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Jerusalem– When Israel struck a deal with the United Arab Emirates to establish diplomatic relations in 2020, it brought a thrilling sense of accomplishment to a country long ostracized in the Middle East.
Officials insist that Israel’s new relationship with the UAE, and soon Bahrain, will go beyond the government and become a whole-of-society compact that promotes mass tourism and friendly exchanges between people who have long been at odds.
But more than two years since the breakthrough deal was struck, the expected influx of Gulf Arab tourists to Israel has been little more than a trickle. While more than half a million Israelis flock to oil-rich Abu Dhabi and skyscraper-studded Dubai, only 1,600 UAE citizens have visited Israel since coronavirus travel restrictions were lifted last year, Israel’s tourism ministry told the Associated Press .
The ministry does not know how many Bahrainis have visited Israel because, it said, “the number is too small.”
“It’s still a very strange and sensitive situation,” said Morsi Hija, who heads Israel’s Forum for Arabic-speaking tour guides. “The Emiratis feel they have done something wrong by coming here.”
The drop in tourists from the UAE and Bahrain reflects Israel’s longstanding image problems in the Arab world and reveals the limits of the Abraham Accords, experts say.
While bilateral trade between Israel and the UAE surged from $11.2 million in 2019 to $1.2 billion last year, the deal’s popularity has grown in both the UAE and Bahrain since it was signed, according to a survey by the Neighbor Institute in Washington. Plummet East Policy, US think tank.
In the UAE, support fell to 25 percent from 47 percent in the past two years. In Bahrain, only 20% of the population backed the deal, down from 45% in 2020. Violence in the occupied West Bank surged to its highest level in years as Israel and Gaza militants waged a devastating war.
Israeli officials say tourism to Israel from Gulf Arab states is a missing piece that would take the deal beyond security and diplomatic ties. Tourists from Egypt and Jordan, the two countries that first made peace with Israel, are also virtually non-existent.
“We need to encourage (Emiratis) to come for the first time. It’s an important mission,” Amir Hayek, Israel’s ambassador to the UAE, told The Associated Press. “We need to promote tourism so people get to know each other and understand each other.”
Israeli tourism officials flew to the UAE last month on a marketing campaign touting Israel as a safe and attractive destination. The ministry said it now sees Tel Aviv – Israel’s business and entertainment hub – as a major draw for Emiratis.
So far, the bet on Jerusalem has backfired, travel agents say. The unrest in the disputed city has put off Emiratis and Bahrainis, some of whom are strongly opposed by Palestinians who see normalization as a betrayal of their cause. The Palestinian struggle for independence from Israel enjoys broad support across the Arab world.
“There’s still a lot of hesitation in the Arab world,” said Dan Feferman, director of Sharaka, an organization that promotes people-to-people exchanges between Israel and the Arab world. “They want (Israel) to be a conflict zone, they want to be discriminated against.” After leading Bahrainis and Emiratis on two trips to Israel, he said, Sharaka struggled to find more Gulf Arab citizens interested in visiting.
In 2020, when a group of Emirati and Bahraini social media influencers visited the compound of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, they were spat on and had their shoes thrown in the Old City, said their guide, Hija.
When another group of Emirati officials, accompanied by Israeli police, visited the blast site, they angered Jerusalem’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammad Ahmed Hussein, who issued a religious decree banning Emirati from Visit the mosque under Israeli supervision.
Most Emiratis and Bahrainis who have visited Israel say they have given up their national dress and headscarves to avoid attracting attention.
The Islamic religious organization that runs the mosque declined to answer questions about the number of Emirati and Bahraini tourists and their treatment at the compound.
Palestinian anger at the Emiratis is not limited to the hallowed Corniche. Emirati citizens visiting and studying in Israel say they face regular death threats and cyberattacks.
“Not everyone can handle the pressure,” said Sumaiiah Almehiri, a 31-year-old Emirati from Dubai who is studying to qualify as a nurse at Haifa University. “I didn’t give in to threats, but fear is preventing a lot of Emiratis from going.”
Israel’s fear of anti-Arab racism will also drive Gulf Arabs away. Israeli police mistakenly arrested two Emirati tourists in Tel Aviv last summer while they were chasing a criminal for a drive-by shooting. Some Emiratis complained on social media about unnecessary scrutiny by security officials at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport.
“If you bring them here and don’t treat them in a sensitive way, they’ll never come back and tell all their friends to stay away,” Hija said.
Benjamin Netanyahu, who was re-elected as prime minister for a sixth term last week, has pledged to strengthen agreements with Bahrain, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Sudan. Formal relations with Sudan remain elusive in the wake of the military coup and in the absence of parliamentary approval of a US-brokered normalization deal with Israel.
As the general architect of the agreement, Netanyahu also hopes to expand the circle of countries to reach a similar agreement with Saudi Arabia.
However, experts worry that his new government – the most extreme nationalist and religiously conservative in Israel’s history – could further deter Gulf Arab tourists and even jeopardize the agreement. His government has vowed to expand settlements in the West Bank and pledged to annex the entire territory, a step that has been put on hold as a condition of a preliminary deal with the UAE.
“We have reason to worry about deteriorating relations,” said Moran Zaga, an expert on Gulf Arab states at Israel’s Haifa University.
So far, Gulf Arab governments have offered no cause for concern.
The UAE ambassador was photographed embracing Itamar Ben-Gvir, one of the most radical members of the coalition, during National Day celebrations last month. Last weekend, UAE leader Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan called Netanyahu to congratulate him and invite him to visit.
People who are not in officialdom are another matter.
“I hope Netanyahu and his people don’t set foot on UAE soil,” Abdul Khalik Abdullah, a prominent Emirati political scientist, tweeted. “I think it’s appropriate to temporarily freeze the Abraham Accords.”
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