for themselves out there," he said.
The conflict in Gaza and the West Bank escalated further since the Oct 7 incident which has now resulted in the deaths of thousands Palestinians including women and children.
Several hospitals including Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital were not spared by the Israeli force in its bid to clear Hamas from the land.
The 8th Extraordinary Islamic Summit of the OIC was held at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Centre.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who attended the summit called for an immediate ceasefire and expedited humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza.