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

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