Friday 29 March 2024 
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Israel-UAE deal: Abu Dhabi-bound plane named after Israeli city sparks controversy

The name Kiryat Gat etched on the side of a plane carrying a US-Israeli delegation to the UAE has caused a stir online, with many recalling the Nakba

The first direct commercial flight between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which took place on Monday, has been criticised for carrying a US-Israeli delegation seeking to finalise a normalisation accord between Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi.

But the outside of the plane has also stoked controversy, due to the name of the aircraft plastered on its fuselage below the cockpit.

The city Kiryat Gat, after which the plane is named, has led some Palestinians to take to social media to bring up the history of the land upon which the Israeli municipality was built.

Kiryat Gat, which lies almost 70km southwest of Al-Quds, was built in 1954 on the foundations of the Palestinian village of Iraq al-Manshiyya.

Iraq al-Manshiyya and nearby al-Faluja were among at least 418 Palestinian villages depopulated around the time of the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 - referred to by Palestinians as the Nakba, or catastrophe - during which thousands of Palestinians were killed and hundreds of thousands of inhabitants were forced to flee, only to later be denied the right of return.

Iraq al-Manshiyya and al-Faluja also hold particular significance as the places where an armistice was agreed upon between Israel and Egypt on 24 February 1949 - only to be broken shortly thereafter by Israel after a well-orchestrated campaign of psychological warfare and violence was exacted against the villagers.

In December 1972, Kiryat Gat’s municipal status was upgraded and it became Israel’s 31st city. It continued to expand and in 1992 spread to include the land formerly belonging to al-Faluja.

The history behind the name on a plane carrying Israeli officials to normalise diplomatic relations with an Arab state felt for some social media users like adding insult to injury.

 




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