President Isaac Herzog meets on Dec. 5, 2022, with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi. Photo: GPO/Amos Ben Gershom

i24 News – The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Sunday criticized an Israeli legislation repealing parts of the 2005 Disengagement Law, which banned Jews from staying in certain areas of the northern West Bank.

Last week, Israel’s parliament struck down parts of the law that applied to the evacuated settlements in the northern West Bank, including the much-fought-over community of Homesh. A senior Israeli official denied the motion represents a violation of the agreement, as Israel has no intention of building new housing units in the areas.

In a statement carried by the official WAM news agency, the Emirati foreign ministry stressed the UAE’s “rejection of all practices that violate resolutions on international legitimacy and threaten to further exacerbate escalation and instability in the region.”

It also called “to support all regional and international efforts to advance the peace process in the Middle East, as well as put an end to illegal practices that threaten the two-state solution and establish an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

Earlier this month, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu branded aspects of the 2005 Gaza Disengagement Law “discriminatory and humiliating” against Jews living in their “historical homeland.”

Washington called the move “provocative” and in violation of promises given to the George W. Bush administration in 2005.

The UAE has been among Israel’s closest allies since normalizing the relations in a precedent-setting US-brokered deal in 2020.