Given the shift toward a more aggressive approach in Gaza, Qatar is expected to try and stall for Hamas once again. Therefore, it’s crucial to remember that Qatar is working to advance goals that align with Hamas, not with objectives that are compatible with Israel’s existence.
At the UN podium last week, Qatar’s prime minister, who serves as the chief mediator between Israel and Hamas, declared his support for the Palestinian state initiative. He added that justice for the Palestinian people has been delayed for nearly eighty years.
The selection of this date is significant. While Qatar officially supports a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, it actively promotes a narrative that the state of Israel has no right to exist. From Doha’s perspective, the central issue is not 1967 but 1948. A few days after the UN address, the editor of the Qatari newspaper Al-Sharq, which the Qatari ruling family owns, posted a picture from Jaffa in 1948. He claimed that Jews had brutalized the residents of Jaffa without any provocation or the pretense of kidnapped soldiers. This statement disregarded the continuous gunfire from Jaffa toward Tel Aviv, which had resulted in over 1,000 casualties.
The Qatari media provides ample evidence of this ideology. For instance, Al Jazeera uses the term “settlement” for communities established before 1967. This approach was evident in reports about cities like Karmiel, which was founded in 1964.
This line of thinking is reflected in Qatar through numerous art events, cultural exhibitions, and fairs that have promoted images and displays of the entire map of the Land of Israel under the colors of the Palestinian flag. These symbols are also featured in Palestinian schools in Doha. Such maps have appeared in official photographs of visits by senior officials, including the Commissioner-General of UNRWA and Qatari officials like the Minister of Education.
It is therefore unsurprising that this same Minister of Education has authored heroic poems praising terrorists such as Muhammad Deif. Similarly, in 2024, educational and cultural forums in Qatar still held discussions about the “Muqawama,” an abbreviation for Hamas and the resistance to the existence of the state of Israel.
Amid social media reports of Israel being erased from Qatar Airways maps, it should be noted that this is not a new practice. Reports from the early 2000s already documented that Qatari schools were removing Israel from their maps, and Qatari airports had also done this in 2017.
The Emir himself has made this position explicit. In September 2024, he declared at the UN podium that “with all that has taken place and continues to take place, it is no longer tenable to speak of Israel’s right to defend itself in this context without being complicit in justifying the crime.”
However, Gaza is merely a pretext. Two months before the October 7 attack, Qatar submitted a written legal opinion to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, accusing Israel of numerous crimes. The opinion stated: “Israel’s intention to maintain domination over Palestinians can be traced back to its establishment as a State in 1948, and the expulsion of half of the indigenous population of Palestine from their homes during the Nakba.”
This one-sided view, which includes historical distortions, suggests that Qatar still does not recognize Israel’s right to exist.
Another round of talks in Doha has failed, and the truth is plain to see: Qatar is not a partner, but a saboteur. Its so-called “help” is nothing more than a cover for its hostility. To move forward in Gaza, we must stop deluding ourselves and immediately remove Qatar from the equation.
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