Just before the Covid-19 variant Omicron shuts down Israel’s borders to foreign visitors, Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi, the Minister of State Entrepreneurship from the United Arab Emirates, visited Israel for a whirlwind tour to cement the Abraham Accords.
United Arab Emirates ambassador to Israel Mohamed Al Khaja joined them.
The Abraham Accords is a treaty between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and the United States reached on August 13, 2020 to develop sustainable business relationships between Israel and the UAE. The hope is peace treaties between Israel and other Arab states. So far relationships have started in energy and water.
Mid-November, Al Falasi visited the city of Tel Aviv, guided by the Israeli Minister of Tourism Yoel Razvozov and Mayor of Tel Aviv-Yafo Ron Huldai. As part of the tour, they visited the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation in Jaffa, on the way they stopped at the observatory deck in Jaffa to take in the views of Tel Aviv.
Mayor Ron Huldai then showed Israel’s guests around the Rothschild area, where history meets modernity, explaining its current significance for the city. We hope they didn’t get hit by electric bikes while they were walking because the city is fraught with violent speeding electric bikes and mopeds that neither the city nor the police can control.
The delegation continued onto “The Library” – located in an historic building off of the boulevard and founded by the the municipality, it provides a working space for startups and entrepreneurs.
Founders of Tel Aviv start-ups got the chance to meet the reps from the UAE and expressed wanting to meet with them all again soon. With shared problems such as water, and combined talents and resources: start ups and energy, the United Arab Emirates and Israel could do extraordinary things in clean tech, energy and water.
