Israeli national flags fly alongside national flags of the United Arab Emirates on the side of a road in Netanya, Israel, Monday, August 17, 2020.
Loup Kobi | Bloomberg | Getty Images
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Israel and the United Arab Emirates signed a multibillion-dollar free trade agreement on Tuesday, the latest product of the two countries’ landmark 2020 normalization agreement known as the Peace Accords. Abraham.
With a stated goal of increasing annual bilateral trade to more than $10 billion over the next five years, the trade deal is the largest ever between Israel and an Arab country. It covers 96% of trade between the two Middle Eastern countries, which reached 885 million dollars last year, according to the Israeli Minister of Economy.
To illustrate the speed and extent of trade between the UAE and Israel that has taken place since the establishment of the two official relations in August 2020, this bilateral figure is more than double the volume of Israel’s trade with the United Arab Emirates. Egypt in 2021, which was $330 million. – and Israel and Egypt have had a peace agreement since 1979.
Israeli Economy and Industry Minister Orna Barbivai and her counterpart, UAE Economy Minister Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, signed the agreement in Dubai after months of negotiations.
The signing opened “a new chapter in the history of the Middle East”, wrote Emirati Trade Minister Thani Al Zeyoudi on . “Our agreement will accelerate growth, create jobs and usher in a new era of peace, stability and prosperity across the region. »
For Jon Medved, CEO of crowdfunding platform OurCrowd and a venture capitalist on the Israeli tech scene, trust between the two countries is key to seeing more investment.
“Trust isn’t something you can build in a month or two, but I think there’s tremendous goodwill out there,” Medved told CNBC’s Dan Murphy before the deal was signed. His company has already invested in the UAE, hired employees in the Gulf and received regulatory status from Abu Dhabi Global Market, a free zone in the UAE.
“While I think trust is not something you snap your fingers at and it happens instantly, I think there are steps being taken at the political level and at the human level that create trust and that is going to lead to extraordinary business opportunities,” Medved said.
The signing of the agreement came amid renewed violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
On Monday, thousands of Israeli nationalists surrounded the Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem, Islam’s third holiest site, chanting anti-Muslim slurs, some physically attacking Palestinians and a few arrested for spraying a Palestinian journalist with tear gas. Protesters had gathered to commemorate Israel’s capture of Jerusalem’s Old City in the 1967 Six-Day War.
The UAE Foreign Ministry on Monday condemned in a statement what it described as the “storming” of the Al-Aqsa compound by “extremist settlers under the protection of Israeli forces”. He also called on the Israeli authorities “to take responsibility for reducing the escalation and ending all attacks and practices that lead to the continuation of tensions”.
Other towns and villages in the West Bank have also been the scene of violence and attacks on homes in Palestinian neighborhoods by groups of Israelis. More than 160 Palestinians were injured, some of whom were hit by live ammunition after staging a counter-protest, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett condemned extremist behavior and promised that anyone involved would be arrested.
On Monday, media who had been invited to the signing of the trade deal were told they could no longer attend, Archyde.com reported, noting that no reason was given for the sudden change.
Al Aqsa is located in the Arab-majority Old City of East Jerusalem, which has been annexed by Israel since 1967 but is not internationally recognized. Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories is classified by the United Nations as a violation of international law.
The growing economic relationship between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, a Muslim country officially supportive of a Palestinian state, has so far remained largely untouched by political differences between the countries over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.