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In recent weeks, Israeli-Palestinian tensions have escalated and the Israeli army has launched another deadly war in Gaza. This attack, as well as the threat of evictions of Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah district of East Jerusalem that led to Palestinian protests in Palestine, and Israeli attacks on the Al-Aqsa mosque during Ramadan, the 73-year-old Palestinian Nakba.
But these events also proved the failure of the normalization agreements between the four Arab countries and Israel — the so-called Abraham Accords — which ended in 2020. These agreements were said to promote peace in the Middle East and were key to Palestinian Israeli expansionist policies. But they have proven that they have failed in both.
What has caused normalization?
He said the announcement to normalize relations with Israel would help bring peace to the Middle East, halt the plan to annex parts of Israel’s West Bank and open the door to economic development. region. But what has happened since then has proven that these deals were mere business transactions handled by former U.S. President Donald Trump, and this he did everything he could to accommodate all the whims of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The main result of the normalization agreements is that the United Arab Emirates will become Israel’s main trading partner after the end of the decade-long Arab boycott of the Zionist state. Abu Dhabi has announced plans to invest in Israeli high-tech companies, manufacturing, health and agriculture, among other sectors. Importantly, the two countries are likely to cooperate in military production. The Basque Country, like other Arab countries, has already acquired Israeli surveillance technology, drones and airport security equipment. Although Palestinian territory has come out against Israeli wives and settlements against Emirati wives, it has begun to allow the sale of goods from illegal Jewish settlements – labeled “Israeli territories”.
Economic relations between Bahrain and Israel will also intensify. The Israeli government expects a non-military trade volume of $ 220 million with Manama in 2021, but also expects to sell military and security hardware.
No significant trade flow is expected from the normalization agreements with Sudan and Morocco, but both countries will reap the benefits of political victories facilitated by the US. Khartoum was removed from the U.S. list of sponsors of terrorism, which would help secure countries secure loans and investments, while Rabat was recognized for its sovereignty over Western Sahara, which Washington had sought since the 1970s.
None of these agreements has changed the land situation in the Middle East, especially in Palestine, as evidenced by the events of recent weeks.
Israel continues to carry out systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Supported by police and state laws that discriminate against non-Jews, Israeli authorities are continuing their campaign to expel Palestinians from the occupied East Jerusalem, now threatening to evict several families from homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
Israel also continues to oppress the religious rights of Palestinians. During the night, Israeli police attacked worshipers at the Al-Aqsa mosque during the month of Ramadan and placed truly stun grenades and smoke bombs in the al-Haram al-Sharif compound. Israeli forces also persecuted Palestinian Christians and some of them prevented them from reaching the Holy Sepulcher Church for Easter services.
Israeli far-right groups, feeling overwhelmed by the election pact with Netanyahu, have intensified their persecution of Palestinians. Some of them marched on Jerusalem shouting “death to the Arabs” during Ramadan. Their virulence spread to mixed cities within the Green Line, where they attacked Palestinian homes, motorcyclists and pedestrians. In the attack on the Palestinians, he backed Israeli police as they reaffirmed that Israeli Palestinians are second-class citizens. This was made official in 2018 when the “Law on National and Jewish States” was enacted, which codified Israel almost as an apartheid state.
In the end, Israel’s attack on Gaza shows no sign of diminishing. He launched his third major attack on the besieged list last week in 10 years. At the time of writing, more than 200 people have been killed in Gaza, including 59 children and 1,000 injured. Another 13 Palestinians were killed in clashes with the occupying forces in the West Bank.
Costs of standardization
It is difficult to see how the Arab countries that normalized relations with Israel could claim that their goal was to bring peace to the Middle East. The events of recent weeks have indicated that there are no positive results on all sides. Sure, there is likely to be a public backlash and a loss of credibility after the Israeli attack on Al-Aqsa and the bloody attack on Gaza.
The Arab public has repeatedly shown that it is committed to the Palestinian cause. In the latest Arab Opinion Index 2019-2020, conducted by 13 Arab countries representing 300 million people, 88 percent of respondents rejected the idea of normalizing relations with Israel. Eighty-nine percent said Palestine remains a major concern for all Arabs. In Sudan, 79% of respondents said they were opposed to having relations with Israel before securing rights with Palestine.
In the face of ongoing attacks by Israel, the Arab public remains committed to defending the Palestinians and Jerusalem, including people from the four countries that normalized relations. But what remains an obstacle to showing solidarity publicly is the authoritarian nature of Arab politics, which prevents the true expression of popular sentiments. It is certainly difficult to give an anti-Israel opinion in the Basque Country that the Emirati embassy in Tel Aviv is tweeting congratulatory messages on Israel for its “independence” day, the beginning of the Palestinian Nakba and the 1948 expropriation.
Given the indicators of public opinion and current Israeli actions, it is difficult to see how normalization with Israel will affect the cold peace between Israel and Egypt and Jordan and Palestine. In addition to establishing formal relations and limited trade, the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty and the 1994 Jordan-Israel pact have not shaken public opinion or intensified official exchanges. Indeed, the frozen ties between Israel and Jordan remind us that the Zionist state will never jeopardize its interest in having a good relationship with any Arab country.
Israel will also hardly make its way to defend any of the Arab states that have normalized relations. One of the reasons for the normalization claimed by the Trump administration was a regional alliance against Iran. As Israel is focused on expanding and consolidating its colonial-colonial project in Palestine, it has no reason to come to the rescue of any Arab state. Israel is only concerned with its own security and should not fight Iran on behalf of the Arabs.
Nor does normalization pay dividends in Washington after the end of Trump’s tenure. It is true that the Biden administration sees itself as an advocate for Israel, but it is clear that there is no such thing as rewarding Israel’s “new friends”. The U.S. Congress may still suspend the F-35 agreement in the BAC, and political pressure on the administration may force the U.S. to reverse its recognition of Morocco’s independence in Western Sahara.
It increasingly seems that Saudi Arabia – the last victory of the normalization sought by Trump and Netanyahu – is unlikely to follow in the footsteps of the BAC. The attacks by the Zionist state against the Palestinians and the violation of the Muslim holy zone in Jerusalem make any movement in Saudi Arabia insane. While Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman is working to rehabilitate his image, including at the regional and international level, steps towards normalization could deprive him of the key element of legitimacy that his rule requires.
While the Palestinians in Jerusalem are fighting to continue their presence in the city and Gaza is facing a criminal attack on Israel, normalization with Israel has proven to be a complete failure to bring peace and security to the region. Certainly, given what has happened since Abraham signed the agreements last September, the normalization has shown that it is a mere business transaction for those involved in it – which would cost them credibility in the region and beyond.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the attitude of the Al Jazeera editorial.
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