Improved relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates seem to have left Palestine on the outs. Palestinians have counted on Arab solidarity to deny normalized relations to Israel in order to keep the pressure of granting their statehood. In the last few months that solidarity is starting to flounder with Israel entering normalization agreements with the UAE, Sudan, and Bahrain. The Trump administration has recently assisted with brokering a deal between Sudan and Israel to normalize relations and set aside hostilities.
The deal with the UAE takes it many steps further by establishing trade relations, allowing each other citizens to travel between countries without needing visas, and future plans of establishing embassies in each other’s capitals. To fully grasp how big of a deal it is to be able for Emiratis to be able to visit Israel and Jerusalem without a visa, Salem Barahmeh, the leader of the Palestinian Institute for Public Diplomacy states, “I need a permit issued by the Israeli military to visit Jerusalem. The city I was born in. But now an Emirati can go visa-free because two warmongering, human rights abusing regimes made a deal together for weapons. Does this sound just to you?”
The catalyst behind this unlikely partnership is the same as most unlikely diplomatic ties, weapons and oil. The first project would be the revival of the “Med-Red” pipeline which had been built to carry Iranian oil to Europe before the Islamic revolution in Iran. With Iran’s consequential adversarial stance on Israel, this pipeline would now be used to carry Emirati oil.
Another project these enhanced relations lead to is a fund to upgrade and modernize checkpoints in the West Bank. Emirati money is now being used directly to enforce and legitimize Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and the 2.7 million Palestinians living there. It has become quite clear that Palestine can no longer lean on the other Arab nations in the region for support.
Halbfinger, D. M., & Ragson, A. (2020, October 20). Emiratis Land in Israel, Firming New Ties and Angering Palestinians. Retrieved October 25, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/20/world/middleeast/israel-uae-travel-checkpoints.html
Jakes, L., Walsh, D., & David. (2020, October 23). Trump Announces Sudan Will Move to Normalize Relations With Israel. Retrieved October 25, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/23/world/middleeast/sudan-israel-trump-terrorism.html