Last year Merakh Karah, 23, from the Druze village of Dalyat al-Karmel, achieved a childhood dream and became the first Druze Arab flight attendant for the Israeli El Al airline, a position that had always been blocked to the Arab public in Israel. This was a burning issue for many years, and was the subject of a 1999 Knesset debate under the heading “The employment of an Arab flight attendant at the El Al airline.” It came up again in 2005 when it was revealed that Nasrin Abu Rabia had been removed from the El Al flight attendant course because she is Muslim. 

Despite this grim picture, it seems that the normalization agreements Israel recently signed with two Gulf states, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, will open a new era for the Arab Israeli community, as I discussed in a previous article, in building bridges and connections with the Arab world. This time the news comes from the Israeli airline Arkia, which decided to train Arab flight attendants for flights to Dubai, following the formation of the air train from Israel to Dubai, which includes several daily flights from Ben Gurion International Airport to the Persian Gulf. 

There’s no doubt that in recent weeks, with all the restrictions of the coronavirus era, the Gulf states have become attractive to Israelis, Jews and Arabs alike, whether for tourism or business. More and more Arab citizens are boarding the flights in order to enjoy a wealth of tourist attractions offered in these countries. Arkia has recognized the commercial potential in Arab passengers, and is now advancing a process to integrate young people from the Arab community to work for the company. We will soon see Arab flight attendants, thanks to the new diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco. Perhaps what is behind this unprecedented move is that, as any intelligent person knows, the Arab public in Israel prefers to stay away and not fly with Israeli companies because of the humiliating treatment they have experienced every time they seek to board a flight, as I explained in a previous article. 

The CEO of Arkia International, Oz Berlowitz, told Al-Monitor, “We began the operation of flights to Dubai two weeks ago, and we fly three, four flights a day. This year we decided to put an emphasis on the Arab public, among other things, following the normalization agreements that were recently signed, and we decided to bring the Arab community closer to Israeli airlines, because there has always been a distance between Arab passengers and Israeli companies. So we wanted to bring them in and persuade them to fly with Israeli companies in general and Arkia in particular. We are in touch with many Arab travel agents in order to advance business relations and bring the Arab community closer to Arkia, as I’ve said.”