Hamas: UAE-Israel deal will not make occupation acceptable

The Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas said yesterday that the Emirati-Israeli normalisation deal will not change history or make the occupation acceptable.

In a statement, a copy of which was sent to MEMO, Hamas said: “Abu Dhabi’s rulers insist on the normalisation of ties with the Israeli occupation through signing a shameful deal.”

Hamas said that the deal “was turned into action through the first flight taking off from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi through Saudi airspace.”

The Palestinian movement added: “This flight comes amid a surge in Israeli crimes targeting Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque and a spike in settlement activities and land confiscations as the Israeli occupation is seeking to implement its annexation plan.”

“This flight comes amid Israeli occupation’s tightening of the unjust siege imposed on the Gaza Strip and the continuing attacks on the coastal enclave.”

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Hamas considered the visit of the Israeli officials to Abu Dhabi a “stab in the back of the Palestinian people aimed to entrench the occupation, a betrayal of their option of resistance and a conspiracy against their struggle which aims to end the Israeli occupation.”

In the statement, Hamas said:

The insistence of Abu Dhabi’s rulers on normalisation will not change the course of history, prompt the Arab public to accept the Israeli occupation.

“Ending the Israeli occupation and liberating Palestine will remain an unanimously-accepted and strategic option.”

Hamas stressed that “this move will never succeed in affecting the awareness of the Arab public, in general, and the Emirati people, in particular, towards the central stance on the Israeli occupation.”

Concluding the statement, Hamas said: “We warn against going down this path with its repercussions on the Arab national security and the constant rights of the Palestinian people.”

“We urge Abu Dhabi’s rulers to backtrack on this ill-fated agreement immediately and call on the Arab peoples and political parties to take practical positions to face off this plot and do what is necessary to revive the Arab national role in defending Palestine and its Arab identity.”

On 13 August, US President Donald Trump announced a peace deal between the UAE and Israel brokered by Washington.

Abu Dhabi said the deal was an effort to stave off Tel Aviv’s planned annexation of the occupied West Bank, however, opponents believe normalisation efforts have been in the offing for many years as Israeli officials have made official visits to the UAE and attended conferences in the country which had no diplomatic or other ties with the occupation state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however repeated on 17 August that annexation is not off the table, but has simply been delayed.

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