UAE-Israel deal a knife in the back, say Palestinians
Residents of Ramallah have reacted to the diplomatic deal between Israel and the UAE with frustration and anger.
Residents of the West Bank city of Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, reacted to the diplomatic deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates with frustration and anger — directed at the Emiratis and at their own leadership.
Taxi driver Ribhy Abulafia declared that Friday’s UAE-Israel agreement, which included an Israeli pledge to suspend efforts to annex parts of the West Bank, was “like a knife in the back”.
Mr Abulafia and others said they feared that if other Arab states follow the UAE’s lead, it would spell the end of any likelihood of establishing an independent Palestinian state.
On Friday, small groups of Palestinians took to the streets in the nearby West Bank cities of Hebron and Nablus, burning Emirati flags and photos of UAE leader Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump.
“It’s a black future,” said Mohammad Hmaidat, 35 an engineer in the local government who has received only one pay cheque over the past three months. “We have no real leadership. There is no strategic thinking.”
The Palestinian Authority called the deal “disgraceful” and said it betrayed the Palestinian cause. Wasel Abu Yousef, a Palestine Liberation Organisation official, called on the UAE to retract the agreement. He said the Arab League should meet to oppose normalised relations with Israel.
The Israeli-Emirati move comes at a particularly vulnerable moment for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The 84-year-old leader faces growing frustration amid a dire economic situation made worse by his move to cut all co-operation with Israel in response to its annexation push. Palestinian economic experts estimate that unemployment was 23 per cent before the coronavirus pandemic and is 31 per cent now.
Under the Arab peace initiative put forward by the late Saudi King Abdullah in 2002, most Arab states offered Israel normal relations in return for the establishment of a Palestinian state, resolution of the refugee issue and full withdrawal from the Palestinian territories.
The UAE would be the third Arab state to normalise ties with Israel. Egypt was the first in 1979, in exchange for Israel’s withdrawal from the Sinai. Jordan was the second in 1994 after the Israelis and the Palestinians signed the Oslo Accords aimed at beginning the process of establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.
The two-state solution Mr Abbas has long pressed for has become more untenable, with Gaza and the West Bank controlled by different Palestinian groups. Militant group Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007. Multiple reconciliation efforts have failed, even as Palestinian officials have said the Trump administration’s policies toward the Palestinians and the Israeli moves have made them more urgent.
The Trump administration moved its embassy to Jerusalem in May 2018 and revealed its peace blueprint in January 2020, which largely favoured Israel.
In Israel, some settlers and right-wing politicians called on Mr Netanyahu to fulfil his campaign promise to annex parts of the West Bank. “While the agreement with the UAE is historic, it cannot be made on condition of the land of Israel,” said Yochay Damri, head of the Har Hebron Regional Council that represents Jewish settlers in the southern West Bank. “I call on the Prime Minister to fulfil his electoral promise to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.”
The Wall Street Journal
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