Israel nears 800k vaccinated; Israel-Gulf ties in 2021
After Israel entered a new lockdown the tourist flood to Dubai slowed, but there are high hopes for the new year
Israel and Bahrain are world leaders in vaccinations per capita, with Israel approaching ten percent of its population receiving the first jab of the Pfizer vaccine. Around 800,000 had been vaccinated by the end of 2020. This likely means that despite a new lockdown in Israel that ended the flow of up to 70,000 people between Dubai and Tel Aviv in November-December, tourism will return soon. In addition flights are expected to begin to Bahrain.
See below the highlights from the last week in Israel-Gulf ties.
We surveyed key people in the Gulf and Israel in December to see their views of what to expect in 2021 and everyone from business to religious leaders and diplomats were optimistic. “The relationship between Israel and its new partners in the UAE and Bahrain will deepen substantially in 2021,” says Dorian Barak, Co-Founder of the UAE-Israel Business Council. Rabbi Yehuda Sarna, Chief Rabbi of the Jewish Council of the Emirates, said he predicted “we will see the expansion of Jewish life in the United Arab Emirates.” Najat AlSaied predicted more collaboration in academia, joint publications and collaboration in the health industry (read her recent article at The Jerusalem Post).
The Peres Center for Peace and Innovation is hoping to play a key role in the new innovative partnerships that will develop between Israel and the Gulf. The Gulf is a hub that connects to billions of people from Africa to Asia and the recent delegation from the Peres Center sees many places to work together (read about their delegation). Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum returned from a trip to Bahrain spotlighting new tourism ties and the potential Manama offers, as well as how it differs from Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Erel Margalit, the Israeli high-tech entrepreneur, founder and Executive Chairman of the Jerusalem-based venture capital firm Jerusalem Venture Partners went to the UAE earlier this year and looks forward to expanding his vision to the Gulf. Stay tuned for an upcoming interview with him in our next newsletter.
The buzz in Israel-Gulf business and others partnerships focuses on sectors such “greentech,” agriculture technology, cyber, fintech and health and artificial intelligence. The Gulf offers Israeli start-ups a chance to scale up their operations or tap new markets and gives companies there access to Israel’s technological know-how. That is on display with the new Fluence MOU with Oasis investments in the UAE. We spoke to Thani Al-Shirawi Deputy Managing Director of Oasis investments about his hopes for partnering with Fluence on water filtration. “After normalization, with Israel being advanced in the water filtration business it was a no brainer to look for a partner in Israel to use the know-how they have achieved instead of reinventing the wheel,” he said.
Eric Mandel, director of MEPIN, agrees with this assessment and wrote a piece about it at the Israel Gulf Report. “Today’s new normalization agreements are essential for all of the parties' economic interests and security benefits. First world economies like Dubai and Israel can quickly take advantage of each other's expertise and access to the world,” he says.
Laura Kam of Kam Global Strategies wrote a piece that discussed the hunger she found in the UAE for moving forward with Israeli partnerships. That includes the many expats based in the Gulf. “While in Dubai, I heard many high-level Emiratis speak at the conferences I attended, but the people I actually met with face-to-face to discuss business were indeed Indian and British, as well as Kuwaiti, Syrian and Jordanian. To be sure trust needs to develop, and of course we need to understand and deal with cultural differences, but take it slow? Those I met seem to want to move full speed ahead,” she notes.
Check out the interview with Sobha Realty’s PNC Menon about his vision for real estate and Israeli investment in Dubai. Also Israel’s Watergen on display at Khalifa Industrial Zone. A number of fashion figures from Israel, such as Aseel Khattab, went to Dubai in December.
For Christmas season we published a new piece by expert tour guide Matt Churchill on Herodium, and why the famous palace of Herod is linked to the holiday.
Upcoming events include a Tel Aviv International Salon ‘UAE and Israel: The Business of Peace’ event with UAE’s Dr. Sabah al-Binali and OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved on January 5. David Weinberg will speak at JPC on January 7. Israel is also expected to move forward with embassy and consulate openings in the UAE and Bahrain. These will be important missions for Israel. As Israel enters a new election period there is lack of clarity on if a high level visit will take place by Israel’s Prime Minister to the Gulf. There is a lot of excitement for the re-scheduled EXPO 2020 to be held in October 2021 with a large Israeli presence. In addition Israeli companies are looking to exhibit at IDEX in February. Visa and bureaucratic hurdles that created some confusion in December are expected to be worked out in the next months. Israel’s new era of relations with Sudan and Morocco is also expected to underpin the possibility for more possibilities with Riyadh and possibilities of investment by Saudi Arabia companies in Israeli companies (see reports here and here).
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