Palestinian Fatah movement rebukes UAE over normalization with Israel

In remarks on Saturday, Abbas Zaki said if the UAE’s doors are opened to “naturalize the Zionists, you will perish, and you will not be able to stop the expansion of the Zionist movement.”

“The people of the Emirates are free and great and we do not attribute this betrayal to them, because the only traitor is Mohammed bin Zayed,” Zaki stated.

Four Arab countries – the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco – agreed to normalize relations with Israel under US-brokered agreements last year, when former US President Donald Trump was in office.

Spearheaded by the UAE, the move has sparked widespread condemnations from the Palestinians as well as nations and human rights advocates across the world, especially within the Muslim world.

Since then, the UAE has taken further bold steps to accelerate the normalization process, such as welcoming Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid to inaugurate the regime’s embassy in Abu Dhabi last month, when Lapid told regional countries, “We’re here to stay.”

In response, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas denounced the UAE’s insistence on a “national sin,” saying it coincided with the Israeli regime’s demolition of Palestinian homes in the Silwan neighborhood of occupied Jerusalem al-Quds.

The Persian Gulf monarchy has also reportedly granted citizenship to 5,000 Israelis after amending its citizenship laws to attract Israeli investors and entrepreneurs, who would not be required to give up their original citizenship under the new laws.

The Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian resistance movement, said the measure brought yet another disgrace on the “traitorous and compromising regime” in Abu Dhabi, urging the UAE and other Arab countries to reconsider their calculations in the light of the resistance movements’ victory in the 11-day Israeli war on the besieged Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, ten months after the inking of the so-called Abraham Accords and despite the fury that followed, 200,000 Israelis have so far visited the UAE, with bilateral trade exceeding $354 million.