2020 Abraham Accords made Israel more aggressive, say Palestinians

News Network
May 16, 2023

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London, May 16: 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. 

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News Network
March 28,2024

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Russia says it is "extremely hard to believe" that Daesh could have staged the recent hugely deadly attack on a Moscow concert hall that the country's intelligence and security officials have blamed on Ukraine and its Western backers.

Four gunmen burst into the Russian capital's Crocus City Hall on Friday and began shooting at the people, who were attending an event. The Takfiri terrorist group has allegedly claimed responsibility for the massacre that killed at least 143.

Speaking on Wednesday, however, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova cast that claim into serious doubt.

"In order to ward off suspicions from the collective West, they urgently needed to come up with something, so they resorted to ISIS (Daesh), pulled an ace out of their sleeve, and literally a few hours after the terrorist attack, the Anglo-Saxon media began disseminating precisely these versions," she said.

The chief of the Russian internal intelligence (FSB), Alexander Bortnikov has suggested that not only Ukraine, but also the United States and Britain might have been behind the shooting.

The Russian Federal Security Service has also said the gunmen planned to travel to Ukraine, where they were to be welcomed as "heroes." The FSB said Western intelligence services aided the attackers.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has also suggested that Ukraine stood to derive benefit from the attack and that Kiev might have played a role.

He has said that someone on the Ukrainian side had prepared a "window" for the gunmen to escape across the border before they were captured in western Russia on Friday night.

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News Network
March 21,2024

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Israeli military siege, hunger, and diseases will soon become the main killer in Gaza, says commissioner- general of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

Philippe Lazzarini, who heads the UNRWA for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, took to X on Wednesday to vent his concern for the growing hunger and spread of diseases as a result of the Israeli siege on the besieged strip.

He said starvation and illness may soon be the main killer in Gaza.

"This fabricated and catastrophic level of hunger can still be reversed by flooding Gaza with food and life-saving assistance," Lazzarini said.

"More than ever humanity requires political will,” the UNRWA chief added.

In a press release on March 19, UNRWA said that “famine is imminent in the Gaza Strip, especially for isolated populations in northern Gaza deprived of humanitarian aid.”

The statement noted that the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), in a latest food security outlook, concluded that up to 1.1 million people in Gaza are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.

“Nutrition screenings conducted in February by UNICEF and UNRWA show that rates of acute malnutrition among children in northern Gaza and Rafah have nearly doubled since January,” it said.

The Israeli regime has accused UNRWA staff of being involved in the October 7 attack by the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas against the occupied territories, prompting a number of its western allies to suspend funding for the UN agency.

On Wednesday, an agreement was reached by US congressional leaders and the White House on a massive funding bill will continue a ban on US funding for UNRWA until March 2025, Reuters reported.

Earlier this year the US, Canada, Australia, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Finland, Estonia, Japan, Austria and Romania  decided to cut their funding to the UNRWA, considered a lifeline for the Palestinians in Gaza.

France had also announced that it does not plan a new payment to fund UNRWA in the first quarter of 2024.

Condemning the suspension of funding, Lazzarini had said, “It would be immensely irresponsible to sanction an agency and an entire community…, especially at a time of war, displacement and political crises in the region.”

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News Network
March 25,2024

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The Israeli military has attacked desperate Palestinians lining up for humanitarian aid in Gaza City, killing at least 19 people and injuring 23 others in a new massacre against aid seekers. 

The Government Media Office in Gaza said in a statement that the carnage took place on Saturday near the al-Kuwait roundabout, southeast of Gaza City.

“The occupation army and tanks opened fire with machine guns at the hungry people who were waiting for bags of flour and aid in a remote place that did not pose a threat to the occupation,” the statement said.

Mahmud Basal, spokesman for the Civil Defense Department in Gaza, said there had been “heavy shooting at civilians” looking for food to help their families and children.

“There were very serious injuries, some of whom were injured by shrapnel. The reality is tragic, difficult, and challenging,” he added, saying the victims were taken to the nearby al-Ahli Arab hospital.

Speaking to Qatar-based Al Jazeera TV network, Alaa al-Khudary, a witness at the scene, said that Israeli forces shot at the crowd, leaving “many dead” and injuring others while they tried to get “a bite to eat” for their children.

However, the Israeli army claimed that the reports of its troops firing on a Gaza aid queue are “incorrect.”

In recent weeks, Israeli soldiers have conducted several deadly attacks on crowds of aid seekers in the besieged Gaza.

In mid-March the Israeli military opened fire on Palestinian civilians who had gathered in Gaza to obtain humanitarian aid, targeting them with gunfire from helicopters, tanks, and drones near the Kuwait roundabout on the outskirts of Gaza City, killing over 60 people and injuring 160 others.

In what is known as the “flour massacre”, the occupation forces killed 118 people and wounded 760 others as they opened fire on hundreds of Palestinians waiting for aid trucks in Gaza City’s al-Rashid Street on February 29.

Earlier this month, the Government Media Office in Gaza said that a total of 400 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on aid seekers since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal aggression against the Palestinian territory.

Israel waged its US-backed war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out a historic operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

So far, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 32,142 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 74,412 others.

Israel is intentionally starving the people in Gaza by blocking their access to food, a war crime under the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute.

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