Moshe Phillips

(JNS)  Bangladeshi officials issued statements on Jan. 10 saying that their military should be deployed as part of the planned “International Stabilization Force” in the Gaza Strip. They also claimed that their national security adviser, Khalilur Rahman, also an economist and a former U.N. official, met with members of the Trump administration in Washington and discussed the idea. News reports indicated that the U.S. State Department had no immediate comment on the Bangladeshi claims.

This is very disturbing, as Bangladesh is completely unfit to be involved in any way with future peacekeeping forces in Gaza.

The success of any future “International Stabilization Force” in the Palestinian enclave hinges on one principle: genuine neutrality. Without it, no peacekeeping mission can function. That is why the deployment of Bangladeshi soldiers to the Strip as part of a future force should be a non-starter for U.S. diplomats and mediators.

It is time for the American government to realize that nations with a documented history of hostility toward Israel cannot credibly serve as neutral peacekeepers. Bangladesh does not recognize Israel; officially prohibits trade with Israel; bars its citizens from traveling there; and consistently sides with Israel’s enemies at the United Nations and at other international bodies. It has also persecuted its own citizens who have shown interest in a rapprochement with Israel. These are far from insignificant positions; they are core elements of Bangladeshi state policy toward Israel.

Also troubling is that in 2024, Bangladesh rescinded a ban on the Jamaat-e-Islami Party, which has been linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood rejects Israel’s existence and seeks the destruction of the Jewish state.

In January 2024, Bangladesh accused Israel of violating the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. That fact alone should rule out Bangladesh from having any role in Gaza.

This libel against Israel was included in a U.N-published 10-page official “Written Statement” from Bangladesh that is little more than a tirade against Israel.

In this “Statement,” Bangladesh places no responsibility on the Palestinian Authority for violence in Judea and Samaria. The P.A. has never fulfilled its obligations under the Oslo Accords, which include fighting terrorism and halting Palestinian incitement. Responsible nations that claim to care about negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs cannot be taken seriously if they ignore P.A. incitement and support for terrorism.

Bangladesh’s 2024 anti-Israel “statement” was outrageous not only for what it omitted, but for how it excused the P.A.’s intransigence by arguing that “the Palestinian people must not be compelled to negotiate.”

This Bangladeshi “Written Statement” also charges Israel with “illegal” acts 23 separate times. Also in the “Statement,” Bangladesh denies Israel’s rights to Jerusalem’s Old City. The statement asserts that Israel is “occupying” what it refers to as “East Jerusalem,” meaning the heart of Jerusalem: the walled Old City where the Western Wall and the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site, are located; the area where, after the 1948-49 war, Jordan destroyed 58 synagogues and desecrated thousands of Jewish gravestones in the Mount of Olives cemetery; and the section of the city where Jordan enforced real-life apartheid by barring Jews from entry for 19 years.

Another highly disturbing part of the 2024 “Written Statement” is Bangladesh’s support for the International Court of Justice’s opinion against Israel’s anti-terror barrier (the so-called “Wall”). Opposing this barrier effectively denies Israel’s right to defend its civilians from terrorism. Given Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure in Judea and Samaria, can one imagine what that day of horrors may have looked like if the anti-terror self-defense barrier had not been in place?

This “Written Statement” and Bangladesh’s other official policies make the idea of its participation in an effective peacekeeping role simply absurd. Peacekeepers must be trusted by all sides if they are to function effectively. Given Bangladesh’s record, Israel cannot reasonably be expected to view Bangladeshi soldiers as neutral actors. Nor should the United States do so.

Washington, therefore, faces a clear responsibility. If the United States wants a credible, functional and genuinely stabilizing international mission in Gaza, then it must make clear that no force involving Bangladesh will receive American diplomatic, financial or military support. A peacekeeping unit cannot include a nation that refuses to maintain any relations with Israel.

Moshe Phillips, a veteran pro-Israel activist and author, is the national chairman of Americans For a Safe Israel (AFSI). A former board member of the American Zionist Movement, he previously served as national director of the U.S. division of Herut and worked with CAMERA in Philadelphia. He was also a delegate to the 2020 World Zionist Congress and served as editor of The Challenger, the publication of the Tagar Zionist Youth Movement. His op-eds and letters have been widely published in the United States and Israel.