Al Arabiya - August 14, 2020
Massive Qatari media campaign targets Arab opinion following UAE recognizes Israel
By Ismaeel Naar
Qatar has begun a massive campaign in order to influence Arab public opinion via media channels it funds following the landmark UAE-Israel agreement signed on Thursday to normalize relations.
Nabil Shaath
The Doha-based and Qatari-owned Al Jazeera ran a half-hour program on Thursday following the UAE’s announcement, hosting Nabil Shaath, adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on international relations.
“I felt ashamed after the state ruled by the sons of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan, may God have mercy on him, did. What the UAE is doing is a betrayal of Arab decisions and the Arab League,” Shaath told Al Jazeera.
Osama Hamdan
Al Araby also hosted Hamas official Osama Hamdan, the political Islamist group’s chief of international relations.
“The agreement represents a stab at the heart of the cause, the Palestinian people, and the unified Palestinian position rejecting the Deal of the Century. Betting on the Zionist entity is considered wrong due to its perversion and its tendency to disappear,” Hamadan told the Qatari-funded Al Araby television.
“The phrase that ‘Israel has halted annexation that Netanyahu pledged to’ can only be accepted by the stupid, and we are a smart people. If someone decides to join the ride that the Emirates took, then he must realize that the Palestinian people are going by their own way and will,” Hamdan added.
Abu Rasheed
“Saudi Arabia has opened its airspace to the Israeli airlines. Saudi Arabia is heading in the same direction as the Emirates. Saudi Arabia has many obstacles that slow down its movement in the face of the UAE's rapid protocols, in which there is only Mohammed bin Zayed,” A said Osama Abu Rasheed of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies.
Ahmad Majdalani
Al Araby also spoke to Ahmad Majdalani, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, who said the UAE-Israeli agreement represented a “departure from Arab consensus.”
“The Emirati agreement represents a departure from the Arab consensus and Arab peace initiatives and a stab at the Palestinian people and their sacrifices. The agreement is considered a reward for Israel for its policies of Judaizing Jerusalem and its procedures at the Ibrahimi Mosque. What the UAE did is a betrayal of all Arab peoples and a major blow to the Arab consensus,” Majdalani said.
Saeb Erekat
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, also spoke on national Palestinian television overnight to discuss the UAE-Israeli peace deal in which he presented an ultimatum to the head of the Arab League to either condemn the agreement or resign.
“Everything on which international agreements are based on have been torpedoed by this behavior. That is why I say that His Excellency the Secretary of the Arab League, my brother Ahmed Aboul Gheit, should issue a statement condemning and denouncing this step, and if he is unable to do so, I think that his resignation is appropriate,” Erekat told Palestine TV.
“What happened was a flagrant violation of the Arab League’s charter, mainly when the Arab League was established because of Palestine. Likewise, what happened was a flagrant violation of the Arab Peace Initiative and its cancellation, and this is a reward for the occupation,” Erekat added.
Kuwaiti parliamentarian
Turkish state broadcaster TRT’s Arabic channel hosted Osama Essa al-Shaheen, a Kuwaiti Member of Parliament, to discuss the agreement which he described as “shocking” and a “bullet being shot” at the backs of Arab countries.
“The three-way Zionist-American-Emirati declaration shocked us, and we look at it with astonishment. We record our astonishment and our disapproval of the unjustified position. The Gulf system suffered a severe blow in the Gulf-Gulf blockade. I call on the government of my country to play a practical role in the bullet that went off,” al-Shaheen told TRT.
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