64% of Palestinians opposed to Abraham Accords, majority say 2020 pact made Israel more aggressive

The majority of Palestinians are opposed to the Abraham Accords, the agreements that normalized diplomatic relations between Israel and some Arab nations in 2020. (AFP/File Photo)
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Updated 20 May 2023
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64% of Palestinians opposed to Abraham Accords, majority say 2020 pact made Israel more aggressive

  • The Abraham Accords, signed in Sept. 2020, are a series of agreements between Israel and four Arab countries
  • An Arab News-YouGov opinion poll found 64% of Palestinians opposed to, 10% supportive of, the pact

LONDON: The majority of Palestinians are opposed to the Abraham Accords, the agreements that normalized diplomatic relations between Israel and some Arab nations in 2020, and that just over a half believe it made Israel more aggressive, a new survey suggested.

The latest Arab News-YouGov poll about the Palestinian situation from the point of view of Palestinians on the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, revealed that 64 percent of the respondents said to be against the accords, with only 10 percent expressing a favorable opinion.

The Abraham Accords, signed in September 2020, are a series of agreements between Israel and four Arab countries  — the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco  — that established formal diplomatic relations, including the exchange of ambassadors and the opening of embassies.

The Accords, mediated by the Trump administration, were hailed as a major breakthrough in Middle East diplomacy.

However, the agreements have been met with widespread opposition from Palestinians, who believe they fail to address the root causes of the conflict. 

When asked about the impact of the Accords, 52 percent of those surveyed said that the agreement had made Israel more aggressive towards the Palestinians, while 43 percent said they had seen no impact or change, and only 6 percent said they believed the agreement had made the situation better.

The results of the poll highlight a deep mistrust of Palestinians towards a possible peaceful resolution of the conflict, as they show that the Abraham Accords failed to produce tangible improvements for Palestinians.

This mistrust was foretold by former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al Faisal, who said in an interview with Arab News’ “Frankly Speaking” video show in May last year that there is no evidence that embracing Israel has made it less aggressive towards Palestinians.

Prince Faisal argued that despite some Arab countries having normalized their relationship with Israel, the situation in the West Bank and Gaza remains the same.

“Attacks and assassinations of Palestinian individuals take place almost on a daily basis. The stealing of Palestinian land by Israel continues despite the assurances that Israel gave to the signatories of the peace (accord) between the UAE and Israel,” Prince Faisal said.

“So, there is no sign whatsoever that appeasing Israel is going to change their attitude.”

The poll also revealed the most commonly chosen reasons for the failure of peace talks, unveiling a fragmented, complex picture.

The top reason, chosen by 21 percent of respondents, was “Continued Israeli intimidation, settlements, and annexation.”

This was followed by “US bias towards Israel,” chosen by 15 percent, and “mistakes and lack of leadership of the Palestinian Authority,” chosen as the top reason by 14 percent of people surveyed.

While 11 percent of respondents saw the disputes over Al-Aqsa Mosque and the status of Jerusalem as significant barriers to peace, 32 percent of interviewees believed that Palestinian armed militias sabotaging the peace talks ranked at the bottom of the reasons for failure.

These results suggest that Palestinians see a range of factors contributing to the failure of past peace talks and initiatives, including both internal and external factors. However, only 2 percent of respondents ranked the issue of the “Palestinian state’s ability to carry arms and defend itself” as the top reason for the failure.

Interestingly, the poll also revealed that a significant proportion of respondents  — 31 percent  — did not choose any of the six options presented, indicating a level of uncertainty or frustration with the peace process.

 


Israel PM says okayed Lebanon pager attacks

Updated 26 sec ago
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Israel PM says okayed Lebanon pager attacks

  • Hand-held devices used by Hezbollah operatives detonated in supermarkets, on streets and at funerals in mid-Sept.
  • They killed nearly 40 people and wounded nearly 3,000, and preceded Israel’s ongoing military operation in Lebanon

JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he okayed a deadly September attack on Hezbollah communications devices which exploded in Lebanon, the first time Israel has admitted involvement.
Hezbollah had previously blamed its arch-foe for the blasts that dealt a major blow to the Iran-backed militant group, and vowed revenge.
“Netanyahu confirmed Sunday that he greenlighted the pager operation in Lebanon,” his spokesman Omer Dostri told AFP of the attacks.
Hand-held devices used by Hezbollah operatives detonated two days in a row in supermarkets, on streets and at funerals in mid-September.
They killed nearly 40 people and wounded nearly 3,000, and preceded Israel’s ongoing military operation in Lebanon.
Hezbollah began low intensity strikes on Israel in support of Hamas following its ally’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel which triggered the Gaza war.
Strikes have intensified since war broke out in Lebanon in late September, when Israel escalated its air campaign against Hezbollah and later sent ground troops into south Lebanon.


Israel PM says okayed Lebanon pager attacks

A photo taken on September 18, 2024, in Beirut’s southern suburbs shows the remains of exploded pagers on display.
Updated 35 min 28 sec ago
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Israel PM says okayed Lebanon pager attacks

  • Hand-held devices used by Hezbollah operatives detonated two days in a row in supermarkets, on streets and at funerals in mid-September
  • They killed nearly 40 people and wounded nearly 3,000

JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he okayed a deadly September attack on Hezbollah communications devices which exploded in Lebanon, the first time Israel has admitted involvement.
Hezbollah had previously blamed its arch-foe for the blasts that dealt a major blow to the Iran-backed militant group, and vowed revenge.
“Netanyahu confirmed Sunday that he greenlighted the pager operation in Lebanon,” his spokesman Omer Dostri told AFP of the attacks.
Hand-held devices used by Hezbollah operatives detonated two days in a row in supermarkets, on streets and at funerals in mid-September.
They killed nearly 40 people and wounded nearly 3,000, and preceded Israel’s ongoing military operation in Lebanon.
Hezbollah began low intensity strikes on Israel in support of Hamas following its ally’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel which triggered the Gaza war.
Strikes have intensified since war broke out in Lebanon in late September, when Israel escalated its air campaign against Hezbollah and later sent ground troops into south Lebanon.


Netanyahu says spoke again with Trump about Iran ‘threat’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Sunday he had spoken three times with US president-elect Donald Trump.
Updated 10 November 2024
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Netanyahu says spoke again with Trump about Iran ‘threat’

  • “We see eye to eye on the Iranian threat in every aspect,” Netanyahu said
  • Analysts believe Netanyahu had hoped for a Trump return to the White House

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Sunday he had spoken three times with US president-elect Donald Trump over the past few days about the “Iranian threat” to Israeli security.
“In the last few days, I have spoken three times with President-elect Donald Trump... Talks designed to further tighten the strong alliance between Israel and the US,” Netanyahu said, quoted in a statement issued by his office.
“We see eye to eye on the Iranian threat in every aspect,” he added during a weekly cabinet meeting, according to the statement.
Netanyahu also said he had talked to Trump about “great opportunities before Israel in the field of peace and its expansion.”
The United States is Israel’s top ally and military backer, and the election came at a critical time for the Middle East amid wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
Analysts believe Netanyahu had hoped for a Trump return to the White House, given the longstanding personal friendship between the two as well as the former president’s hawkishness on Israel’s arch-foe Iran.
During his first term, Trump moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, recognized Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights and helped normalize ties between Israel and several Arab states under the so-called Abraham Accords.


Israeli strike near Damascus kills seven: war monitor

An Israeli strike on an apartment belonging to Hezbollah killed seven people Sunday in a stronghold of pro-Iran groups.
Updated 48 min 49 sec ago
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Israeli strike near Damascus kills seven: war monitor

  • “An Israeli strike killed seven people and wounded 14, including women and children, in the Sayyida Zeinab area,” Syrian Observatory for Human Rights official says

BEIRUT: An Israeli strike on an apartment belonging to the Lebanese Hezbollah group killed seven people Sunday in a stronghold of pro-Iran groups south of Damascus, a war monitor said.
“An Israeli strike killed seven people and wounded 14, including women and children, in the Sayyida Zeinab area,” Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP, revising an earlier toll of three dead.
The Britain-based monitor, which has a network of sources inside Syria, earlier said that “the Israeli attack targeted (Hezbollah) figures in the building where Lebanese families and members of the movement live.”
Syria’s official SANA news agency reported an “Israeli aggression targeting a residential building in the Sayyida Zeinab” area, home to a major Shiite shrine, that killed and injured an unspecified number of people.
On Saturday, four pro-Iran fighters were among five people killed in Israeli strikes in north and northwest Syria, the Observatory reported.
Since Syria’s civil war broke out in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria, mainly targeting army positions and fighters including from Hezbollah.
The strikes have increased since Israel entered an all-out war with Hezbollah in Lebanon on September 23.
Israeli authorities rarely comment on the strikes, but have repeatedly said they will not allow arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence in Syria.


Lebanon says 7 children among 23 dead in Israeli strike north of Beirut

People inspect a site of an Israeli strike, in the town of Almat in Jbeil district, Lebanon November 10, 2024. (Reuters)
Updated 10 November 2024
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Lebanon says 7 children among 23 dead in Israeli strike north of Beirut

  • The Shiite Muslim majority village of Almat, about 30 kilometers from Beirut, is located in a mostly Christian region
  • It is outside Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds of south Beirut and south and east Lebanon

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli strike on Sunday killed 23 people, including seven children, in the village of Almat north of the capital Beirut.
AFPTV footage showed rescuers rummaging with their bare hands through the wreckage of a house that had been completely razed, pulling out bodies wrapped in blankets while an excavator moved the rubble.
The Shiite Muslim majority village of Almat, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Beirut, is located in a mostly Christian region. It is outside Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds of south Beirut and south and east Lebanon, which Israel has heavily bombed since late September in its war against the Iran-backed movement.
“The Israeli enemy strike on Almat in the Jbeil district killed 23 people including seven children, in an updated but not final toll,” the health ministry said in a statement.
It also said body parts had been recovered from the site and were being identified.
A pile of broken concrete and the twisted metal structure that made up the roof lay at the bottom of a staircase leading to the destroyed house, AFP images showed.
Hezbollah lawmaker Raed Berro, one of the members of parliament representing the Jbeil district, was at the site of the strike and denied Israeli claims that Hezbollah members or weapons were embedded among civilians.
“Important military and security figures are usually on the frontlines... not at the rear,” he told AFP,
“Under the rubble, there are only children, elderly men and women,” he said.
Facebook user Ali Haydar posted a picture of the home, which he said belonged to his family, before it was destroyed. He added that people displaced from the eastern Baalbek region had sought refuge there.
“There were 35 relatives of ours from Baalbek in the house” including women and children, he said.
“Most of them have been martyred” in the strike, Haydar added.
The area was cordoned off by Lebanese security forces and Hezbollah members in civilian clothing, an AFP correspondent at the scene saw.
Dozens of people packed their belongings in their cars and fled the village, the correspondent said.
The health ministry also said Israeli strikes killed three Hezbollah-affiliated rescuers in south Lebanon.
Earlier, Lebanese official media reported an Israeli strike on a house in the main eastern city of Baalbek, which was not preceded by an Israeli army evacuation warning.
“Enemy aircraft launched a strike on a house in the Al-Laqees neighborhood” of the city, the state-run National News Agency said.
Israel intensified its air campaign mainly targeting Hezbollah bastions in Lebanon on September 23 and a week later sent in ground troops.
The escalation came after nearly a year of low-intensity, cross-border attacks by Hezbollah in support of its ally Hamas following the Palestinian Islamists’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war.
More than 3,130 people have been killed in Lebanon since the cross-border exchanges began, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, most of them since September 23.