Arab Majority Doesn't Support Normalization with Israel

Hind Khoudary

Politics

13th October 2020

Arab Majority Doesn't Support Normalization with Israel

The Zogby poll has been used in a misleading way (GettyImages).

The Claim

Most Arab citizens support normalization with Israel.

News posted on

Emerging story

A report claiming that most Arab citizens support normalization with Israel has been circulating on social media. Since the peace agreement between the UAE and Israel, much debate has taken place on social media across the MENA region.

More than 8 in 10 of the 3,600 respondents in Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, as well as the 1,005 Israelis surveyed for the new report by Zogby Research Services and Sky News Arabia, said that agreeing on a resolution to the conflict remains important.

Misbar’s Analysis

Misbar's investigation found the claim misleading. Here are the reasons:

1) Selectivity:
The news reports didn’t mention the question asked in the survey, which makes a huge difference contextually.
People were asked if they would agree to normalize with Israel if it withdraws from the Occupied Territories and returns all the occupied land since 1967.

The fact that almost eight in 10 Arab respondents in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE say they are ready to make peace with Israel on the terms of the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative was also neglected.
According to Zogby Research, about seven in 10 Arab respondents in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE believe it is likely that Arab states will develop normalized ties with Israel even without a peace agreement with Palestinians; a majority of Palestinians (55%) agree. And four in 10 Egyptians, Saudis, and Jordanians say such normalization would be at least somewhat desirable (with about six in 10 saying it would undesirable). These numbers are reversed among Emiratis, who are more inclined to see normalization as desirable (56% vs. 44% who say it is undesirable). Among Palestinians, 69% say normalization is undesirable.

2)Misleading: In contrast with the claims, the main reasons cited by those who say normalization would be desirable is because “the killing has to stop.”
The reason is not because of regional stability and economic prosperity.

Zogby's poll has been misleadingly used on several news websites.

3) Strategic Affairs Ministry Study:
According to a nine-page report based on a survey commissioned by the Strategic Affairs Ministry, 81% of Arab social media users had “negative” comments about the so-called Abraham Accords, while 8% had “very negative” views. Only 5% viewed them in a positive light.

The report found that nearly 90% of the discussions were negative toward the UAE and its signing of the treaty with Israel, with 45% of the posts deeming the agreement as "treason." Additional criticism against the UAE focused on “interacting with Zionists" (27%), UAE hypocrisy (10%), and viewing the agreement as surrendering to US interests (5%).

4) Arab Opinion Index:
A recent regional study by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies [ACRPS] revealed the Gulf region is proportionally the highest for its opposition to normalizing relations with Israel. The survey was carried out by 900 researchers within the MENA region, who conducted 28,000 interviews in 13 countries over a span of 69,578 hours. Nearly 90% of the people surveyed in Qatar and Kuwait rejected the recognition of Israel by their countries, the seventh series of the annual Arab Opinion Index report said.

Arab world attitudes towards the Palestinian cause#ArabOpinionIndex 2019/2020#Palestine pic.twitter.com/CbEEIn7zEN
— Arab Center (@ArabCenter_en) October 6, 2020

There is a huge difference between what is mentioned in the claims about Zogby Research and the results of the Arab Opinion Index.
Ultimately, Misbar found that the claim that the Arab majority supports peace with Israel is baseless.