UAE announces $10 billion Israel investment fund; travel corridor, Int'l women's day celebrated
The United Arab Emirates new Ambassador to Israel Mohamed Al Khaja has hit the ground running since he arrived on March 1. He has praised the warm welcome he received and recently announced that the UAE and Israel are in talks to establish a quarantine-free travel corridor, with the aim of finalizing and implementing the agreement in April 2021 (read more here).
Al Khaja was welcomed by Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi. "We have a historic opportunity to present a model of warm and comprehensive peace between countries and peoples. The opening of Foreign Ministry missions in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and the opening of the Emirates' Embassy in Israel are critical to establishing bilateral relations and promoting peace. I am happy to see the rapid warming of relations between the countries, and the realization of the vision of peace between cultures and people," Ashkenazi said. Since then Al Khaja has met with Israel’s President and Prime Minister, as well as the Tourism Minister Orit Farkash, Shai-Lee Spigelman, Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology and other key officials.
Mohamed Al Khaja meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi (Courtesy Israel MFA).
The smooth meetings of Al Khaja were in some contrast to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu postponing a trip to the UAE that was scheduled for Thursday, March 11. It was unclear if a dispute with Jordan about flyover rights was the main reason. It makes the fourth postponement of a visit after visits were put off in February 2021 and November and December of last year. Covid has made the trip more difficult and there are Israeli elections coming up.
A silver lining of the cancelled trip was the announcement that following a phone call “His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, has received from Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of the State of Israel, the United Arab Emirates has announced the establishment of a $10 billion (Dh36 billion) fund aimed at strategic sectors in Israel,” Gulf News noted.
In the wake of IDEX Israel’s IAI and UAE’s EDGE have signed an MOU to develop counter-drone technology. This is very important because of emerging drone threats in the region. These include off-the-shelf quadcopters and advanced drones Iran has supplied to groups like the Houthis.
Drone Guard by IAI (Courtesy)
Israel’s IAI makes Drone Guard a system that can detect drones, track them, and then use electro optics and jammers to confirm the threat prevent it. Faisal Al Bannai, CEO and Managing Director, EDGE, said: “In line with the recent Abraham Accords and the UAE’s newly established cooperation and spirit of collaboration with Israel, EDGE and IAI are joining forces to deal with this growing threat.” Read our full report.
This week we also spoke with Danny Sebright of the US-UAE Business Council about the Abraham Accords. See the full report.
Important news from Bahrain continues to showcase the growing relations that underpin the new peace ties. A direct mail agreement has been signed so mail can be sent from Israel. There is also a new kippah from Bahrain, which was seen in the wake of the Purim event. “Over the last few months, we’ve experienced an influx of Jewish tourists who are coming to Bahrain and want to visit our synagogue (the oldest in the Gulf) and Jewish cemetery (the only operational one in the Gulf) and that interest has further increased since the announcement of the Association of Gulf Jewish Communities last month,” said Ambassador Houda Nonoo. See her tweet.
On March 8, for International Women’s Day we interviewed Nonoo and Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, co-founder of the UAE-Israel Business Council. Hassan-Nahoum said “International Women’s Day is especially important in connection with the relationship between Israel and the Gulf because women have taken the lead in peace building in our region. The Gulf Israel Women’s Forum – which I co-founded – is constantly organizing peer-to-peer networks for women across the Gulf and Israel. The women in our group play a key role in nurturing this new friendship and educating the next generation toward this goal.”
There are also new advances in Green Tech and Digital Banking, see one of the reports here. Arona Maskil also wrote about working with colleagues in the UAE.
As air travel begins to open up again in Israel there are hopes for a quarantine-free travel corridor with the UAE and Israel. See reports here. Meanwhile travel to the US has re-opened to Israel but it is unclear if it will expand. United Airlines briefly had to cancel several flights.
In other news the Pope travelled to Iraq where he held interfaith meetings, a symbol of coexistence potential in the region. The US held a Strategic Consultative Group meeting with Israel on March 11. Israel sent aid to Equatorial Guinea in Africa. Turkey continues to try to hint at normalization of ties with Egypt, Israel and discussions with Greece. It also had high level talks with Qatar and Russia about Syria. Meanwhile Israel conducted the Noble Dina naval exercise with Cyprus and France for the first time, alongside Greece. Saudi Arabia hosted key meetings with Sudan, Jordan, Malaysia and other states. The Noble Dina drill is important because increasingly Israel and the UAE have close ties to Greece and France. Next year’s exercise could see Arab naval participation.
Israel diplomats voted in their Israeli elections from the Gulf for the first time.
Rabbie Elie Abadi “senior Rabbi of the Jewish Council of the Emirates was presented with an American flag that was flown in his honour by Operation Unified Community. The flag was given to him by Chaplain, Lt Col Joshua Payne.” See a new AP report on the Jewish community in the Gulf.
A look back at a famous coexistence photo.
Israeli head of mission Eitan Na’eh held a meeting with the Abu Dhabi Chamber, a key voice in business.
A hackathon is bringing together Israelis and people from the Gulf. There is also a joint rugby match, which comes after a cycling event in late February.
We look forward to learning more about DMCC’s Ahmed bin Sulayem’s hand carry gold regulation discussions. “I would like to highlight its second recommendation that calls to ‘Strengthen policies and enforcement in Dubai,’” he has said.
Overall it has been another two weeks of important and symbolic events in ties between Israel and the Gulf.