07 October 2020•Update: 07 October 2020
ISTANBUL
The Arab League Wednesday came under growing criticism by the Arab social media after six countries refused to chair the rotating presidency of the league.
On Tuesday, Libya declined to take the presidency of the Arab League after Palestine relinquished its right to preside. Libya joined Qatar, the Comoros, Kuwait and Lebanon in refusing the chair.
So far, no statement is issued by the Arab League on the issue.
The Arab social media came down hard on the Arab countries with activists calling to mourn the Arab League after one third of its member-states, including Syria whose membership is suspended, refused to chair the rotating Arab League presidency.
Palestine was the first to relinquish the presidency in protest against the Arab League’s failure to condemn the recent UAE and Bahrain’s normalization deals with Israel.
A number of social media activists republished cartoons mocking the Arab League. One of the cartoons drew the Arab League as an old vehicle with a comment saying: "Looking for a driver who is expert in condemning & denouncing, and has no problems with normalization."
"We already said, it [the Arab League] is clinically dead, so hurry in burying it... or even bring Israel to preside it," wrote Moataz Matar, an Egyptian journalist.
"Libya apologized from presiding the Arab League... who will mourn it after some countries refused to bury it," a social media activist, Abdullah al-Faresi, wrote on his account.
Another activist, Qutob al-Arabi, commented: "This is the first time the Arab countries refuse to chair the Arab League which represented the minimum of the Arab conscience as it now only represents the conscience of the countries that normalize [with Israel]."
On Sept. 15, the UAE and Bahrain signed the US-brokered normalization agreements with Israel at the White House, ignoring the Palestinian rejection.
Palestinians have decried the normalization agreements as a betrayal of their struggle against the decades-long Israeli occupation of their lands.
*Ahmed Asmar contributed to this report from Ankara
