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| Israel's President Isaac Herzog, (L), cuts a ribbon with United Arab Emirates Ambassador to Israel Mohamed Al Khaja during the opening ceremony for the new UAE Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel |
The venue in the heart of Israel’s financial district
highlighted the central role of economic cooperation in their ties since the
UAE became only the third Arab country to recognise the Jewish state. At the
ceremony, attended by new Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Emirati ambassador
Mohamed al-Khaja called the embassy opening “an important milestone in the
growing relationship between our two countries”. “The UAE and Israel are both
innovative nations, we can harness this creativity to work towards a more
prosperous and sustainable future for our countries and our region,” he said.
Herzog called for the “historic agreement” with the UAE to be “extended to
other nations seeking peace with Israel.” Israel and the UAE have signed a raft
of deals ranging from tourism to aviation to financial services since
normalising ties in a deal brokered by former US president Donald Trump’s
administration and announced last August.
Wednesday’s ceremony, held in the lobby of the stock
exchange building two floors below the embassy, came after Israeli Foreign
Minister Yair Lapid made a landmark visit to the UAE last month, opening an
embassy in Abu Dhabi and a consulate in Dubai. The Palestinians were outraged
by the UAE’s decision to establish ties with Israel, which broke with decades of
Arab consensus that there should be no such normalisation without a
comprehensive and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Following
the UAE deal, Israel led by then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu normalised
relations with Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan, in a string deals known as the
Abraham Accords.
Israel and UAE have sought to capitalise on their new ties
with a string of economic agreements. Lapid was an architect of the coalition
that ousted Netanyahu last month, but has, along with Prime Minister Naftali
Bennett, vowed to keep up Netanyahu’s policy of pursuing deeper ties in the
Arab world. While less than a year old, the new agreements with the UAE and
other Arab states have already had the opportunity to prove their resilience,
according to Yoel Guzansky, a researcher at Israel’s Institute for National
Security Studies think-tank. “We have passed a major conflict in Gaza, the
relations have passed a major test,” said Guzansky.
Police confrontations with Muslim worshippers in Jerusalem
in early May escalated into the bloodiest fighting in years, with conflict
erupting between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza. A fragile ceasefire
between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers came into place on May 21, ending 11
days of deadly fighting. “This is a success, no one cancelled an agreement, not
even Sudan and Morocco,” Guzansky noted in an online briefing. Lapid told
Emirati media last month that bilateral trade has reached over $675.22 million
since the signing of the Abraham Accords in September 2020.
The financial benefits of the agreements could also extend to impoverished Gaza, still reeling from the latest round of violence. “Once we have a secure political stability (in Gaza) then of course the investment will come,” said Abdullah Baqer, President of the Israel-UAE Business Council, in the briefing shared with Guzansky. “We will raise funds, we will build schools, we will do charity works to raise the standards of living over there.”