Vantage | Why Arab world speaks for Palestine even as it gets close to Israel

As the world cannot decide on whom to blame for the recent horrific strike on a Gaza hospital, in West Asia, there is no such confusion. They have all taken one stance: They are all blaming Israel.

Jordan has condemned the strikes, blaming Israel; King Abdullah has called it a war crime; and Jordan has also cancelled its summit with the United States. The same is the case with Egypt. They have condemned Israel. President Sisi called it a “deliberate bombing”, and “a violation of international laws”.

Then, there are the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco; these are the countries that have normalised ties with Israel in 2020; they too have blamed Israel for the hospital attack, and they’ve dismissed all claims about an Islamic Jihad missile rocket misfire.

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Coming to Saudi Arabia, a country that was supposed to sign a peace deal with Israel, Riyadh has called it a heinous crime, a crime committed by Israeli forces.

So you see the pattern here: These are all countries that have normalised ties with Israel; Egypt did it first in 1980, Jordan did it in 1994, and then there were the Abrahamic Accords in 2020, where the UAE and Bahrain recognised Israel. They called it “an era of peace in West Asia”. Plus, this was supposed to be the year of Saudi-Israel normalisation of ties. Needless to say, it’s on pause now. The Arab world may have its issues, but when it comes to the Palestinian cause, their unity still seems to be solid.

And a lot of this has to do with public sentiment. The leaders of these countries may have gotten close to Israel, but their citizens are still fiercely pro-Palestine, and it shows in the protests across the Arab world. In Amman, Jordanians tried to storm the US embassy; they clashed with the police, and tear gas was fired at the protesters.

“I am here to support Hamas and Gaza; to be honest, Hamas and Gaza are defending the whole nation, either an Islamic nation or an Arabic nation, and without exaggeration, it is defending the human nation,” said a protester.

In Lebanon, the scenes were similar: Thousands drove to the US Embassy, protested outside the gates, and clashed with the police.

“We are here to let the Arab people wake up. Free Palestine, f*** Israel! It’s time to wake up, please,” said a demonstrator.

The US has now issued a ‘do not travel’ advisory for Lebanon, which shows how serious the situation is. And this is the sentiment across West Asia right now.

People are gathering everywhere; they are calling for a free Palestine; there were rallies in Yemen; there were demonstrations in Turkey; there were protests in Tunisia; and in Tehran, people chanted “death to Israel”.

“The Palestinian people did not commit a crime. They don’t want anything. That is their home. They don’t want to leave,” said a Palestine supporter.

So the Arab world is angry; its anger is spreading like wildfire, and there are reasons for this. For the Arab world, this did not start on 7 October; it started in 1948 with the ‘Nakba’; that’s what they call the mass displacement of Palestinians. The Palestinian cause is like an open wound in the Arab conscience. If you go back just a few decades, Palestine was at the centre of Arab nationalism. Leaders used it to galvanise the Arab world; they even exploited it for their own gains.

Things may have changed in the 21st century; Arab leaders may have gotten closer to Israel; they may have signed peace deals; but this has not changed public sentiment. Support for the Abrahamic Accords has been dismal; only 27 per cent of Emiratis back it; in Bahrain, only 20 per cent of the population is in favour of it.

Given these numbers, their leaders have no choice but to back Palestine and hold Israel responsible for the casualties. The war has only revived the Palestinian cause for the Arab world.

Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.

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