Eighty-five Islamic scholars and institutions urge Muslim-majority countries to act on Gaza

Eighty-five Islamic scholars and institutions from across the western world have called on Muslim-majority countries to cut all ties with Israel and use their economic leverage to pressure the US and Israel to end the war on Gaza. 

A letter released by the scholars on Thursday pleaded with "the political leaders of the world’s Muslim-majority nations" to "take greater, concrete action to stop the ongoing genocide of our brothers and sisters in Gaza".

"We wake up every morning to see new images of men, women and children in Gaza whose rib cages protrude through their skin because of starvation, whose heads have been hollowed out because of Israeli snipers, or whose bodies have been charred like charcoal because of a bombing," the letter said.

"The common regional response to Israel’s crimes—a foreign ministry issuing a statement of condemnation that calls on unnamed members of the international community to stop the genocide—has not stopped the genocide. Neither have calls for the deadlocked, ineffective and unrepresentative UN Security Council to take action," the scholars wrote.

"Business as usual in international affairs is simply not working". 

Citing "unused tools at [Muslim countries'] disposal," the letter urged leaders to:

1. End any economic, diplomatic, intelligence, and military relationships with the Israeli government, including the so-called Abraham Accords;
2. Announce consideration of an embargo on global oil and gas sales;
3. Ban the use of their country’s airspace and the use of any military bases in their country to support the Israeli government in any way;
4. Open their side of Gaza entry points like the Rafah crossing and facilitating the travel of aid trucks, medics, journalists, demonstrators and others;
5. Organise a unified diplomatic mission to a Gaza crossing with senior government officials personally leading an aid convoy and refusing to leave until Israel allows unlimited aid to enter.