Ever since its creation in 1948, Israel hasn’t been accepted by a number of Muslim countries across the Middle East. This means their passport was inadmissible and they were unable to travel to these countries, which up until recently included the UAE. However, in August of last year, the two countries announced the Abraham Accords. This was a peace agreement that made UAE the third country after Jordan and Egypt to set up full diplomatic relations with Israel. The agreement, which did nothing to mention the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict, was received as a betrayal by the Palestinians with the word treason being thrown around, and was considered a win by the still in power Trump government.
In honor of the agreement, on November 8, the first flight carrying a large number of Jewish, along with a few Arab Israelites, landed at Dubai International Airport via Saudi Arabia who, at USA’s request, opened its airspace to Israeli flights recently. 3 months later, according to the Israeli Tourism Ministry, the people have been increasingly excited about traveling to the city of skyscrapers with an average influx of 40,000 tourists per month with a much obvious projected increase once Covid-19 travel restrictions are lifted.
The first commercial Israeli plane to land in the UAE.
Source: CNN
Although Bahrain and Morocco followed suit, with Oman and Kuwait suspected to do so soon as well, other Middle Eastern countries are less likely to overcome decades of strained relationships and fostering hatred due to the Jewish treatment of Palestinian Muslims. This includes Pakistan, where heated debates covering the matter have taken place all throughout August and September, and a flood of negative comments from the general public have come forward. This flood, however, became worse when on November 18, UAE banned the issuing of work visas to Pakistanis and 12 other Muslim countries, especially since foreign remittances from UAE played a major rule in keeping the economy afloat.
Despite the foreign office’s insistence that this was due to Covid-19 restrictions, it was hard to ignore that only the Muslim countries strictly against the acceptance of Israel, namely: Turkey, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and others, faced the prohibitions. Also adding to the suspicions was the fact that countries riddled with the virus such as the USA or India were not on the list. Soon, questions as to the ties between UAE and Pakistan and their impact on the Middle Eastern peace started circulating, questions that became louder after UAE took offense to Imran Khan’s statement about the matter. In an interview the PM said,
“Whatever any country does, our position is very clear. … We cannot ever accept Israel as long as Palestinians are not given their rights and there is no just settlement.”
These questions were soon shot down by foreign minister Shah Mahmood Quraishi who claimed he explained the “depth of Pakistani emotions” to his Emirati counterpart, the positive result of which was seen when Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed praised the strong ties between the countries with a further promise of strengthening and diversifying them in all sectors. As much as his statement fuels optimism, it still does not make the issue of travel any clearer.
Although in the past month, there have been phone calls and assurances of diversification of relations, the issue of travel ban still remains unaddressed. It is worth mentioning that it has been observed that UAE travel visas to Pakistani groups who were proven to be families have not been as hard to obtain when compared to single men but it still begs the question whether latest developments mean UAE is ready to cut longstanding ties with Pakistan to improve them with Israel.
