Israel-UAE Direct Commercial Flight lands in Abu Dhabi
The historic, first direct commercial flight from Israel to the United Arab Emirates, UAE, left the Ben Gurion International Airport, Tel Aviv for the UAE on Monday, agency reports say.
The Israeli National Carrier, El Al, flight 971, which has on board a joint US-Israeli delegation, headed on the American side by Jared Kushner is also carrying President Donald Trump’s son-in-law as well as the white House Advisor.
AFP reports that the flight landed at the Abu Dhabi International Airport Monday afternoon, thus marking the start of the normalization of ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirate, UAE.
Both countries have been at loggerheads for decades following strained relations between Israel and Palestine.
Palestinian officials on Monday condemned the first direct Israeli flight to Abu Dhabi, which brought American and Israeli officials to the UAE for talks following the normalization deal.
El Al flight 971 ferried senior officials from Washington and Jerusalem to the Emirati capital to flesh out the so-called Abraham Accord between Israel and the UAE, which was brokered by the US and announced earlier this month.
In another historic milestone, the flight by Israel’s national carrier was given permission to fly over Saudi Arabia. El Al painted a peace logo in Arabic, English and Hebrew on its plane, which, like many El Al aircraft, also features the name of an Israeli city or town — in this case, the city of Kiryat Gat, about an hour’s drive southwest of Jerusalem.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called the direct flight between Israel and the UAE “a clear and shameful break with the Arab position” on normalizing relations with Israel.
