DUBAI (MEMO) – An Emirati academic and professor of political science has revealed the result of a recent opinion poll which suggests that a large majority of his fellow UAE citizens, 71 percent of respondents, oppose normalizing relations with the Zionist regime and consider it a negative step. “As far as I know,” said Dr Abdul Khaliq Abdullah on Twitter, “no Emirati has gone to Israel for a holiday this summer. If any did, they went secretly, ashamed and in hiding.” The “farce” of welcoming the occupying regime to the UAE, he added, seems to have come to an end.

According to the opinion poll shared by Abdullah, as many as 35 percent of Emiratis regard normalization with Israel as “very negative”, while 36 percent of respondents said it was “slightly negative”.

The Zionist regime and the UAE signed an agreement to normalize relations on 14 September, 2020, under the auspices of former U.S. president Donald Trump.