Nir Elias/Pool Photo via AP
Kushner’s flight of fancy from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi
The headlines in the Emirati papers proclaimed peace. “Salam, Shalom,” read one. “We’re rewriting the script for a new Middle East,” read another, quoting a line from Trump adviser Jared Kushner, who had just landed in Abu Dhabi on a flight from Tel Aviv. These front pages encapsulated how the Israel–United Arab Emirates accord is being publicized in the heavily guarded press of the Emirates, where criticism of the government is unwelcome.
Another depiction, absent from the UAE press but on the minds of many across the Middle East, showed the Emiratis capitulating to Israeli power—and getting spat on in return.
In that depiction, Jordanian cartoonist Emad Hajjaj drew a bird dropping splashed across the face of an Emirati who bears a likeness to Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the powerful crown prince who is often called MBZ. In the editorial cartoon, the MBZ look-alike holds a chubby dove labeled with an Israeli flag, but a splatter in the shape of an F-35 jet drips down his cheek and onto his grotesquely large nose. Two days earlier, Israel had rejected the Emirates’ request for American fighter jets, an embarrassment given that one of the incentives for peacemaking was unlocking U.S. military hardware reserved for allies of Israel.
The 53-year-old cartoonist posted the image online and was summoned later that day to Jordan’s Cyber Crime Unit. After being held in custody overnight, the Jordanian State Security Prosecutor charged him with violating the counterterrorism law for mocking a “sisterly” country and sent him to prison. It was the first time that Hajjaj had been arrested in his entire career of lampooning Arab and Israeli leaders.
Emad Hajjaj
Though criticism of Emirati normalization with Israel has largely been muted across the Arab region, the arrest of Hajjaj this week fomented solidarity with the cartoonist on social media. For many Jordanians and Arabs, the cartoon represented how unpopular the deal was—confirming, as it does, the power that Israel wields over Arab states, the lack of equal footing between Israel and the Emirates, and the absence of Palestine from the arrangement.
Rolled out as a PR exercise in mid-August, the deal was depicted as a foreign-policy win for the Trump administration, though it lacked substance or new particulars to build upon. In fact, the UAE and Israel have quietly enjoyed excellent relations for years, with businessmen ferrying back and forth between the two countries on private jets. Cooperation on security matters and more recently in the response to COVID has been widely reported.
The Trump administration, perhaps desperate for a pre-election diplomatic triumph, framed the deal as Israel halting the annexation of the occupied Palestinian Territory in exchange for peace. But it contained no guarantee that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would cease or mitigate his destructive policies, and, as the facts on the ground plainly show, his government has effectively already annexed the West Bank. For their part, the Emirates have heavily invested in their relationship with the Trump White House after testiness with the Obama administration, and this deal offered them a chance to give Trump a boost while also boxing in a potential Democratic administration. If Biden were to win, one analyst told me, his team would have to forge closer relations with MBZ because of new support from Israel and its friends in Washington.
The silence, many observers told me, doesn’t reflect the accord’s popularity, but rather the soft power that the United Arab Emirates exerts across the Middle East.
But why have so few Arab leaders, with the exception of the Palestinians, come out against the deal? Where are the protests in Arab capitals? Some syndicates and critical journalists condemn normalization but without mentioning the Emirates by name. The silence, many observers told me, doesn’t reflect the accord’s popularity, but rather the soft power that the United Arab Emirates exerts across the Middle East. Most countries rely on remittances from their citizens living in the wealthy Gulf state as well as various forms of aid from the Emirates. And no one wants to be subjected to a concerted campaign against them, as the Qataris have faced since their 2017 split with the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Perhaps that’s why Emad Hajjaj’s cartoon was so potent, and why the Jordanian government punished him for it. Though Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1994, many Jordanians are critical of it, and even Prince Ali bin Hussein, the Jordanian king’s half brother, tweeted against the new accord. The Kingdom of Jordan, by no means a democracy, has distinguished itself as the Middle East’s most stable and quiet country. “Our guys are just being very careful and very afraid of the Emiratis,” Hajjaj told me hours after Kushner had landed in Abu Dhabi.
But the Jordanian government also cares about its image in international media. Hajjaj was released on bail on Sunday after a wave of support from international press watchdogs and human rights groups, as well as the torrent of tweets in support of his cartoons. His case was transferred to civil court, but the satirist faces the threat of further penalties.
Jordan, according to human rights watch experts, has increased its surveillance on Twitter and Facebook, trying to catch up to new media trends. The government has also issued gag orders to eliminate coverage of recent teachers union strikes, in which police beat up two journalists (and two others were arrested for writing about the labor demonstrations). The government has many laws at its disposal to muzzle critics, and the arrest of Hajjaj is part of a trend of constricting free expression.
“One of the main reasons we see repressive governments acting this way is the unconditional support of the United States,” Khalid Ibrahim of the Gulf Center for Human Rights told me. A State Department official would not comment on the specifics of Hajjaj’s case and only wrote, “The United States values the right of freedom of expression in all countries,” directing me to the government of Jordan, which declined to comment. Neither the Emirati nor the Israeli embassies in Washington responded to requests.
Hajjaj has been drawing in Jordan for 30 years and has become a household name, with his Homer Simpson–like character Abu Mahjoob capturing class inequalities and internal politics of the kingdom. His daily output of political cartoons laughs at failed American interventions, the brutal Israeli occupation of Palestinians, and the incompetent leaders in neighboring Arab states. “It’s my right as a cartoonist,” Hajjaj told me. “But look what happened: I was treated like a big criminal.”
Last Thursday, Hajjaj found himself standing in line with hundreds of prisoners for intake at the Balqa Correction and Rehabilitation Center. Jordan is experiencing a second wave of coronavirus cases, but there were no masks or social distancing outside the facility. One of the prison guards recognized the cartoonist, however, and ushered him away from the crowd for a private search. Hajjaj was relieved. In a dark room, he had his fingerprints and mug shot taken. Though the government tried to stamp out his voice, he was still popular with his jailer. “Definitely I’ll draw something about this guy,” said Hajjaj.
