'We were kids': Emirati apologises to Israel for growing up pro-Palestine
'We were kids': Emirati apologises to Israel for growing up pro-Palestine
An Emirati blogger has been slammed for posting a video in which he apologises to Israel and seeks forgiveness from Israelis for growing up pro-Palestine, days after the UAE's announcement.
3 min read
The video was widely shared on Israeli social media circles [Getty]
Social media users were quick to criticise an Emirati blogger who went viral after posting a video apologising to Israel for his standing against the Jewish state throughout his childhood.
“I once made a video saying Israel should burn and other countries should pound it to the ground, but I came to realise that Israel is stronger than all of those other countries put together,” the Emirati said.
“So of course, I would like to offer my apologies to Israel, its people and to [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu. A formal apology in a formal video and I pray the Israelis will forgive me,” he added.
“I was a kid, you know, a young kid and I was excited but now I understand. Your God and our God is one and our differences don’t get in the way between us,” he urged.
The video was widely shared on Israeli social media on Monday.
It came as a young Emirati girl on Monday was filmed playing Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem, under the instruction of what appeared to be her mother.
The video had a “parent of a year” sticker and was shared by an official Arabic-language Israeli government Twitter account.
The UAE on Thursday announced that it had officially normalised relations with Israel, after decades of covert relations and official denials.
Palestinians have reacted furiously to the UAE's normalisation with Israel.
During a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, Mahmoud Abbas urged that no Arab country has a right to speak on the behalf of Palestinians in light of normalisation.
"We will not accept that the Palestinian cause is used as an excuse for normalization or for any other reason," he said, according to Palestinian Authority’s official news agency Wafa.
Read also: UAE-Israeli alliance – Quid pro quo for Trump’s re-election campaign
The Middle East felt shockwaves, after Trump announced on Thursday that the UAE had normalised ties with Israel, only the third between the Jewish state and an Arab country, after Egypt and Jordan.
Palestinians of all political leanings – from the secular Fatah of Mahmoud Abbas to the Hamas Islamist – have been unanimous in their condemnation of the deal, viewing the UAE as sacrificing the Palestinian cause to gain commercial relations with Israel.
While the agreement supposedly delays Israel's plans to unilaterally annex large swathes of the West Bank and Jordan Valley, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly urged that annexation will only be delayed.
Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia has been conspicuously silent on the deal with no official reaction emerging from Riyadh.
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