The announcement of an agreement to normalize relations between the UAE and Israel raised Palestinian fears of a crack in the official Arab position towards their cause.
Palestinian officials and observers, in separate statements to Xinhua, expressed their concern that more Arab countries would follow the UAE´s example in establishing official relations with Israel without hinging on a solution to the Palestinian issue.
Following the announcement of the normalization agreement between the UAE and Israel, under American auspices, last Thursday, the Palestinian leadership called for two urgent meetings of the League of Arab States and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to discuss the agreement, and persuade the UAE to withdraw its agreement, and not to follow it to conclude similar normalization agreements.
The Secretary of the Executive Committee of the PLO, Saeb Erekat, announced that the Palestinian move aims to preserve the Arab peace initiative that was announced in 2002, and stipulates the normalization of relations between Israel and the Arab countries after their withdrawal from the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.
Erekat considered that the UAE´s agreement with Israel unilaterally "is a free reward for Israel for its crimes against the Palestinian people and violates their legitimate rights."
On Thursday, Israel and the UAE reached an agreement to start full bilateral relations between the two countries, in exchange for stopping the plan to annex Palestinian lands in the West Bank, with American mediation.
The deputy head of the "Fatah" movement, Mahmoud Al-Aloul, considered that Israel intentionally established normalization relations with the Emirates "due to its regional presence, economic capacity and the influence it could have on other countries."
Al-Aloul told reporters in Ramallah, "The agreement for overt normalization represents a breakdown in the official Arab position and constitutes a disappointment of the Palestinian people, and a stab on the cause and Jerusalem, which would weaken the Palestinian position in regaining their legitimate rights."
He added that the Palestinian leadership is moving to prevent other countries from taking similar steps in normalizing relations with Israel in compliance with the Arab Peace Initiative and the principle of solving the Palestinian issue first.
With this agreement, the UAE will become the third Arab country to establish public relations with Israel after Egypt, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which signed a similar treaty in 1994.
Palestinian and Israeli observers expected that the Emirati-Israeli agreement would encourage other Arab and Islamic countries to establish normalized diplomatic relations with Israel.
Former Palestine representative to the Arab League, Nabil Amr, told Xinhua that the general trend "for a long time" indicates that a number of Arab and Islamic countries are heading for full normalization with Israel regardless of the settlement of the Palestinian issue.
Amr said, "We have had serious indications that the UAE and other Arab and Islamic countries have been heading for some time in the direction of normalization with Israel, and certainly this is something that greatly harms the Palestinians and their cause and constitutes a revolution in the chances of achieving a just and comprehensive peace."
He added that what is certain is that the UAE initiated the step of agreement with Israel, in consultation with prominent Arab parties.
Amr expressed Palestinian fears of placing "great obstacles" towards the chances of holding an emergency Arab meeting to discuss the Emirati-Israeli agreement, or for it to be held at a low level until decisions are taken that "do not harm the Emirates, given that the normalization decision is its sovereignty."
He concluded by saying that the Palestinian concern is that the UAE-Israel agreement is a prelude to other countries to establish similar agreements, "so that similar steps will be followed by several countries, which will seriously harm the Palestinian cause and collapse the principle of land for peace."
In the context, a political analyst from Ramallah Ahmed Awad affirmed that the normalization agreement between the UAE and Israel "weakens the Palestinian position, besieges it, breaks the Arab consensus and encourages other countries to follow this step."
Awad said in a statement to ((Xinhua)) News Agency, "The agreement is useless without resolving the Palestinian issue, and Israel and Washington will benefit from it," considering that the UAE "wants to protect itself from the Iranian threat through the alliance with Israel."
He added that the Emirati step of normalization unilaterally "will not solve the conflict, but rather complicate it."
The Arab League previously launched the Arab Peace Initiative in 2002, according to a proposal submitted at the time by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with the aim of resolving the Palestinian issue.
The initiative provides for the Arab and Islamic countries to normalize their relations with Israel on the condition that it withdraw from the Palestinian and Arab territories occupied since 1967 and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Israeli analyst Gal Berger said in an article, "It has been nearly twenty years since the Arab world signed the Arab peace initiative with Israel and is now starting to get rid of it."
Berger added, that the UAE has opened a hole in the wall that has prevented the establishment of normal relations between Israel and Arab countries to this day, and it has certainly stimulated other countries.
He continued, "The initial cracks in the dam that separated us from our neighbors began to pump new water that may change the face of the region, while the consolidation of relations is due to the current US administration, the main engine for change in the Middle East region."
