UAE – Israel Peace Deal: Stab in the Back of Palestine

The peace agreement that was agreed last week on 13 August 2020 between Israel and the United Arab Emirates under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan was termed as “historical peace agreement” by the President of USA Donald Trump. There was also instant praise from the United Nations, Britain, France, and Egypt, etc. It is not surprising, but it was uncouth in terms of its form and timing. In contemporary times, it is explicit that UAE is relentlessly breaking all the taboos, Arabs uphold for decades, identified with the cause of Palestine. The most significant of which was upholding the essence of the Arab Peace initiative ratified by the Arab League in 2002, which maintained that it is unimaginable to normalize relations with Israel unless the solution of the Palestinian issue is not achieved. Although the former Prime Minister of Israel rejected the initiative by stating, “It is not worth the paper it is written on.” Still, Arabs remained firm upon it and made repeatedly clear to Israel that 22 Arab countries are ready to normalize relations with them only after resolving the Palestinian issue. But in 2020, UAE has shredded all the values of her historical identity and entered into a wedding knot with Israel at the expense of the people of the region and their future. The UAE is normalizing relations with Israel and establishing a series of bilateral deals on security, technology, energy, investment, and tourism. The two countries will develop reciprocal embassies and enable direct flights between their borders. On 16 August 2020, Israel and UAE inaugurated direct telephone services. The Emirati company APEX National Investment and Israel’s Tera Group signed an agreement to partner in research on COVID-19, making it the first business deal signed between companies of the two nations since the normalization of ties. The recognition of Israel and providing its beleaguered leader Benjamin Netanyahu with political victory marks the stupidity of Emiratis’ leadership. The Israeli government did not assure to recognize Palestinian sovereignty over the West Bank. It did not even guarantee to stop the progress of or even slow the extension of Israeli settlements in occupied territories. Somewhat, Israel agreed that it would not illicitly annex its settlements in the West Bank, in reckless disobedience of international law and opinion — for a little while. As a result of this diplomatic advancement, Israel will delay its action on the President’s Vision for Peace concerning proclaiming sovereignty over areas outlined in it and mainly focus on building relationships with the other countries of the Arab world. It was described as a joint declaration of Israel, the UAE, and the United States by the White House said in a statement.
Experience teaches us that increased Palestinian despair does not bring them to their knees; they would never accept permanent occupation with good grace – as stipulated by Trump’s “deal of the century.” Instead, it has been proven that such sentiments only exacerbate tension and would lead to unstoppable chaos. It would also dramatically extinguish any enthusiasm that might remain among some Palestinians for the two-state solution, rather than one state with equal rights for all citizens.
The leaders of the UAE are making efforts to market and integrate Israel into the region. This deal has been done at the cost of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and the security of its region. Rationalizing to deal with weak excuses, such as brazen out the “central enemy” of the Arabs, Iran, the UAE is trying to make the region scapegoat for his filthy interests. However, secretly the UAE and Iran have strong trade relations. Despite the international sanctions imposed on Iran, the UAE has not made any real effort to reclaim its three occupied islands from Iran. With this deal, it has indicated that Israel can continue as an occupier, closing off the leeway of Palestinian’s Right to self-determination and still win the faith of the region. The result is that the occupation itself has been normalized, given an Arab seal of approval. The scary thing about this agreement is that UAE rulers rationalize their atrocious act by displaying that they are guardians of the Palestinians and their interests, and they claim this agreement was made for their sake in exchange for Israel’s postponement of annexing lands in the West Bank for an indefinite period. However, Palestinians were not consulted in this regard; this is what was denied by Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, in his press conference, and affirmed: “the annexation was not dismissed, but was temporarily suspended.” In the pandemic induced economic crisis the popularity of Netanyahu is eroding and threatening to puncture his fragile coalition government, the agreement offers a positive headline to him. By adjourning annexation, the Israeli prime minister does risk angering his party’s right-wing hardline settler contingent. But among the broader Israeli public, occupation is not a high priority. For Trump, the agreement shores up a relatively scant foreign-policy record ahead of the 2020 election. It will act as a magic stick to refine his campaign for elections (although it is hard to consider a peace agreement between two small Middle Eastern countries having much salience to the American electorate at a time of mass death and unemployment due to COVID-19). For the UAE, the deal “further refines its diplomatic campaign to be viewed as an inspiration of tolerance in the Middle East despite being governed by autocratic rulers,” However, in the Western world, they may succeed to portray themselves as such. Still, in the Muslim world and the eyes of Muslims worldwide, they will be seen as “traitors.” The veteran Palestinian campaigner Hanan Ashrawi accused the de-facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of “selling out” her people. The Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas called the crown prince’s agreement with Israel a “betrayal of the Palestinian cause.” From the perspective of Palestinians, the deal leaves the native population of the West Bank at the mercy of an occupying power’s military rule. And 2 million Gazans living under an Israeli blockade on a small strip of land have no sustainable drinking water source and which the United Nations has deemed “uninhabitable.” Experience teaches us that increased Palestinian despair does not bring them to their knees; they would never accept permanent occupation with good grace – as stipulated by Trump’s “deal of the century.” Instead, it has been proven that such sentiments only exacerbate tension and would lead to unstoppable chaos. It would also dramatically extinguish any enthusiasm that might remain among some Palestinians for the two-state solution, rather than one state with equal rights for all citizens.
(The author is a Research Scholar at the Department of Politics Central University of Kashmir.Views are his own) [email protected]