Normalizers are in Dilemma- Whether to condemn the occupation or remain silent and get exposed before their people?
In a report in The Guardian, Martin Chulov, the newspaper’s correspondent in the Middle East, said that Long-time observers of Israel and Palestine say the divergent reactions to this round of fighting have put some regional powers in a difficult position with their own populations.
The report added that the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan, which all recently normalised ties with Israel, now find themselves balancing their new relationships against citizens who have been vocal in their anger at Israel’s violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
the report also indicated that the war on Palestine this time occurred and while the Arab states are in a state of division due to the normalisation of regimes with the Zionist entity; many of them kept silent, or spoke very superficially of fearing to go against the regime, and they could not support the occupation fearing their peoples who are against normalisations and do not accept the regimes’ normalisation.
The report also compared the stances of some states with Muslim majorities like Iran and Turkey, who are against the Israeli violations, the clear incitement against Al-Aqsa Mosque and committing atrocities in Gaza.
The second stance is of the countries that have recently normalized relations with Israel under the auspices of Donald Trump, the former US President.
The report also hints that Morocco and Sudan have fallen -more than Bahrain and the UAE- in dilemma with their peoples, who have demonstrated support for the people of Palestine and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which shows the Arab public’s rejection of the normalization agreements that some countries have pursued recently.
Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding (CAABU) said, “It is extraordinary, in this denial position of the Emiratis in particular, that they have not uttered hardly a single criticism of what is happening in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories,”, adding that “It is sending out a signal from the Emirati leadership that we are not going to be swayed away from this burgeoning alliance with Israel, which they consider to be valuable to future plans; this includes countering Iran, Turkey and the Muslim Brotherhood groups.”
“There is plenty of room to make a very supportive statement of the rights of the Palestinians, without endorsing Hamas. And they haven’t done that.”
The hashtag “Palestine is not my cause” was circulated in the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait over the weekend. It made little dent in region-wide support for Twitter accounts from Gaza and East Jerusalem decrying scenes of violence and the Israeli leadership. The hashtag faded over time and amid the escalation violation against the Palestinians.
Would governments continue to ignore the horrific bombing scenes and the corpses of children and elderly people being pulled out from under the rubble of homes demolished by the violent aggression on the innocents?
Would these tyrannical regimes which accuse every opponent of being a spy to Israel continue to remain silent, especially after Hamas became so popular after it revealed its strength in the war by bombing Tel Aviv?
Would these governments step back and support the cause, which leads to many other questions, such as their stances towards the Arab Spring revolutions and the rise of political Islam?
Many questions rise and the answer will be revealed over the coming days given the fast moving events.