8 | JUNE 3 • 2021 

PURELY COMMENTARY

guest column
Israel and the United Arab Emirates
L

ast this month, the 
newly appointed Emirati 
Ambassador to Israel, 
Mohamed al Khaja, met with 
leaders in Israel to create a task 
force aiming to collaborate on 
innovation, technology, entre-
preneurship and 
driving economic 
growth between 
Israel and the 
UAE. The Emirati 
ambassador said 
there is “an ave-
nue of opportuni-
ties between the 
UAE and Israel just waiting to 
be harnessed.
” 
Like most fellow Israelis, I, 
too, am celebrating the newly 
found normalization with the 
UAE and Bahrain because of the 
Abraham Accords. Recently, I 
had the great fortune to spend 
five days in Dubai and Abu 
Dhabi, feeling very welcomed 
by our new friends and awed by 
my immersion in the cultural 
and cosmopolitan wonderland.
The United Arab Emirates 
(UAE) is made up of seven 
territories ruled by dynastic 
Arab monarchs (emirs). Dubai 

and Abu Dhabi, the capital, 
are the most populous and 
the most visited. Only 10% of 
the country’s population of 
9.7 million are Emiratis. The 
remaining 90% are foreign 
workers with resident status 
from Egypt, Pakistan, India and 
the Philippines, in addition to 
a significant affluent business 
community from the U.S. and 
Europe. Prior to the discovery 
of oil in the 1950s, the UAE’s 
principal industries were pearl 
harvesting and fishing. Today its 
economy, the most competitive 
in the Arab world, is on 

par with Western European 
countries. 
The UAE Israel Business 
Council is an interesting 
byproduct of the recent 
Accords. Its members, leaders 
from the public and business 
sectors of both countries, aim 
to foster connections between 
Israelis and Emiratis in the fields 
of innovation and technology. 
A taxation treaty currently 
under development could 
transform the UAE into one of 
Israel’s leading trade partners, 
with an expected $2 billion in 
trade in the coming year and up 

to $6.5 billion within a decade. 
A highlight of the visit was 
being hosted at the site of 
the upcoming World Expo 
in Dubai. Still called Expo 
2020 despite its deferral due 
to COVID 19, it will open 
in October 2021 to host 192 
countries in an environmentally 
sustainable city created 
especially for the event. It 
will focus on the themes of 
opportunity, mobility and 
sustainability. 
The impressive Israeli 
pavilion, titled ‘Towards 
Tomorrow,
’ is symbolically 
devoid of walls in the exhibition 
hall. It will showcase technology 
and innovations in water, health, 
information and hi-tech.
Thanks to the Abraham 
Accords, Israel and the UAE are 
off to an exciting partnership 
with tremendous potential for 
friendship and cooperation. 

Naomi Miller is the director of Israel 
partnerships at the Michigan Israel 
Business Accelerator (MIBA) and 
director of Missions and Exchanges 
at the Jewish Federation of 
Metropolitan Detroit. This was first 
published in the MIBA newsletter.

Naomi Miller

Naomi Miller in 
Dubai’s Old City.

Black-Jewish Unity

The Coalition for Black and 
Jewish Unity of Metro Detroit 
stands in solidarity with the 
State of Israel in the current 
conflict with Hamas. We 
applaud the current ceasefire 
on both sides and urge the 
State of Israel to continue to 
take care and caution to avoid 
civilian casualties among the 
Palestinian people. 
 This violent conflict, the 
first major one since 2014, is 

between Israel and Hamas, a 
terrorist organization seeking 
the total destruction of Israel. It 
is not a conflict between Israel 
and the Palestinian people. 
Hamas does not care about 
Palestinians, nor Israelis, and 
continues to put Palestinian 
civilians in harm’s way. Thus, 
Hamas must be disarmed and 
eradicated from Gaza and the 
region. 
 We call for peace in the 
region brought on by diplo-
macy rather than bullets and 

bombs. All loss of life — 
Palestinian or Israeli — is trag-
ic. We call upon Israeli Prime 
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 
and Israeli leaders to continue 
to use restraint when it comes 
to Palestinian civilian targets. 
 Israel had evidence that 
the Palestinian building that 
housed international journal-
ists also housed Hamas intel-
ligence operatives; Israel gave 
a warning for the building to 
be vacated before demolishing 
it so there were no casual-

ties. Nevertheless, this action 
opened Israel up to criticism by 
the international community. 
 The Coalition for Black and 
Jewish Unity reiterates its posi-
tion that Israel has the right 
and duty to defend itself when-
ever attacked by any entity 
that seeks its total destruction 
and annihilation. If a two-state 
solution is ever to be achieved, 
then Israelis and Palestinians 
must do what Dr. Martin 
Luther King Jr. said, “Learn to 
live together as brothers and 

letters

continued on page 10

