In an event unlike anything seen in Arab history, a plane belonging to the Israeli company "El Al" took off from Lod Airport, "Ben Gurion", on Monday afternoon on its first official flight after the announcement of an agreement to normalize relations between Israel and the UAE, and in an extreme irony, Israel called the plane "Kiryat Gat" A name that has a "tragic" connotation in the Palestinian catastrophe.

During the last hours, the plane became the focus of attention of the Israeli and international media, while the Palestinians expressed their dissatisfaction with the rapid progress in Israeli-Emirati relations, and the name given to the first flight.

According to the English-language Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper website, the Israeli airline chose the Boeing 737 because it was equipped with an advanced airborne jamming system, and according to the site, the El Al company was required to operate an aircraft equipped with the protection system called Sky Shield. ), Which is manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries.

Today, the first Israeli "El-Al" pilot flew into the Emirates on a direct flight, which would also fly over Saudi Arabia. As with the plane, as it is ...

Posted by Razi Nabulse on Monday, Aug 31, 2020

The largest colonies
As for the name "Kiryat Gat" that was used on the plane, it denotes one of the largest Israeli settlements that were established in the wake of the Nakba, on the ruins of the Palestinian towns of Iraq Al-Manshia and Al-Fallujah (north of Gaza).

Palestinian activists transmitted stories about the resistance in Iraq, Mansheya and Fallujah, which were supported by Egyptian garrisons in which the late President Gamal Abdel Nasser himself participated, as well as garrisons in which they resisted brigades of the Muslim Brotherhood.

According to historian Mustafa Kabha in “Notebooks of the Nakba,” more than a hundred Palestinians and Arabs were martyred on the land of the two towns before they fell into the hands of the Zionist guerrillas, like the last of the castles, which survived long months after the start of the Nakba War in 1948.

The Israeli flight to Abu Dhabi carried the number 971, which is the international calling code to the Emirates, while the return flight will carry the number 972, which is the international code for calling Israel. On the front of the plane, the company wrote the word "peace" in Hebrew, English and Arabic.

The prime minister's speech at the beginning of the 72nd Cabinet session at the beginning of the cabinet session today: * The high number of corona infections is a noticeable thing from all of us and in all governorates, and in recent days we have tightened control measures, we have no choice but prevention and I hope that we will not have to return to the closure procedures one more time. * A delegation of a number of ministers went to the Gaza Strip to support, see the situation, and provide all the help that our people need there. The delegation will arrive in Gaza next Friday morning. Meanwhile, we are preparing a medical aid package for Gaza. * I hope you will understand the delicate political stage we are in. We have not received any aid from any Arab country since the beginning of the year 2020 to support the budget, and all American aid to us and the UNRWA has been stopped. And Israel is trying to blackmail us with regard to the settlement. The clearing money is our money, and we are sure that you will not accept that we are blackmailed in this matter. * There is dialogue between the Monetary Authority and banks to pass these salaries without any deductions on loans granted to employees. * It hurts us very much, and today we see the landing of an Israeli plane in the Emirates in a clear and blatant violation of the Arab position regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict, and on this occasion we salute the clear Arab positions that reject free normalization with Israel. Where the Arabs foiled Pompeo's trip, despite the pressure exerted on some Arab countries

Published by Dr. Mohammad Shtayyeh Dr. Muhammad Shtayyeh on Monday, August 31, 2020

Flight 971
and members of the Israeli and American delegations boarded the plane for talks with Emirati officials, and the Saudi authorities allowed it to pass through its airspace.

Prior to the start of the flight, the pilot welcomed the passengers in both Arabic and English, saying, "You are welcome to Flight 971 bound for Abu Dhabi."

Before taking off from Ben Gurion Airport, the head of the Israeli National Security Council, Meir Ben Shabat, said that he was proud to head the Israeli mission, and that the aim of the visit was to formulate a comprehensive action plan to advance bilateral relations in many areas.

For his part, Jared Kushner, advisor to the US President and head of the US delegation on the trip, said, "It is a historic trip," and called for "not to let the past dictate to us the future."

For his part, the Israeli Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benny Gantz addressed the members of the Israeli delegation, saying, "We are in an important historical and watershed moment, with which lies a real hope for peace." He added, "Israel and the UAE have many possibilities for cooperation in the fields of diplomacy, agriculture, science, medicine, culture and transportation."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a joint statement with Kushner, after the arrival of the American delegation to "Israel" on Sunday, in preparation for its participation in the trip, "Tomorrow you will be on board the first commercial flight to the Emirates, a trip that we all affect, and there will be an economic boom, and we will not understand." How has this never happened before. "

And Netanyahu had also referred to his previous trips to several Arab countries, saying, "3 years ago I visited Oman, and last year I was in Chad, and about 6 months ago in Sudan, and this is only a few of the steps published with the Arab countries that want normalization with us."

The beginning of the Nakba era, the
Palestinian researcher at the Masarat Center for Political Studies, Razi Nabulsi, commented on the flight, saying that he tried, as the plane was ready to take off to Abu Dhabi, to count the benefits of "peace" between Israel and the Emirates that the two sides sought, and said that the matter would extend to the formation of a war alliance against Iran, and this is the basis The agreement, but it also placed it in the context of advancing the American election battle.

Nabulsi says the "F-35 aircraft deal" is also one of the starting points of the peace agreement in addition to security partnership agreements, which will leave an impact in the war in which the UAE is participating in Yemen and other Arab countries, and in the Israeli aggression on Gaza, adding that this agreement will impoverish people Arab and killed for its ambitions.

Nevertheless, Nabulsi defines the name of the plane "Kiryat Gat," saying, "In addition to the Israeli industrial zone that was established on the ruins of the destroyed Palestinian villages," Kiryat Gat "has become a source of deadly diseases for the Palestinians in the Negev (southern Palestine).

Nabulsi says, "On top of this, with all rudeness, they write the word (peace) on a plane that they announced that it has a missile protection system, made by an Israeli company, most likely it was installed in order to sell it to the Emirates to protect its airplanes over Yemen, at the time its planes throw lava over the heads of people and residents in Yemen. And Libya, while Israeli planes bomb groups of young men living in the smallest besieged spot in more than a decade, "referring to the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh, at the start of his weekly cabinet session in Ramallah, expressed his pain at the sight of the Israeli plane landing in the Emirates. He said that it was "a clear and flagrant violation of the Arab position regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict."

For me, as an Emirati, today is the beginning of the era of the Nakba ... God is sufficient for us and is the best representative

- Hamad Al Shamsi (@ ALshamsi789) August 31, 2020

On his Twitter page, the Palestinian activist Al-Qassam wrote in Deir, commenting on the naming of the plane, addressing "those who typed and who would print," Kamal said, "Fallujah survived for 6 months and was handed over under an agreement with the Egyptian side. After that, the Zionists rejected the agreement and was occupied, and it was the last of the villages whose people were displaced in the Nakba." .

Emirati opposition activist Hamad Al-Shami tweeted, "For me as an Emirati, today marks the beginning of the Nakba era."