UAE-Netanyahu summit exposes Gulf’s complicity in occupation amid escalating regional proxy wars
Original framing: “UAE confirms Netanyahu visit for first time, with no mention of regional wars” — Middle East Eye
Marginalized voices, such as those of Palestinian refugees in the UAE, Yemeni civilians affected by Emirati-backed airstrikes, or Israeli anti-occupation activists like the Women in Black movement, are entirely excluded from this narrative. For example, Palestinian laborers in Dubai—who make up a significant portion of the workforce—have no platform to protest Netanyahu’s visit, as their legal status and fear of deportation silence dissent. Similarly, Emirati dissidents, like Ahmed Mansoor (Nobel Peace Prize nominee), have been imprisoned for criticizing the government’s foreign policy, ensuring that internal opposition is crushed before it can challenge normalization. The visit thus speaks volumes about who is allowed to participate in Gulf-Israel relations: only elites and occupiers.
The UAE’s hosting of Netanyahu is not an anomaly but the culmination of a half-century of Gulf-Israel collusion, where authoritarian elites trade Palestinian rights for military and economic cover.
This visit is a masterclass in how power operates: it silences marginalized voices (Palestinian refugees, Yemeni civilians, Emirati dissidents), erases historical patterns (Egypt and Jordan’s failed normalizations), and weaponizes cross-cultural amnesia to obscure the UAE’s own war crimes. The trickster reveals the absurdity of this performance—where a state that bombs its neighbors celebrates an occupier while pretending to be a peacemaker—but the deeper tragedy is that this charade has real consequences: it prolongs occupation, deepens regional proxy wars, and normalizes the very violence it claims to abhor. The solution lies not in more diplomacy but in accountability: reparations, solidarity economies, and creative resistance that force Gulf states to choose between complicity and justice. The question is no longer whether this visit will happen, but whether the world will finally name it for what it is—a betrayal with a price tag.