Marzouq Al-Ghanim … mercy upon who knows his capacity

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IT is incumbent upon us to remind our National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim that the parliament is not a superpower, and mercy is upon those who know their capacity.

Our speaker should realize that our parliamentary presence in the international forums is by the virtue of representing the State of Kuwait, which is committed to international, Arab and Gulf agreements and treaties. Therefore, its members should not deviate from those agreements, including the Abrahamic Accords between the UAE, Bahrain and Israel, which was endorsed by the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, just as it was endorsed by the Arab League. Before that, it supported the peace agreements signed by several countries with Israel.

Therefore, his demand to expel Israel from the Inter-Parliamentary Union represents a kind of violation of the law that accepted Kuwait’s membership in that parliament just like it accepted the membership of Israel, which has representation in about 150 countries, let alone being a member of the United Nations.

It would have hence been more appropriate for the speaker to criticize Indonesia, the largest Muslim country, which hosted this conference and did not prevent Tel Aviv’s participation.

That is why the urge to demand Israel’s expulsion from this international forum seems bizarre. It can even be considered a mockery of the Palestinian parliamentarians who communicate on a daily basis with the Israeli Knesset. There are contacts and meetings at the highest levels between these two parties. Hence, we wonder why the Palestinian side did not demand the expulsion of Israel instead of our speaker?

Is this the official position of Kuwait and its executive authority entrusted to it for foreign policy, or is it one of the desires of the Speaker of the National Assembly just because someone named a street in Gaza after him, or it was praised in Ramallah?

When speaking about the Iraqi occupation in his intervention at the Parliamentary Conference to justify his position, he forgot the fact that Saddam Hussein had tried to obliterate his crime by expanding the circle of war and bombing Israel with 19 missiles. Prior to that, he had raised the slogan: “The road to Jerusalem passes through Kuwait.”

However, Tel Aviv did not fall into the trap. It supported the Kuwaiti right in one way or another. At the same time, demonstrations supporting and glorifying the brutal invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein were pervasive in the cities of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In fact, the leaders of the Gulf states, including the symbols of Kuwait, are still being insulted today from the pulpits of Gaza and the West Bank.

Marzouq Al-Ghanim knows that most Arab countries have direct or indirect relations with Israel, and its planes cross all Arab airspace. It is a state that is supported by the international community with all that it needs.

Today, Israel is one of the key regional players, to such an extent that those who raise slogans of hostility against it are actually having secret contacts with it, such as Iran and other countries. Meanwhile, the Palestinians, who are keen on security cooperation with it, have recognized it. There are hundreds of thousands of them working in the Israeli cities and settlements, and they have not demanded its removal from existence.

In response to the former Iraqi regime linking the occupation of our country with the Palestinian cause, Mr. Marzouq Al-Ghanim may have missed the fact that Kuwait has for decades refused to link various issues. Therefore, the National Assembly Speaker’s abandonment of this principle has several regional and international consequences, and this makes us wonder if Al-Ghanim realizes it?

Caliph Omar bin Abdulaziz was right when he was told that his son had bought a ring for 1,000 dirhams. He wrote to his son to declare that he was informed that he bought a ring for one thousand dirhams. The son then sold the ring and fed a thousand hungry people for its price. He then bought a ring made of iron for one dirham and wrote on it, “Mercy be upon a man who knows his capacity.”

Has Al-Ghanim put on his finger the ring of the son of Omar bin Abdul-Aziz to remember that famous saying?

By Ahmed Al-Jarallah

Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

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