As US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stepped up to the podium flanked by the foreign ministers of the UAE and Bahrain to sign what has been hailed as a “historic peace agreement” between Israel and the two Gulf States, demonstrations were held last Tuesday afternoon, September 15, in Wadi ‘Ara in central Israel and in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Hadash MK Youssef Jabareen (first, left) in the “human chain”, organized on Tuesday, September 15, by the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee in Israel along Route 65 in Wadi ‘Ara, to protest the “peace deal” being signed in Washington the same day. The placard that Jabareen and the other participants is holding reads: “NO to deals conspiring against the Palestinian People and its cause.” (Photo: Zo Haderech)

According to Secretary General Adel Amer of the Communist Party of Israel (CPI), “The White House ceremony presided over by Trump reflects Netanyahu’s fantasy world in which Palestinians are nonexistent, irrelevant and entirely absent from the picture. The so-called ‘peace deals’ between Israel and US client states are bizarre because, as surrogates in the service of US imperialism and its hegemony in the Middle East, neither Bahrain nor the UAE have ever been at war with Israel. Apart from not being enemies, the two Gulf oligarchies have for decades maintained a clandestine love affair with Israel.”

The CPI, Hadash and Joint List lawmakers condemned on Tuesday the White House ceremony. “The ceremony in Washington is not a historic peace deal, but a historic arms deal,” tweeted Joint List leader MK Ayman Odeh (Hadash). “It’s accepting a reality in which the Palestinians live under occupation without independence or basic rights in exchange for planes and cyber systems. A few businessmen will benefit from this day, and everyone knows there is not a single person in the entire Middle East who will feel freer or more secure.” After the signing, “The occupation will continue tomorrow. The Palestinians will live under military rule, settlers will continue to steal their lands and Israel’s soldiers will continue to man checkpoints and enter homes,” said Odeh. Joint List MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Hadash) remarked  on Twitter: “There were no Palestinians on the White House lawn this evening — this is not what peace looks like.”