By Rashi Jain-
Israel and UAE have finally reached a deal to normalise their relations. UAE and Israel have signed the peace accord, in which the UAE will recognize Israel as a nation and in return, Israel will suspend its plan to annex parts of Palestinian territories.
This surprise announcement and deal was the result of a three-way phone call held between the President of U.S. Donald J. Trump, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, the de facto rural of the U.A.E.
The agreement will include the opening of consulates, direct flights between the nations, and many other agreements like security, economic investments, joint work on a coronavirus vaccine. Israel and the UAE will be meeting soon to discuss and negotiate the terms of the agreement.
The main conflict between Israel and UAE is the West Bank located in the west of the Jordan River. After World War I, the west bank became part of British-mandated Palestine but due to World War II, Jews flew to Palestine as their holy city Jerusalem was inside Palestine. When the British mandate ended in Palestine, the UN proposed partition of Arab-Jewish. The partition plan mandated 53% of the land to Jewish-majority state ‘Israel’ and 47% to the Palestinian majority state ‘Palestine’, but the idea didn’t bode well for Arab countries.
However, with force, Jewish military groups formed a new state in 1948, which prompted a war between the Arab and Israel. Israel won the war and occupied more land then envisaged in the UN partition plan with 78% of the Palestine land.
Again in 1967, The second Arab-Israel war started as the Arab countries refused to recognize Israel as a nation. Israel won this war too and occupied even more part of Palestine. In this annexation of land, one of the territories was the West Bank. The West Bank is still home to the majority of Palestinian populations. “In the last 50 years, the Israeli government has transferred between 600,000 and 750,000 Jewish Israelis to the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They live in at least 160 settlements and outposts,” a report noted.
While the U.S. in 2019, announced that it no longer considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank to violate international law.
To date, there were only three diplomatic agreements between Israel and Arab countries. “In 1979, Prime Minister Menachem Begin made peace with Egypt. In 1994, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed a peace treaty with Jordan. And today, I am honored to announce a formal peace agreement with the United Arab Emirates.” – Prime Minister of Israel.
In response to this peace accord, the Palestine foreign ministry recalled its ambassador to the UAE after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected and denounced the deal in the statement. The statement also urged the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League to assemble to ‘reject the deal’ by reasoning that neither the UAE nor any other party has the right to speak in the name of Palestinian people.