UAE Pressed Zionist Lobbies to Make Anti-semitism Claims Against Riyadh

The United Arab Emirates has sought to leverage its post-2021 Abraham Accords ties in Washington to counter Saudi Arabia, pressing at least one prominent pro-Israel organization to raise concerns about alleged antisemitism in the kingdom, according to one current and one former US official. The episode illustrates how a bilateral Gulf rivalry has spilled into US advocacy networks, with Gaza and regional alignments sharpening the divide.

Abraham Accords as Leverage

The American Jewish Committee, which opened a satellite office in Abu Dhabi in 2021 known as The Sidney Lerner Center for Arab-Jewish Understanding, came under Emirati pressure to issue a statement about antisemitism in Saudi Arabia, a current US official told Middle East Eye.

The office’s mandate includes promoting “Muslim-Jewish dialogue,” “Combat antisemitism wherever it appears,” and advancing the 2021 Abraham Accords. Both AJC and the UAE embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which partnered with the UAE in 2023 to launch the Al Manara Centre in Abu Dhabi, issued a statement in January warning of the “increasing frequency and volume of prominent Saudi voices … using openly antisemitic dog whistles and aggressively pushing anti-Abraham Accords rhetoric.”

This article is described as the first report of direct Emirati lobbying tied to such claims.

In January, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt underscored the group’s domestic reach: “I have 40 analysts working full-time 7 days a week, 24 hours a day monitoring ‘extremists.’”

We monitor these people, and we share the intelligence with the FBI. We monitor political islamists and christian nationalists, all of them… We are the largest trainer of law enforcement in America.

ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt

In view of ADL’s partnership with the UAE, including through the 2023 launch of the Al Manara Centre in Abu Dhabi, thier collaboration places an allegedly notorious and aggressive US-based pro-Israeli lobby in direct institutional alignment with an Arab state now engaged in a political dispute with Saudi Arabia.

“This Feud Has Taken on Religious Dimension”

A US official said “This feud has taken on a religious dimension,” noting that allegations of antisemitism could be particularly damaging in Washington.

Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman met AJC and ADL officials during a US visit last month, followed by additional meetings, according to a separate source. A former US official described the outreach as “damage control.”

The rift intensified in December when Riyadh moved against UAE-aligned forces in Yemen. In Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Egypt back the Sudanese army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which are supported by the UAE. Across the Red Sea, Saudi Arabia has deepened ties with Eritrea and Somalia as the UAE strengthens relations with Ethiopia.

Saudi writer Dr. Ahmed bin Othman Al-Tuwaijri accused the UAE of pursuing “the false illusion that the shortest path to revenge is to throw oneself into the arms of Zionism and become Israel’s Trojan horse in the Arab world.”

Writing in Al-Jazirah, he alleged UAE is making efforts “to give Israel a foothold in the Horn of Africa and control Bab al-Mandab,” and claimed, citing leaked documents, that “the Emirati leadership issued explicit directives to prepare military bases to serve Israeli operations in Gaza.”

Gaza and Narrative Control

The Gaza war has deepened the policy divide. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has labeled Israel’s campaign a genocide and conditioned normalization on a Palestinian state along 1967 lines, echoing the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.

Over 72,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, and the United Nations has deemed the war a genocide. The 7 October attack derailed US-brokered talks that would have linked Saudi normalization to US nuclear cooperation, arms sales and a defense treaty.

Israel’s ties with the UAE have remained close though. In December 2025, Israel recognized Somaliland, where the UAE maintains a strategic military base.

The Gaza war has also sharpened divisions within Jewish and pro-Israel discourse globally, complicating efforts by Gulf states to frame criticism of Israel, normalization or the Abraham Accords in binary terms. While organizations such as the ADL and AJC position antisemitism monitoring as central to their mission, some Jewish religious figures have publicly rejected the conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism, particularly in the context of Gaza.

In Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss’s words, “the textbook definition of anti-semitism is the Zionist state of Israel.” He added, “They are the personification of antisemitism. They are killing people in Gaza. They subject anyone who opposes them to terror, including Jews.” He argued the state had “created hatred between Muslims and Jews.”

For Gulf states, the dispute now operates on multiple fronts - Yemen, Sudan, the Horn of Africa and Washington advocacy circles. The Abraham Accords, signed in 2021, have provided new diplomatic channels. They have also introduced a fresh arena for contestation, where charges of antisemitism, normalization and regional alignment carry strategic weight far beyond the Gulf.