The Bismarck Tribune · Bismarck, North Dakota · 20 May 2021
CP-2021-020
Gulf Arab citizens express anger at Israel, empathy for Palestine
AYA BATRAWY / Associated Press
Transcribed from the clipping
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The ongoing bloodshed in the Gaza Strip has unleashed a chorus of voices across Gulf Arab states that are fiercely critical of Israel and emphatically supportive of Palestinians.
The vocal opposition to Israel, expressed in street protests, on social media and in newspaper columns, comes just months after pacts were signed to establish ties with Israel — and complicates government efforts to rally Arab citizens around full-throttle acceptance of the deals.
Analysts said the conflict will also set back Israeli efforts to secure more normalization deals with other Arab states, like Saudi Arabia.
The criticism has not only put Arab governments that signed the diplomatic accords with Israel in a difficult position with their citizens, it also affirms that the Palestinian cause continues to resonate deeply with people across the Middle East.
“No matter what your national priorities are at the moment or regional priorities are at the moment, when stuff like this happens, the Palestinian issue comes back and hits you,” Emirati political analyst Abdulkhaleq Abdulla said.
Still, the open calls for Palestinian rights and condemnation of Israel voiced by countless Gulf Arab citizens have largely mirrored official statements from their governments, all of which have condemned the violence in some form.
Some have gone further, and Abdulla said he’d hoped the United Arab Emirates’ most recent statement calling “on all parties” to cease fighting had been bolder and named Israel as the aggressor. In speaking out, Gulf citizens are challenging the official narratives around normalization with Israel.
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Cite this clipping
"Gulf Arab citizens express anger at Israel, empathy for Palestine," The Bismarck Tribune, 20 May 2021. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2021-020. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2021-020
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Last updated 2 November 2026
This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1724 to 2023. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.
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