Emirates advances 2021 plan to invest $10 billion in Israel
With a new Israeli government that is stable and committed to the Abraham Accords, the Emiratis are moving forward on their 2021 pledge to invest $10 billion in the country.
When former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was supposed to visit the Emirates after the signing of the Abraham Accords, the visit never happened. Still, Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince and de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates, used the occasion to announce that the UAE would pursue $10 billion in investments in Israel.
A joint Israeli-Emirati fund was to be established in invest in Israeli companies in the fields of energy, industry, infrastructure and water use, space, health and agritech. Bin Zayed said that the fund would operate and be managed privately, not by the government, and that it would realize the goals of the Abraham Accords: to establish partnerships and build connections to benefit the people of the Middle East and to advance the whole region. He said the initiative “demonstrates the benefits of peace by improving the lives of the region’s peoples. It is a manifestation of the new spirit of friendship and cooperation.”
But since then, Netanyahu was ousted. Under the new government headed by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, Lapid and other ministers have visited the Emirates, but Abu Dhabi has kept quiet about its investment promise. Israel seemed to have given up hope, announcing the creation of a joint investment fund for research and development with the Emirates with much smaller funding of $30 million shekels ($9.4 million) a year.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited the Emirates Jan. 31, just as it was attacked by rockets that killed three people. The messages of solidarity were well taken by his hosts, and the meetings between Herzog, Bin Zayed and other senior officials received wide coverage in the media.
