August 20, 2020
By David Andrew Weinberg
Israel and the United Arab Emirates announced a historic agreement on August 13th to move toward full normalization of relations, the first such accord between the State of Israel and an Arab state since 1994.
However, peace always has its opponents, and this agreement is no exception. Whenever Israel and Arab governments take important steps to engage and reconcile with each other, extremists throughout the region routinely demonize both sides, including in some ways that cross the line into antisemitism or other forms of intolerance.
The following problematic political cartoons, infographics, and front-page headlines are notable examples from Mideast media outlets of content that was circulated in recent days since the historic Abraham Accord. A few of these images had been published previously and were reissued by these outlets in order to attack the accord. However, most of these images are new content.
The vast majority of these materials come from media outlets linked to one of three sources: Iran (or its proxies), the Palestinians, and Qatar. Although the subset of these examples linked to Iran tends to be the most extreme, certain materials from all three places seem to be fundamentally hostile to Israel or propagate intolerant stereotypes. Perhaps a few of these materials could feasibly be defended as legitimate political commentary, but for the most part they are blatantly unfair, hateful or in some cases, antisemitic.
Many of these critiques vilify Israeli and Emirati officials, with several depicting their peace agreement as a betrayal or a stab in the back against the Palestinians. Other notable themes include depicting Israel and/or the UAE as demonic, dehumanized, bloodthirsty or blood-soaked, evil, scheming, diseased, or promiscuous.
Part one of this blog features images from news sites in Iran. Part two features images from within the Arab world. Both are included below.
Part One of Two: Media in Iran
[Cartoon from Iran’s Tasnim News Agency. Caption says “The Emirates’ action was a betrayal against the ummah of Islam and Palestine and a stab in the back’ (which as the article notes is a quote attacking the Abraham Accord from Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah). August 16, 2020.]
[Cartoon from Iran’s Tasnim News Agency. Caption says “The disgraceful agreement between the Emirates and the fake state of the Zionists is the greatest historic betrayal against the ideal of Jerusalem”. August 15, 2020.]
[Front page from Iran’s Farheekhtegan newspaper associated with Islamic Azad University. The text in white says “Dancing with the Devil”. August 15, 2020.]
[Front page from Iran’s Jomhor newspaper. Headline in black says “The agreement by Abu Dhabi and Israel is a stab in the back”. August 15, 2020.]
[Infographic from Iran’s Arabic-language al-Alam TV website. Main text on top is titled “The Emirati treason agreement”. Infographic also promotes condemnation of the agreement by terrorist groups Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine”. August 14, 2020]
[Infographic from Iran’s Arabic-language al-Alam TV website. Headline in read says “From Camp David arriving to the Emirates, these are the Arabs’ agreements with the Enemy.” . August 16, 2020]
[Cartoon from Iran’s Arabic-language al-Alam TV website. Text on the bouquet of skulls says “normalization agreement.” August 16, 2020]
[Cartoon from Iran’s Rahbord-e Moaser (“Modern Strategy”) media analysis site. Text on the speech bubble says “Taxi!.” August 16, 2020]
[Front page from Iran’s Kayhan newspaper. Headline says “Emirates make themselves a legitimate target for the Resistance”. August 15, 2020.]
Part Two of Two: Media from the Arab World
[Cartoon from Palestinian Information Center, August 13, 2020]
[Cartoon from the pro-Houthi Sanaa News Agency, August 15, 2020]
[Cartoon from the pro-Houthi Sanaa News Agency (Yemen), caption on bottom says “direct relations between the Emirates and Israel,” August 13, 2020]
[Cartoon from Palestinian Information Center, August 14, 2020]
[Cartoon from the pro-Hamas Shehab News Agency, caption says “in the embrace of normalization!!” August 14, 2020]
[Cartoon from pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar News (Lebanon), August 14, 2020]
[Cartoon from Palestinian Information Center. Text on top says “Normalization!!” Text on right says “Arab governments,” and text on bottom says “Gaza”. August 13, 2020]
[Cartoon from Palestinian Information Center. Text on top says “Arab normalization with Israel.” August 13, 2020]
[Cartoon from pro-Iran news site al-Mayadeen (Lebanon). Text above the cartoon says “Peace between the Emirates and “Israel”. In your opinion, how must we face this step? And what is the fate of our occupied land?”]
[Image from al-Arab Newspaper (Qatar), text on bottom says “normalization is treason”. August 16, 2020]
[Cartoon from Rawafid Post news site (Gaza Strip). Caption says “full Emirati normalization with Israel!!” August 15, 2020]
[Cartoon from Palestinian Information Center. Text on ammunition says “Peace.” August 16, 2020]
[Cartoon from al-Quds newspaper, caption says “Arab diplomacy”. August 16, 2020]
[Cartoon from Ramallah News site’s Facebook page. Text on the map of the UAE says “The Emirates.” August 14, 2020]
[Cartoon from Saudi newspaper al-Eqtisadiyah, criticizing Turkish President Erdogan (who opposed the recent peace agreement) by suggesting he in fact loves Israel. Caption on right says “Noooo to normalization with Israel”. Caption on the left says “no no nooo”. August 15, 2020]