Beyond Performative Support: How the Gulf Can Shift from Two-State Rhetoric to Real Palestinian Leverage

The UAE and Saudi Arabia have recently begun publicly positioning themselves as champions of Palestinian rights: condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocide,” emphasizing Palestinian statehood, and carving out roles as rational regional leaders. Yet, much of this remains tied to the outdated, performative two-state solution — a framework Israel has already rendered impossible tchrough its explicit ambitions to annex the West Bank and maintain absolute control over Gaza.

Furthermore, their impositions surrounding African land acquisition, infrastructure control, poor worker conditions, and resource supply chains tell a different story: one of silent colonization, sovereignty erosion, and recursive dependency. As it currently stands, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are prototypes for a new model of regional imperialism: extractionism, development by displacement, the inhumane exploitation of a low-paid labour force.

But as global attention fixates on Gaza, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh have a chance to break the cycle of suppression — not in Africa, where reversing their biocidal incursions would take years — but in Palestine, where moral courage is needed now.