JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Angry Palestinians in Jerusalem accused the United Arab Emirates of participating with Israel and endangering the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest, as they accumulated for Friday prayers the day after the Gulf State agreement with Israel.
As a component of an agreement negotiated through U.S. President Donald Trump, Israel and the United Arab Emirates on Thursday that they would normalize diplomatic relations, combined through a confluence of interests opposed to Iran.
The agreement also provides a larger al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem by allowing Muslims to fly directly from Abu Dhabi to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport.
This was greeted with dismay by the Palestinian faithful who broke into the wooded compound of the ancient walled city of Jerusalem known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif (Noble Shrine) and Jews such as the Temple Mount.
“Our brothers in the Emirates have put our blessed mosque in the clutches of death,” said Kamal Attoun, 60, a Palestinian from East Jerusalem and the Old City.
When asked if he would welcome Muslims from the United Arab Emirates or the Gulf in such circumstances, Attoun said: “You have noticed how Saudi Arabia’s collaborators have been gained in the past. The same fate awaits the Emirati.
He refers to a pro-Israeli Saudi internet influencer who allegedly mocked as he walked through the Old City compound last year.
Palestinians have long sought East Jerusalem, home to the Old City, as the capital of a long-term state and have turned to Arab nations to protect this position. If they normalize their relations with Israel, Palestinians are concerned about wasting any long-term sovereignty in the city and securing the Al Aqsa mosque.
Mohammad al-Sharif, 45, a member of Israel’s Arab minority, said he would not oppose Gulf Muslims “because their leaders made a mistake.”
But he’s scathing at his leaders.
“Collaboration with the United Arab Emirates is worse, one hundred times worse than collaboration with Israel. May Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed and his unclean dogs look at themselves and their interests and that the rest of us can move to hell,” he said, referring to the crown prince of Abu Dhabi.
The senior Islamic official in Jerusalem, Sheikh Abdul-Azim Salhab of the Islamic Waqf, told Reuters that it “does not settle for the blessed Al-Aqsa mosque being the subject of political disputes. It’s superior to this fight.”
The conviction also came here from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose spokesman read Thursday through Palestinian television leaders calling the deal a “betrayal of Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa and the Palestinian cause.”
Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank spoke out Friday against the agreement. Protesters in the city of Nablus burned Trump’s effigies, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed.
IsraeliS enchanted
Meanwhile, Israel followed the agreement, the country’s best-selling newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, and called it a “bold breakthrough.”
Some analysts said Netanyahu risked infuriating his supporters by canceling his promises to annex land in the West Bank, a territory sought by the Palestinians for a state, to succeed in a deal with a Persian Gulf country.
“He won some issues with the center-left, who likes agreements with the Arabs, has lost many more issues with his right-wing voter base,” Ben Caspit wrote to Maariv.
Netanyahu, who is being sued for corruption and criticized for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, praised the agreement as a good non-public fortune in Israel’s integration into the Middle East.
On his Arab Twitter account, he credited Israel’s foreign intelligence service, Mossad, for closing the deal.
Under the leadership of spy leader Yossi Cohen, Netanyahu said, Mossad helped expand Israel with the Gulf and “mature the peace agreement with the United Arab Emirates.”
(Additional report through Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; written through Stephen Farrell and Rami Ayyub; edited through Mark Heinrich)
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