About time…
Arabs Are Fed Up With the ‘Ungrateful’ Palestinians
by Khaled Abu Toameh • August 19, 2020 at 5:00 am
- “It is stupid to burn my country’s flag and want me to salute you.” — Dr. Waseem Yousef, Emirati academic, on Twitter.
- “When I see the flag of my country being burned by some Palestinians because of the peace treaty with Israel – I apologize to every Israeli man if I offended him in the past.” — Dr. Waseem Yousef.
- “Imagine that in just 17 years, Saudi Arabia paid [the Palestinians] $6 billion and the UAE $2.5 billion. This means that in 40 years, we are talking about no less than $20 billion. I expect that had we spent this money on Israel, its people would have converted to Islam.” — From a UAE-affiliated account on Twitter.
- The Palestinian leaders’ strong condemnation of the UAE and other Arab states that support normalization with Israel has also driven many Arabs to raise the issue of financial corruption of the Palestinian leadership. Some Gulf citizens pointed out that the personal fortunes of Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashaal are worth at least $9 billion, while others claimed that Mahmoud Abbas’s personal wealth is estimated at $200 million.
Scenes of Palestinians burning and trampling flags of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and pictures of its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed, have sparked a wave of protests in a number of Arab countries. Their citizens are accusing the Palestinians of ingratitude, treason and hypocrisy.
The powerful reactions of many Arabs to the Palestinian campaign of incitement against the UAE — after its agreement establish relations with Israel — are yet another sign of the increased disillusionment in the Arab world with the Palestinians.
The message the Arabs are sending to the Palestinians is roughly, “We are fed up with you and your cause. You people are ungrateful, hypocritical and vindictive. Decade after decade, we pumped billions of dollars into your coffers — and now you have the arrogance to burn our flags and pictures of our leaders and hurl insults at us.”
