JERUSALEM/DUBAI - The war in Gaza has cooled Israeli business activity with the United Arab Emirates, with the once-celebrated relationship now conducted away from public scrutiny amid anger in the Arab world over the conflict.
Six bankers and lawyers in the UAE also said that business ties between Israeli and Emirati companies have endured the war but that few new deals were happening. Last year, trade grew 17% to reach $2.95 billion, according to data from the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Despite cooling in the wake of the war, trade remained 7% higher year-on-year in the first quarter of 2024, the bureau said.
Hamas militants killed more than 1,000 Israelis and took more than 250 hostage in a cross-border attack on Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7. In response, Israel launched an invasion of the Gaza Strip - with the aim of destroying Hamas and releasing the hostages - that has killed more than 34,000 people, according to Palestinian officials.
The executive asked not to be identified because they weren't authorized to speak to the media. The UAE official did not comment. He noted that there was growing anger and concern over the war among UAE citizens, a minority of about 1 million people in the Gulf state whose population totals around 10 million.
UAE officials have maintained that forging ties with Israel was a strategic decision that they did not intend to reverse. Some of them, however, have in private expressed frustration at Israel over its prosecution of the war and the high civilian death toll.The war has fractured the UAE's relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to four sources familiar with the matter.