Relatives react during the funeral of Palestinian teenager Ali Abu Alia in al-Mughayyir village near Ramallah,
Credit: Shutterstock
Sitting in his chilly home in a remote West Bank village, Ayman Abu Aliya thumbs a set of prayer beads as he recounts the events that led to the death of his 13-year-old son.
“He was standing with his hands in his pockets, and he did not throw any stones whatsoever,” Mr Abu Aliya told The Telegraph in his living room, which has been turned into a shrine to his lost child.
His son, Ali, was killed last month during what the Israeli military described as a “violent riot” in the West Bank village of al-Mughayyir, where residents were demonstrating against a nearby Jewish settlement.
During those clashes, Palestinian officials say Ali was shot in the abdomen and shortly afterwards died of his wounds in hospital. Israeli military police have launched an investigation into his death, which the UN’s Middle East envoy described as "shocking" and unacceptable.
“He is gone, the damage is done, and I can only pray for the safety of other young Palestinians,” said Mr Abu Aliya. “I can only hope that the outside world will care about this issue.”
Ali’s death is hardly unique in a region where Palestinians frequently clash with settlers and Israeli forces over land in the occupied West Bank, which they claim as their own.
In the most recent incident last Friday, a Palestinian man was reportedly left paralysed from the neck down after he was shot during a scuffle with Israeli soldiers. The troops had been confiscating a generator from his village in the South Hebron Hills.
Israel also buried one of its own youths earlier this year, when 21-year-old soldier Amit Ben Yigal was killed by a rock thrown by a Palestinian in the northern village of Ya’bad. He was the only child of his father, Baruch Ben Yigal.
Baruch, right, and Nava, left, parents of Israeli army Staff Sgt. Amit Ben-Yigal grieve during his funeral
Credit: AP
But as Israel celebrates peace deals struck with Arab states across the world, those tragedies serve as a reminder that a conflict much closer to home remains unresolved.
When the Abraham Accords were signed on a sunny September afternoon at the White House, President Donald Trump hailed a new era of peace in the Middle East.
The pact allowed Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to put aside their hostilities and embark on a deep partnership which opened the door to trade deals, direct flights and full diplomatic relations.
Similar agreements with other Arab and Muslim states soon followed, including Sudan, Morocco and the small Himalayan state of Bhutan. US officials have also signalled that a treaty with Saudi Arabia could be agreed in the near future.
While those deals have been strongly condemned as a betrayal by the Palestinians, as well as Turkey and Iran, their significance cannot be understated.
In December, thousands of Israelis spent their Hanukkah holidays in Dubai, where they have been warmly welcomed by the Emiratis.
“I’ve been here twice, and met many different Arabs here, not just Emiratis, and I have not had one nasty encounter or comment,” Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, told the Telegraph during a recent trip to Dubai.
An Israeli man walks past Emirati staff after passport control upon arrival from Tel Aviv to the Dubai airport in the United Arab Emirates
Credit: AFP
“Everyone is thrilled to make peace with Israel and they want to use it as a shining light for the entire region,” added the London-born barrister.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has said the Abraham Accords would have been “unimaginable” just a few years ago. But they did not come as a great surprise to Middle East experts.
"I think it is a permanent shift, and one that we knew has been coming because relations between Israel and Arab states in the Gulf have been getting closer for years,” said Sir John Jenkins, a veteran UK diplomat who served as one of the Foreign Office’s leading Arabists for three decades.
President Donald Trump, center, with, from left, Bahrain Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, during the Abraham Accords signing ceremony
Credit: Alex Brandon
He said that some 60 per cent of the Middle East population was under 30, and that for them the bitter years of open warfare between Israel and the Palestinians was “ancient history.”
But he also warned that there was still a risk of major violence erupting in Hamas-controlled Gaza and the West Bank despite the relative calm of 2020, which has been linked to the coronavirus pandemic.
“You can see the Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco having a serious problem in the event of a third intifada or a short and nasty war in Gaza,” he said.
Even the footballing world has benefited from the peace treaties, with a member of Abu Dhabi’s royal family, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, purchasing a fifty per cent stake in an Israeli premier league football club, Beitar Jerusalem.
The football deal did not impress Palestinian leaders, who are concerned that they have lost crucial leverage in negotiations now that many of their Arab allies have — in their view — prematurely embraced Israel.
“I frankly could not find any moral, logistical or commercial reason for them doing that,” one Palestinian official said of the partnership with Beitar Jerusalem.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gestures during a welcoming ceremony upon the landing of a United Arab Emirates airline flydubai flight at Ben Gurion International Airport
Credit: Reuters
There are also concerns in the Palestinian Authority (PA), which partially governs the West Bank, that their voice has been lost in the global excitement over new friendships between Israelis and Arabs.
The PA hopes they may find a more empathetic ally in Joe Biden, the incoming US president, when he takes office later this month. PA officials are expected to request that some policies of the Trump era, such as his recognition of settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, will be reversed.
Meanwhile, Ms Hassan-Nahoum is preparing for another round of negotiations with Emirati investors in her work as co-founder of the UAE-Israel Business Council.
“I don’t see why anybody, or any country, would see this as a bad thing,” she said. “Peace is something that should always be welcomed.”
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