Arab States' Response to Israeli Attacks on Palestine Deemed Disappointing

The public perceives that Arab and Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East have not been able to provide a strong response to the violence committed by Israel against Palestinians. To date, their participation has been limited to issuing statements of condemnation and providing humanitarian aid.

Arab nations have refused to deploy aid for Israeli tanks. This refusal emerged when Arab leaders attended the Doha Forum in Qatar on December 10-11, 2023.

"No one from this region will accept deploying troops [following] Israeli tanks. This is unacceptable," said Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, as reported by *The New Arab* on Wednesday, December 13, 2023.

However, the forum also rejected the formation of an international peacekeeping force for the Gaza Strip as Israel's aggression against Palestine intensifies. "We shouldn't always talk about Palestinians as if they need guardians," Al Thani said.

On the other hand, Al Thani stated that Israel's brutality narrows the chances of a ceasefire.

"There is a shared responsibility on all of us to stop this killing, to return to the negotiating table to find a long-term solution," he said.

The response from Arab countries has not helped the Palestinian position, which is still under attack by Israel.

According to *Al Jazeera* on Wednesday, December 20, 2023, at least 20,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Israel attacked the region more than 10 weeks ago, according to Palestinian officials. Of that number, 8,000 were children and 6,200 were women.

Indonesian society itself is disappointed with the limited response from Arab countries regarding the Israeli attacks on Palestine.

This is evident from the results of a Kurious-Katadata Insight Center (KIC) survey, which shows that 88.7% of respondents said they were disappointed. Specifically, 47.4% of respondents said they were disappointed, followed by 41.3% who said they were very disappointed.

On the other hand, only 11.3% said they were not disappointed with the limited response from Arab and Muslim countries in the Middle East to the violence committed by Israel against Palestine, with 9.4% not disappointed and 1.9% very not disappointed.

This Kurious-KIC survey involved 2,554 respondents spread across Indonesia, consisting of 58.9% female respondents and 41.1% male respondents.

The majority of respondents were from Java outside Jakarta (63.7%), followed by respondents in DKI Jakarta (15.1%), and Sumatra (13.9%). The proportion of respondents from Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Bali-Nusa Tenggara, and Maluku-Papua ranged from 0.2-4%.

Data collection was conducted from November 10-17, 2023, using the computer-assisted web interviewing (CAWI) method, with a margin of error of approximately 1.94% and a 95% confidence level.