Evidence of the Divergence Between the Peoples of the UAE and Saudi Arabia and Their Rulers

Israeli eyes focused on US President Joe Biden's visit to Saudi Arabia on July 15, 2022, when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman received him at the Peace Palace in Jeddah.

At the time, former head of the Israeli Military Intelligence Amos Yadlin said in an article on the Times of Israel website that Biden needs to make a step forward in Israeli normalization with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states.

The Hebrew website added that it is necessary to "melt relations with Mohammed bin Salman, as he is the person who was able to expand the circle of peace in the Middle East between the Israelis and the Gulf."

Opinion polls confirm the opposite of what Amos is calling for and what the Hebrew websites have recently announced about the normalization with Saudi Arabia and its success in other countries.

The Gulf peoples, especially in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, oppose normalization in various ways, and their view of "Israel" as an occupying power and as a historical enemy that has usurped Arab land and Islamic sanctities remains.

 

Shocking Poll

In March 2022, a shocking American poll was published about the public normalization of Arab countries with "Israel."

According to the American Washington Institute census, more than two-thirds of citizens in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE view the "Abraham Accords" unfavorably, less than two years after they were signed.

The UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan signed those agreements with "Israel" under US auspices in 2020, amid great popular rejection.

The institute stated that the Emirati regime, under the leadership of President Mohammed bin Zayed, had deliberately imposed a complete blackout on the results of the poll. The public opinion about normalization with "Israel" shocked bin Zayed because it revealed the contradiction of the policies of his alliances with the popular Emirati position.

The situation is not much different for Mohammed bin Salman, the most powerful man in the country who heralds a new, more modern, and different era, launching campaigns on Twitter from time to time under the title "Saudis against normalization."

On September 23, 2020, Saudi Arabia began a textbook review against the use of the "Zionist enemy" to refer to "Israel" in Saudi textbooks as part of bin Salman's campaign to impose a new policy on education.

At the time, Saudi analyst Najah Al-Otaibi stated that "the Saudi government also decided to prevent insulting Jews and Christians in mosques."

She continued, "Anti-Jewish rhetoric was common in Friday prayers by imams," and now that era is over. But the Saudi people realized years ago that their country was heading to fall into the trap of normalization, which appeared in several places towards changing the discourse and allowing Israeli planes to cross from Saudi airspace.

 

Royal Quarrel

The refusal of Saudi normalization with "Israel" did not stem from the street and the citizens only, but the differences reached the ruling family and the royal palace.

On September 19, 2019, the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal published a report on the paths of Saudi normalization, in which it said that Bin Salman wanted to sign a normalization agreement with "Israel" after the UAE and Bahrain, but his father, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, opposed it.

The report spoke of a heated debate and differences between bin Salman and the Saudi monarch regarding the normalization of relations with the occupation.

The American newspaper pointed out that the Saudi monarch was "deeply stunned" during his vacation when former US President Donald Trump announced that "Israel" and the UAE had signed an agreement for "full normalization."

Even after the announcement of the Israeli-Emirati normalization agreement, King Salman asked his foreign minister to reaffirm his country's commitment to establishing a Palestinian state.

In an article issued on September 18, 2020, by Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, political analyst Nahum Barnea pointed out that there is a deep disagreement between bin Salman, his father, and members of the ruling family regarding normalization with "Israel."

He stressed that King Salman refused to back down from the Saudi peace initiative (the Arab initiative in 2002), which stipulated normalization with the Israeli Occupation's withdrawal to the 1967 borders.

 

Emiratis Against Normalization

Days after the signing of the Abraham Agreements between the UAE and Bahrain on the one hand and "Israel" on the other, the first Emirati anti-normalization association was inaugurated.

Emirati political opponents announced the establishment of the "Emirati Anti-Normalization League" in August 2020.

The statement was appended by the signature of 6 prominent political opponents: Saeed Nasser al-Tenaiji, Saeed Khadim bin Touq al-Marri, Ahmed al-Shaiba, Hamid Abdullah al-Nuaimi, Hamad Mohammed al-Shamsi, and Ibrahim Mahmoud al-Haram.

The statement rejected all forms of normalization with the Zionist enemy at the economic, sports, security, political and popular levels, in accordance with the principles on which the UAE was founded.

The statement stressed that this agreement represents a betrayal of the nation and a denial of its history in rejecting the Zionist project in the Arab region, as it added legitimacy to the Zionists in their occupation of the land of Palestine.

This opposition came at a time when the UAE government was working hard to suppress all dissenting voices.

Even the Down Organization for Human Rights and Democracy spoke on June 2, 2021, about the atmosphere full of fear imposed by the government to prevent the Emiratis from expressing their true position on normalization with "Israel."

It cited what happened with the Emirati writer and poet Zabya Khamis when the authorities prevented her from leaving Dubai Airport for Cairo because of her public opposition to the normalization agreement with "Israel."

Zabya Khamis is one of the few Emiratis who openly criticized normalization, while most of the people's voices are muffled under the grip of the country's fierce security services.