PA fears UAE-Israel peace is birth of “Arab Zionists”
Erekat: Arab support for Israel is “forbidden” “Zionist thinking”
PA/PLO campaigns to stop Arab states joining UAE’s peace with Israel
Fatah’s fear: “This will open the door for [Arab] states that have aspirations but are embarrassed to a certain degree, and it will encourage some of the remaining states to hurry towards normalization – with whom? With the Israeli entity that is stealing the Al-Aqsa Mosque”
The PLO’s chief negotiator and Executive Committee Secretary Saeb Erekat has expressed the PA’s concern that the United Arab Emirates’ peace agreement with Israel will lead to other Arab states reaching similar “normalization” agreements. The PA sees such agreements as disregard for the PA’s demand that Palestinian “self-determination and independence” must precede any formation of Arab friendly relations with Israel.
Criticizing the UAE and others for admiring Israel and establishing relations with it, Erekat described the recent peace agreement as “a public birth for the Arab Zionists,” and added that expressing admiration or support for Israel – such as putting the Israeli flag on one’s shirt – is “forbidden” “Zionist thinking”:
PLO Executive Committee Secretary Saeb Erekat: “There are [Arab] groups that say: ‘Palestine is not my cause.’ Groups say that ‘the Palestinians are ungrateful and we are employing them [the refugees]. We’ve helped them, but Israel is a beautiful, successful state.’ [Some] speak in Hebrew at universities to speak with Israel… This is a public birth for the Arab Zionists. There is no Arab Zionism, there are Arab Zionists… I have contacted Bahrain and sent official letters. I sent official letters and asked for two things: Not to follow the UAE [but] stick to the Arab Peace Initiative. And to convince the UAE to recant [the agreement with Israel]… I did the same with all the Arab states… It is not insignificant when an Arab photographs his son who puts the Israeli flag on his chest… This is Zionist thinking. Forbidden. This is forbidden.“
[Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, Aug. 22, 2020]
Official Fatah Spokesman Osama Al-Qawasmi expressed the same fear of peace, saying that the UAE’s actions will “encourage some… to hurry towards normalization”:
Al-Qawasmi: “[The UAE] want to stand with Israel against the Palestinian people. The political danger lies in this being a deviation from the Arab Peace Initiative – in how this will open the door for states that have aspirations but are embarrassed to a certain degree, and it will encourage some of the remaining states to hurry towards normalization – with whom? With the Israeli entity that is stealing the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the first direction for [Muslim] prayer, the second of the mosques, and the third in its sanctity for Islam.”
[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, Aug. 18, 2020]
The PA expressed the same fear in a long statement against the UAE-Israel agreement. Discussing the “implications of the UAE's acceptance of normalizing relations with Israel,” the PA stated on its PLO Negotiations Affairs Department website that the agreement is “unacceptable, irresponsible, and dangerous” because it is “opening the door to a normalization of relations between Israel and other Arab countries”:
“This is the first time for an Arab country, which is not in a direct state of war with Israel, to agree on having full normal relations with Israel. With this move, the UAE has decided to weaken the Arab, Islamic, Palestinian, and international position calling for an end to Israel's occupation and the achievement of Palestinian self-determination and independence, which are essential pillars of a just solution. This deal is also opening the door to a normalization of relations between Israel and other Arab countries. Rewarding Israel, the occupying Power, with normalization before resolving the question of Palestine in all its aspects within a just and comprehensive solution, or even any credible effort to that end, is unacceptable, irresponsible, and dangerous.”
[Website of the State of Palestine, PLO, Negotiations Affairs Department, Aug. 16, 2020]
The statement repeated a PA libel, which claims that Israel is engaged in a colonialist project, wants to expel Paestinians and seeks to rule “from the Jordan River and the Mediterranean”:
“This deal not only encourages Israel to continue rejecting the principle of "land for peace" and the two-state solution based on the pre-1967 borders, but also serves the "Greater Israel" colonial project between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean.“
[Website of the State of Palestine, PLO, Negotiations Affairs Department, Aug. 16, 2020]
Since the agreement, Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the PA has criticized the UAE – from statements demonizing the UAE Crown Prince as a “traitor” and “a tumor” to naming the normalization “political prostitution" to humiliating cartoons.
The following are longer excerpts of the statements cited above:
Official PA TV program Topic of the Day, on the Israel-UAE peace agreement – see note below; hosting PLO Executive Committee Secretary Saeb Erekat
PLO Executive Committee Secretary Saeb Erekat: “The attack against us is being carried out in a number of forms, and this is something that should concern us and the coming generations, because there are groups [among the Arab states] that say: ‘Palestine is not my cause.’ Groups say that ‘the Palestinians are ungrateful and deny this and that, and we are employing them [the Palestinian refugees] . We have helped them, but Israel is a beautiful state, a successful state.’ And there are those who speak in Hebrew at universities to speak with Israel, which concerns me, as it is a public birth for the Arab Zionists.”
Official PA TV host: “Doctor, you said that this normalization is the beginning of establishing an Arab Zionist movement?”
Saeb Erekat: “Not an Arab Zionist movement, a declaration- I said that this is a public birth for the Arab Zionists. There is no Arab Zionism, there are Arab Zionists…
[Senior US Presidential Advisor Jared] Kushner is a trickster. Kushner is like a person who was born in order to establish the Zionist narrative and erase and eliminate the Palestinian cause in all its aspects… I have contacted Bahrain and sent official letters.”
Host: “Yes.”
Saeb Erekat: “I sent official letters and asked for two things: Not to follow the UAE [but] stick to the Arab Peace Initiative. And to convince the brothers in the UAE to recant [the agreement with Israel].”
Host: “What did they tell you?”
Saeb Erekat: “They said that they conveyed this to His Majesty King [of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa]… I did the same with all the Arab states…
In my eyes it is not insignificant when an Arab photographs his son who puts the Israeli flag on his chest. In other words, for whose benefit? For whose benefit are you doing this to your son or daughter? Because you hate the Palestinians as you say? Because the Palestinians do not agree? This is Zionist thinking. Forbidden. This is forbidden. Of course, this is a small minority, because I’m certain that most of the Arab peoples, 99% of them, [consider] Palestine their cause.”[Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, Aug. 22, 2020]
Saeb Erekat also serves as Fatah Central Committee member and PLO Chief Negotiator
Israel-UAE peace agreement (Abraham Accords) – an agreement normalizing diplomatic ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which was announced on Aug. 13, 2020, under the mediation of US President Donald Trump. Pursuant to the agreement, the countries will discuss bilateral cooperation on a number of topics. In exchange for the agreement, Israel agreed to suspend its previously announced plans to apply Israel's civilian law to parts of Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley as per the Trump peace plan. The US announced that “Muslims throughout the world who wish to come in peace to pray at the Al Aqsa Mosque, will now be able to fly to Tel Aviv through Abu Dhabi to do so and will be welcomed.”
Official PA TV program Palestine This Morning, on the Israel-UAE peace agreement, hosting Official Fatah Spokesman Osama Al-Qawasmi
Official Fatah Spokesman Osama Al-Qawasmi: “Certainly this step by the UAE towards normalization is popularly, officially, nationally, religiously, and morally unacceptable. Allow me to explain what the word normalization means between the UAE and Israel – that the affairs are natural, 100%, on the political, cultural, social, and media level, and these are the reciprocal media tours that we see of members of the press from the UAE inside the Israeli occupation entity state and the exact opposite; and [it means] that the ugly Israeli actions that contradict international law, which the occupation is committing, and the ugly actions against the Palestinian people, the last of which was the execution of a Palestinian youth in Jerusalem yesterday [Aug. 17, 2020] (refers to terrorist stabbing and wounding an Israeli border police officer before being shot and killed. The attack was caught on security cameras –Ed.), are all a completely natural matter…
But they [the UAE] have changed this principle, and they want to stand with Israel against the Palestinian people. The political danger, my dear brothers, lies in this being a deviation from the Arab Peace Initiative – in how this will open the door for states that have aspirations but are embarrassed to a certain degree, and it will encourage some of the remaining states to hurry towards normalization – with whom? With the Israeli entity that is stealing the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the first direction for [Muslim] prayer, the second of the mosques, and the third in its sanctity for Islam…
It is our right in the Fatah Movement [and the right of] the Palestinian people to ask the decision makers in the UAE: Why [are you] rushing towards the Israeli entity? [Is it] a reward for their crimes against Arabness? A reward for their crimes that are occurring at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and Jerusalem? A reward for the murder of members of our Palestinian people? Is this how you behave? Have we learned from our history that Arabs stand with Arabs by making treaties with the enemy against the Palestinian people? Have we gone back [to being] like the Aws and Khazraj, or like the Dahis and Ghabra (refers to feuding Arab tribes that Islam’s Prophet Muhammad mediated between them according to Islam –Ed.).
Are we striking each other at the neck at the expense of the Palestinian cause? And the worst of it is that they are seeking an excuse – the Palestinian cause - they are using this cause [of normalization] in that it serves the Palestinian cause – lies and falsehoods! After all, this is obedience to the commands of the US and Israel. And unfortunately this is what is happening. Therefore we emphasize and call on the decision makers in the UAE to recant this step…
Read the history, this is Jerusalem and whoever plots against it goes to the dustbin of history. This Jerusalem expresses the Arab history, narrative, and will. We are standing as the first line of defense, and believe me, Israel will target Abu Dhabi and Cairo and Mecca, and they will demand their alleged rights in all the Arab states in the shadow of this Arab weakness. Therefore, when we say to them ‘Stand with Palestine,’ we are demanding that they stand with themselves.”[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, Aug. 18, 2020]