Fortunately I do not have (and did not have) to deal with these kinds of restrictions.
I do not know to which level of “censoring” they go.
I know next to nothing about the UAE and the situation there.
What I do know is that changing your DNS provider to one that is not supplied by your internet provider
may be able to circumvent some primitive measures.
search term: custom DNS
A real VPN (and trustworthy) may be the only option you have.
And Mullvad for $ 5 a month may be well worth it.
It is also not a long term subscription - is is totally unproblematic to pay for one month and then discontinue/abandon the service until you may want to use it once again.
$ 5,- is all you need - instead of committing to a year long plan.