How Gulf states became business partners in Israel's occupation

The real purpose of the Abraham Accords appeared less about saving Palestinians than allowing Gulf states to go public with and expand their existing ties to Israel
(Image by commons.wikimedia.org)   Details   DMCA

The professed rationale for the recent Abraham Accords, so-called "peace deals" signed with Israel by the UAE and Bahrain, was to stymie Israeli efforts to annex swaths of the West Bank.

The aim was supposedly to neutralise another "peace" plan - one issued early this year by US President Donald Trump's administration - that approved Israel's annexation of large areas of the West Bank dominated by illegal Jewish settlements.

The two Gulf states trumpeted the fact that, in signing the accords in September, they had effectively scotched that move, thereby salvaging hopes of a future Palestinian state. Few observers entirely bought the official story - not least because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that annexation had only been put on temporary hold.

The real purpose of the Abraham Accords appeared less about saving Palestinians than allowing Gulf states to go public with, and expand, their existing ties to Israel. Regional intelligence could now be shared more easily, especially on Iran, and the Gulf would gain access to Israeli hi-tech and US military technology and weapons systems.

Separately, Sudan was induced to sign the accords after promises it would be removed from Washington's list of "terror-supporting" states, opening the door to debt relief and aid. And last week, Morocco became the fourth Arab state to initiate formal relations with Israel after the Trump administration agreed to recognise its occupation of Western Sahara.

Israel, in return, has been able to begin "normalising" with an important bloc of Arab states - all without offering any meaningful concessions on the Palestinian issue.

Qatar and Saudi Arabia are also reported to have been considering doing their own deals with Israel. Jared Kushner, Trump's Middle East adviser, visited the region this month in what was widely assumed to be a bid to twist arms.

Riyadh's hesitation, however, appears to have increased after Trump lost last month's US presidential election to Joe Biden.

Last week, during an online conference held in Bahrain and attended by Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, a former senior Saudi government official, Turki al-Faisal al-Saud, launched a blistering verbal attack on Israel, saying it jailed Palestinians in "concentration camps" and had built an "apartheid wall". It was unclear whether he was speaking in more than a personal capacity.

While the covert purpose of the Abraham Accords was difficult to obscure, the stated aim - of aiding Palestinians by preventing Israel's annexation of the West Bank - was still seen as a vital tool for the UAE and Bahrian to sell these agreements back home.

But in practice, both have quickly jettisoned any pretence that Palestinians will benefit from these deals. Not only that, but already they barely bother to conceal the fact that they are actively and tangibly colluding with Israel to harm Palestinians - by bolstering Israel's illegal settlements and subsidising its military regime of occupation.

Bahrain demonstrated this month how indifferent it is to the negative impacts on Palestinians. On a visit to Israel, the country's trade minister, Zayed bin Rashid al-Zayani, said Bahrain was open to importing products from Israel wherever they were manufactured. "We have no issue with labelling or origin," he said.

The comment suggested that Manama was ready to become a gateway for Israel to export settlement products to the rest of the Arab world, helping to bolster the settlements' legitimacy and economic viability. Bahrain's trade policy with Israel would then be even laxer than that of the European Union, Israel's top trade partner. The EU's feeble guidelines recommend the labelling of settlement products.

After wide reporting of Zayani's comments, Bahrain's state news agency issued a statement shortly afterwards saying he had been "misinterpreted", and that there would be no import of settlement goods. But it is hard not to interpret the remarks as indicating that behind the scenes, Bahrain is only too willing to collude in Israel's refusal to distinguish between products from Israel and those made in the settlements.

Next Page  1  |  2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).