When their government approved direct routes connecting Tel Aviv and Doha during the World Cup of soccer, a group of Qatari activists fighting towards normalising relations with Israel expressed dismay.
Qatari activists slam their own government over World Cup flights
Small but noteworthy in a country where people seldom ever criticise the government, the demonstration was organised by Qatar Youth Against Normalization, a vociferous organisation of 24 members, the majority of whom were Qataris. It “has come as a shock to us that Qatar has entered new regions of normalisation days coming up to the World Cup with the revelation that direct flights will now run between apartheid Israel and Doha,” the organisation declared late on Thursday.
Requests for comment made to the World Cup organisers, the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, as well as FIFA, the international governing body of soccer, did not receive a response right away.
Israeli and Palestinian supporters who qualify can now attend the World Cup, which is taking place from November 20 to December 18, according to an agreement that FIFA said on Thursday it helped arrange between Qatar and Israel, two countries that do not have formal diplomatic ties. The deal on flights, according to a Qatari official, does not alter his country’s position toward Israel, he told Reuters on Thursday.
While Qatar’s Gulf neighbours Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates established ties with Israel in 2020 as a result of agreements mediated by the United States, According to Qatar, normalisation with Israel entails the establishment of a Palestinian state. The official stated that the flying deal “is part of Qatar’s commitment to FIFA’s hosting standards and it should not be politicised.”
The Qatari official said that Palestinians, including those residing in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, will be permitted to board flights to Doha from Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport. The flight deal was hailed as “a historic achievement and an essential move that also has tremendous promise to promote people-to-people relationships and economic partnerships” by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken late on Thursday.