Dubai billionaire urges Arabs to get cozy with Israel
Rights and Accountability 5 June 2018
Dubai-based billionaire Khalaf Al Habtoor called on Arabs to “deal with” Israel, in a piece published by Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz this week.
Al Habtoor is one of the richest people in the United Arab Emirates. He is the founder of Al Habtoor Group, a conglomerate that built Dubai International Airport and several high-rises in the city, as well as being a dealer in luxury cars.
In his piece, Al Habtoor writes that Israelis will receive “untold benefits” if Palestinians are granted their equal rights under one state, including “inflows of investments from the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] and other Arab countries to boost Israel’s economy” and an exchange of “security and intelligence cooperation,” especially on Iran.
While Al Habtoor recognizes the reality of the one-state solution as the only viable option for peace, he does not express a commitment to hold Israel accountable for its atrocities.
Instead, he calls on Palestinians and neighboring countries to “put a lid” on their “emotional baggage and bad experience” in order to move forward because “Israel with its nuclear weapons and military might is going nowhere.”
Covert normalization
Al Habtoor’s piece comes amid a wave of covert diplomatic normalization between several Gulf states and Israel. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Qatar have all been involved in such normalization, even though there are no formal diplomatic relations between these countries and Israel.
In May, teams from the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain openly took part in the Giro d’Italia race that started in Jerusalem, ignoring calls from Palestinian civil society to boycott the event.
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