On August 12, 2022, Jamal Rayyan, a Palestinian journalist and an anchorman on Qatar's Al-Jazeera network, posted on his Twitter page a virulent article against the UAE. The article claims that the UAE was established by Jewish tycoons as a base for their financial activity and for plotting against the Arab world. It asks how it can be that such a tiny state, which lacks any political history or institutions of culture or thought, and whose citizens are a minority within it, has grown and prospered so quickly and has become one of the most developed countries in western Asia. The only explanation, it says, is that "the Jews are behind the UAE enterprise" and are the ones who actually run it, and it is therefore "a Jewish settlement in the Middle East."
It should be noted that Rayyan has already posted this article in June and September 2020 and June 2021.[1] In fact, it has been circulated on a number of Arab websites under several different bylines. [2]
Jamal Rayyan (Source: Facebook.com/JamalRayya.AJA)
The following are translated excerpts from the article[3]
"This article exposes the secret of the Emirates, which is known to nobody. No one can explain how a tiny country like the so-called UAE, with an area of no more than 75,000 km2, and whose indigenous population currently numbers no more than 800,000, has grown so quickly!! The UAE has no political history or liberation movement, and no institutions of culture or thought. Did Sheikh Zayed breathe life into it using the Ya-Sin Surah of the Qur'an,[4] turning it overnight into a prosperous country with [constant] development and construction and the most developed economy in western Asia?!!
"The truth is that the Jews are behind the establishment of the UAE enterprise. Rich Jews in the West decided to establish a Jewish settlement in the Middle East that would look after their financial interests and trade activities and spare [them] the need to deal with the mother-country [i.e., Israel, which they prefer to avoid] for political and other reasons. Since the establishment of the UAE in 1971, the West has been responsible for [maintaining] its division into six, and later seven, different emirates. Each of these emirates has an emir, an army, a police force, security [apparatuses] and the like, but Abu Dhabi occupies ¾ of the territory, so that the other emirates cannot develop into kernels of [independent] states.
"Even assuming that the number of [indigenous] Emiratis is 750,000, as the official records claim, how does this compare to the number of expats living there, which is 9 million, from 200 countries and belonging to 150 ethnicities?!! Even if each and every Emirati citizen joined the intelligence, security and military apparatuses, they would not be able to defend their country!!
"The amazing thing about the Emirates is that when you enter the country you feel you are in Europe, or in one of the developed Asian countries, in terms of the order, the professional treatment, the discipline, the cleanliness and the grandeur of the streets. Yet it is difficult to find even one indigenous resident. Everything, from the airport to housing, is managed by foreigners… Is it reasonable to assume that the Emiratis, whose thinking and expectations are simple, are running this complicated machine?!
"The UAE, and especially Abu Dhabi, is home to one of the largest concentrations of wealthy tycoons, an estimated 75,000 millionaires, most of whom are Jews. This means that [the UAE] provides a safe haven for this great concentration of wealth. Hence, it comes as no surprise that the one who took Sheikh Zayed by the hand and led him to [normalize relations with] Israel is the Jewish millionaire Haim Saban. The UAE is not just tall buildings, grand streets and trade activity… It is a settlement aimed at plotting against the [Arab] nation.
"The question is, what causes the UAE to be the fifth country [in the world] in terms of expenditure on arms? I ask myself, where is its army and whose borders is it defending? The answer is that all these weapons, acquired in open or secret deals, will be used to plot against the countries of the region. For the UAE is involved in the economic, political and security plans of each and every Arab and Islamic country in the region, and causes chaos within them.
"[Here is a] question: Does anyone in the Al-Zayed [ruling] family have the brains to run these complicated affairs? And all this extensive interference in the affairs of countries thousands of kilometers away from the UAE – does it serve the leaders of this country, [or someone else]? Also, why do the tycoons not control the UAE directly, instead of the Emiratis? The answer to this question is found in the book The International Jew, published in 1921 by Henry Ford, the owner of the Ford company, who wrote that 'the Jews prefer to run the world from behind the scenes.'
"[Another] question: Why did [the tycoons] not choose to manage their wealth in Israel, rather than the UAE? After all, Palestine is a bountiful place, [known for] its natural beauty and strategic location on the coast of the [Mediterranean] Sea. The answer is that Israel is unsuitable for investments, because it is a military entity under constant threat, and holding trade relations with it is not a good idea in the Arab region. In other words, it is unstable. Moreover, Jews are at the forefront of its enterprises!!
"The conclusion is that the UAE has been a Jewish settlement since 1971."
[1] Twitter.com/jamalrayyan, September 24, 28, 2020, June 1, 2021.
[2] For example, on August 17, 2020 it was posted on the website of Iraq's Buratha news agency (burathanews.com) with the byline "Mahmoud Al-Hashemi," and on June 5, 2021 it appeared in Yemen's Al-Watan newspaper with the byline "Yaqin Al-Tamimi." Posting it again on November 10, 2021, Buratha ascribed it to Jamal Rayyan himself, and other websites have also presented it as authored by Rayyan (e.g., saymar.org, August 24, 2021).
[3] Twitter.com/jamalrayyan, August 12, 2022.
[4] An allusion to Verse 33 in Surah 26 of the Qur'an, titled Ya-Sin, which states that Allah gave life to the earth.
