In the new Dubai playground, Israelis find Jewish parties, rites

DUBAI, UAE It was a scene that just a few months ago would have been unimaginable. As the Emiratis in white clothes and heads looked on, the Israeli bride and groom rose to the shoulders of the skull-clad grooms and were led to the dance floor, where dozens joined the crowd waving and singing in Hebrew.

Noemie Azerad and Simon David Benhamou simply did not throw a somewhat normal marriage amid a pandemic that has shut down their country and ruined the world. They were having fun in Dubai in the UAE, which like most of the Arab world had been out of bounds for Israeli passport holders for decades.

The couple was among tens of thousands of Israelis who had gathered in the UAE in December after the two countries normalized ties in an advanced US-brokered deal.

The latest blockage caused by the Israel virus, which started earlier this week, temporarily cooled travel fever. But Israelis with broken holiday plans, now stuck at home, hope vaccination campaigns will help curb the blast and make travel to Dubai possible again soon.

The allure of Dubai, the UAE’s skyscraper shopping center with sandy beaches and marble shopping malls, has already proven powerful. A large number of Israeli tourists, seeking entertainment and relief from the restrictions of the virus for months and do not worry about their governments warn of possible Iranian attacks in the region, they have celebrated weddings, mitzvah bars and the Hanukkah Jewish festival with large forbidden gatherings at home.

I expected to feel really uncomfortable here, said 25-year-old Azerad, the Israeli bride, from the hotel hall, bathed in the splendor of the sparkling skyline of Dubai. But all of her favorite wedding destinations announced tough restrictions on rallies to control the spread of the virus. Dubai holds holidays at 200.

Not wanting to delay the wedding, the choice was clear.

“I feel like his Tel Aviv,” Azerad told Dubai. I hear Hebrew everywhere.

Her French father, Igal Azerad, said he always hides his skull cap in his pocket for fear of being attacked on the streets of Paris. But in Dubai the sight of his kippas makes Emiratis come and show me Shalom, he said.

The dizzying pace of normalization has stunned even skeptics. Despite the countries’ secret ties, the UAE had considered Israel a political party during the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The modest Jewish community in the federation of seven sheikhdoms kept a low profile and prayed in an unmarked villa.

But the arrival of 70,000 Israeli tourists, according to travel agent estimates, on 15 non-stop daily flights in December changed everything. A 12-foot (3.5-meter) Hanukkah candlestick appeared under the Burj Khalifa, the tallest tower in the world, where Jews gathered to light candles and take selfies as festive Jewish songs erupted through the massive fountain in the city center.

Jewish Communities Friday’s secret theft Shabbat has been turned into a celebration in two cave banquet halls with seats for shedding for Israeli visitors. Signs made in Israel have appeared in grocery and liquor stores in Dubai, which now sell wine from the Golan Heights annexed by Israel. Wine, honey and tahini from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank will be off the shelves in the coming weeks and Israeli products will be labeled, according to a Dubai-based commodity company.

On social media, a trip to the UAE has become a status symbol for Israelis displaying their photos in Dubai. Dozens of hotels across the city say they have booked thousands of Israeli travelers and organized a series of Israeli business conferences, holiday parties and daily weddings. Israeli singers have planned concerts for the spring. Kosher catering companies from the UK and elsewhere have set up stores in the UAE. Plans are underway to tread the ground at the country’s first Jewish cemetery and ritual bath known as the mikvah, according to Rabbi Mendel Duchman, who helps run the countries ’Jewish Community Center.

It was incredible, it was a tsunami, said Mark Feldman, head of the Jerusalem-based Ziontours, noting the contrast of Israel’s cold peace with Egypt and Jordan. Dubai became an oasis for Israelis in the midst of the pandemic.

For weeks in December, the only other places Israelis could land without a 14-day quarantine upon return were Rwanda and the Seychelles. Dubai has remained open for business and tourism, with few restrictions beyond social distance inside and masks outside. Visitors to weddings and other gatherings often do not wear masks.

Even as Israelis cheer for the warm embrace of their hosts, very little has been heard of the UAE’s 180-degree displacement of its 1 million citizens who have been given free housing, education and health care and tend to break away. from their foreign countries population. The hereditary rulers of the sheikdomies suppress dissent. Even dramatic political decisions are met with acceptance.

Ahmed al-Mansoori, a director of the Emirati Museum who has welcomed dozens of Israeli visitors to his collection of ancient maps and manuscripts, including a fourth-century Torah scroll, acknowledged some cultural misunderstandings among populations who did not deal with it. really before.

Every Emirate has its own psychology about it, he said when asked about the policy change that the Palestinians see as a betrayal of their quest for a state in the lands occupied by Israel.

But he noted that Dubai, a city powered by millions of workers from Africa, Asia and the Middle East, easily absorbs waves of migrants, including from closed countries in bitter battles with each other.

Despite initial concerns about Iranian threats and diplomatic repercussions from ill-behaved tourists, travel agents say there have been only minor hiccups. Some Israeli tourists got stuck in the sand dunes while racing quad bikes, launching a detailed rescue mission from a government helicopter, said Yaniv Stainberg, owner of Privilege Tourism. Some were arrested for shooting photos in a mosque, he added. Others were reprimanded for kissing in public, an offense punishable under the UAE Islamic legal system with prison time.

But as the virus grew in Israel and photos of masked parties in Dubai spread on social media, Israel’s health and foreign ministries reportedly were arguing over whether to classify the UAE as a highly infected area, and which would require quarantine upon arrival in Israel and possibly ruin the new recognition sites.

Within days, the issue was controversial. Israel entered its third blockade on Sunday. At that time, the newlyweds, Azerad and Benhamou, had returned home.

“COVID has really hindered us, it is unfortunate for all the new friends in the region we want to meet,” said Eliav Benjamin, an Israeli Foreign Ministry official, referring to Israel’s other recent normalization deals with Bahrain. Sudan and Morocco. Vaccines, however, will change the games.