The first commercial Israeli flight from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi took off Monday morning, signifying the latest step in Israeli-UAE normalization efforts.
It comes just days after the UAE issued a decree formally ending the country’s boycott of Israel.
The flight, chartered by Israeli national airline El Al, was hailed by Israeli and US politicians as a historic occasion, as it carried an Israeli delegation to Abu Dhabi in order to finalize the normalization agreement between the two countries, which made waves across the region when it was announced earlier this month.
On board the flight were senior US officials like Presidential Adviser Jared Kushner and National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, as well as a number of Israeli journalists who documented the journey from through Saudi Arabian airspace — the first time Israeli entry into Saudi airspace has been publicly acknowledged.
Prior to take off, standing in front of a red carpet and array of Israeli-US flags, Kushner told the crowd at Ben-Gurion International Airport that he believed “so much peace and prosperity are possible in this region and around the world.”
For Palestinians, however, watching the flight take off on Monday signified the opposite of hope and prosperity, instead serving as a reminder of the “betrayal” of their cause by the UAE, and their painful history since the Nakba.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh described the event as a “very painful” sight, adding that he would have much preferred to see a UAE flight landing in Jerusalem, “after it is liberated.”
Palestinians took to social media to express their opposition to the flight and what it represents, pointing to the irony of having a direct flight between Israel and the UAE, while Palestinians still do not have their own airport, forcing millions of Palestinians to travel through Jordan and Egypt in order to access the outside world.
Salem Barahmeh, Executive Director of the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy, tweeted that “the flight captures the ultimate hypocrisy and moral corruptness of this sham – the claim that this is all done for our salvation and liberation.”
“We are still oppressed and discriminated against – we can’t even connect with the world from our own homeland,” he said.
Photos of the El Al plane went viral on social media, as supporters of the normalization agreement celebrated the new “peace” decal debuted on the side of the plane in Hebrew, English, and Arabic.
Inscribed below the “Peace” was the name of the plane, “Kiryat Gat,” named after the city located in present-day southern Israel.
Palestinians on social media pointed out the fact that Kiryat Gat was one of the first Jewish settlements built on the lands of ethnically cleansed Palestinian villages that were depopulated in 1948 with the establishment of the state of Israel.
Kiryat Gat was built on the remains of the Palestinian villages of Iraq al-Manshiyya and al-Faluja, where it is estimated that Zionist militias killed over 100 Palestinian villagers and Egyptian soldiers before forcibly displacing the survivors — many of whom are living in the refugee camps of Gaza today.
I guess it formally opens the door for Mossad to freely enter the UAE, maybe assassinate yet another Arab leader, and also spy on those Emirati’s. The UAE is asking for trouble, but I guess to them throwing the Palestinians under the bus, and getting military advice from those they once considered war criminals, is worth this cozy relationship. Kushner is desperate to make his father in law look good at this time, as he is looking bad back home.
1.
Meanwhile, while U.S. taxpayers provide “Israel” with well over $12 million per day in free “no strings attached” aid:
https://daysofpalestine.com/post/14908/UN-Israel-must-immediately-allow-entry-of-fuel-and-other-essential-items-into-Gaza
“UN: Israel must immediately allow entry of fuel and other essential items into Gaza” August 31, 2020, Days of Palestine
“United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator Jamie McGoldrick today called on Israel to immediately allow entry of fuel and other essential goods into the besieged Gaza Strip to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe.
“’The deterioration witnessed in recent weeks in the Gaza Strip is of grave concern,’ he said in a statement, explaining that with an escalation of hostilities in the area, ‘Israel has limited the transfer of certain goods into the blockaded coastal enclave, reduced the permissible fishing area and prevented fuel deliveries, including the UN-facilitated fuel for Gaza’s sole Power Plant. As a result, the Gaza Power Plant ceased operations on 18 August, sharply reducing electricity provision to nearly 2 million Palestinians.,’ said the UN official.
“’In addition, and marking a significant deterioration in the health situation, on 24 August, the first cases of COVID-19 outside the quarantine facilities were confirmed. Thus far, there are 280 known active cases, 243 of which are from community transmission.’”
He added: “At present, people have access to rolling electricity supply for a maximum of four hours per day, a difficult situation at any point, but especially serious given efforts to contain the outbreak of COVID-19. The situation is hindering the provision of services in the quarantine facilities and the capacity of the health system to cope with the increased demands, such as the ability to detect new COVID-19 cases. Power outages in hospitals are having serious repercussions, with patients in intensive care, chronic and emergency cases particularly vulnerable.” (cont’d)
2.
“The reduction in electricity supply is also severely undermining other critical infrastructure, including the operations of all water wells, sewage pumping stations, wastewater treatment plants, and some desalination plants. The supply of clean water and wastewater treatment is impacted. There is now a high risk of sewage flooding populated areas, increased pollution into the Mediterranean Sea and along the coast, and further pollution to the aquifer.”
“McGoldrick warned that following 13 years of Israeli blockade and a dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, swift action is required to alleviate the humanitarian situation, prevent further deterioration and increase respect for international humanitarian law and international human rights law, calling on Israel ‘to immediately allow the resumption of fuel into the Gaza Strip, in line with its obligations as an occupying power, to ensure that the basic needs of people are met and to prevent a collapse of basic services.'”
Very interesting:
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/abu-dhabi-crown-prince-says-200651067.html
“Abu Dhabi crown prince says committed to Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital”
Reuters, August 31/20
CAIRO (Reuters) – “The Abu Dhabi crown prince said on Monday that the United Arab Emirates is committed to the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, Dubai-based Al Arabiya TV reported.
“In a statement read by UAE’s foreign minister Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan said to the Palestinian community in the country that the normalization deal with Israel was a sovereign decision in the favor of peace.
“‘Peace is a strategic choice, but not at the expense of the Palestinian cause,’ he said according to Al Arabiya.”
Also, the agreement negotiated by “Israel” and the UAE has not yet been signed and may not be.
Everything reminds the Palestinians of painful history.
Let’s play a game. How many ways can the following sentence remind the Palestinians of painful history:
“I stopped to get some Hummus on the way to the beach in Tel Aviv.”