Abraham Accords: Jerusalem Deputy Mayor helping to fan the winds of change

This past month, I caught up with Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem and co-founder of the UAE-Israel Business Council, on the anniversary of the #AbrahamAccords, commercial developments over the past year, and the growing popularity of the Gulf-Israel Women's Forum. You can read the interview as part of our broader and bi-monthly IsraelDesks magazine: https://lnkd.in/dp7bjJSJ

Set up in June 2020, the UAE-Israel Business Council (UIBC) is an association of now 4,000 businesses, entrepreneurs, professionals, and public sector leaders from the UAE and Israel. The UIBC aims to foster trade, innovation, and cooperation between the two countries, signatories to the Abraham Accords signed last September.

From studying law at Kings College, London to the Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem for Foreign Relations Economic Development and Tourism at Municipality of Jerusalem. That’s quite the journey!

It is! I qualified and practiced as a barrister in London but had always wanted to live in Israel, so I moved here with my husband from London as soon as we could, in 2001. In the early years, I worked as a legal advisor for a non-profit and as a CEO of Tikva Children’s Home, an orphan-and-poverty relief organization. In the UK, I had also worked for World Jewish Relief but one of the things I truly loved was working on content and messaging.

It was particularly the skillset developed through my training as a barrister and it was always appealing to me - presenting arguments, articulately expressing messages, and clear communication, all of these things are paramount, especially in politics. Here in Israel, a lot can be lost in either the language or cultural nuances, so I really enjoyed working on this external messaging. I created an international strategic communications firm business and worked in this field for a number of years, working with the private sector, start-ups, VCs and accelerators, academics, helping them to present complex and technical information at the appropriate level.

How did you go from your own business into Jerusalem politics?

About eight years ago, a small political party in Jerusalem – Yerushalmim - came to me to help them with effective messaging and I realized how exciting and impactful local politics actually is, where day-to-day life is often defined. I grew up in Gibraltar and my father, who founded the law firm Hassans, was also involved in politics. [Sir Joshua Abraham Hassam served as Chief Minister and Mayor of Gibraltar]. It was something deeply familiar to me and I was interested. There was something pulling me, and I wanted to step up to the plate.

In November 2018, Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon named me Deputy Mayor, in charge of tourism and foreign relations. There are a few deputy mayors, like a cabinet, with everyone having a portfolio. My portfolio looks after foreign relations, development, and tourism, among many other things. Part of this vast role was to essentially bring in investment, drive philanthropy, boost tourism, and act as a spokesperson for the city of Jerusalem.

Our foreign relations with the UAE and Bahrain changed last year as we celebrated the landmark signing of the Abraham Accords. I wanted to dive into your role co-founding the UAE-Israel Business Council, how did that come about?

About 18 months ago, a good friend of mine, Dorian Barak approached me, and we felt something positive was happening with regards to the relationship with the Gulf and we thought ‘let’s not wait.’ We didn’t know it would all happen so quickly! We were ahead of the curve but by a few months! The advantage, however, was that we had ‘first mover’ advantage. So that when the normalization of ties was announced, we were already live.

Today, we are up to 4,000 members, about 45% from Israel, 45% from the UAE and about 10% from the US, Morocco, Bahrain, and others.

It meant that even during the pandemic, we were already up and running webinars on energy, tourism, and tech, creating networking events and sending out newsletters. We had created a community that was eager to do business with each other. What was especially pleasing was that we needed a business model based on warm, sustainable, and peaceful relations. While we do help and have helped to put business deals together, this was all direct relationships between the people themselves. There are so many stories of how these direct relationships became fruitful, such as the relationship between a Palestinian entrepreneur, an Emirati businessman, and other parties who came together recently to create a growing saffron business.

Following the Abraham Accords, there have been many agreements and deals signed, and a great deal of interest in many sectors. What sectors do you think there is a focus on?

The focus is on the areas where there is the most need for collaboration – fields such as food, water, security. Cybersecurity is also a big area and protecting all that we do in the tech space. We want to and are seeing more strategic collaborations.

What I would also add is that Emiratis are most interested in products. They are looking for interesting innovations that are up and running that they can collaborate on or invest in, not merely to buy. What is extremely interesting for Israelis to know is how much they can also teach us, whether it is smart accessible cities or digital government, there is a lot we can and are learning from them.

Has there been any interest in sectors which has surprised you?

Not really. Given the pandemic, there has been a great deal of interest in healthcare and telehealth, obviously, but I suppose I would say that they have, like Israel, made the desert bloom. They have built an incredible country from scratch.

Recently, Israel's Ambassador to the UAE Amir Hayek told an Israeli business delegation to Abu Dhabi and local business leaders that there will soon be a regional Free Trade Agreement? Is this something that is likely to be on the cards?

What is great is that due to the Abraham Accords, we can strategize multilaterally, not just bilaterally. Any agreement can be part of a Middle East-wide block of parties aspiring to peace and prosperity, to tackle the challenges we all face here with regards to food, water, agriculture, climate change and so on. Solutions need to be developed regionally and any Free Trade Agreement would be a fantastic idea, and the sooner it happens the better.

UIBC has done so very well. What are the plans for the coming year?

In my multiple roles, I see a genuine opportunity to develop East Jerusalem as a tourism hub for new pilgrim visitors from Egypt, Jordan, and the Gulf who want to see the holy sites of Jerusalem. I want to help prepare the infrastructure that could see a great opportunity to develop East Jerusalem. We are also advocating the push to create equal opportunities for young Arab men and women in the city, who would be well placed, with Arabic, Hebrew, and English, as graduates in Israel, to be a natural and organic bridge to further connect Jerusalem and the Gulf.

Have you noticed any striking cultural challenges in doing business?

It’s interesting to think about. I think the key to Emirati culture is relationship building, which is also very key to the way Israelis do business. I think there was, almost understandably, an eagerness in Israel to run over and do business. It is not about developing quick and fast ties there but investing time and effort.

You established the Gulf-Israel Women's Forum as a division of the UIBC. How has this gone?

Justine Zwerling and I got together to develop this initiative. Justine heads the Primary Markets, Israel at the London Stock Exchange and has also founded the Jewish Women's Business Network as part of the LSEG's Women's Inspired Network (WIN), so was hugely experienced in this area.

The goal was to unite women from the Middle East in sisterhood, culture, friendship and business. We are planning a business trip in a few months bringing women from Israel to Dubai and Abu Dhabi and the Forum is attracting a lot of interest with women from Egypt and Jordan on board, as we as Bahrain and Saudi Arabia too. Seeing how this is materializing feels incredible! Women lawyers and GCs can contact us directly at [email protected] to get involved in this fast-growing initiative.

Fleur, thank you so much for taking the time.

Thank you.

You can find out more about joining the UAE-Israel Business Council here - https://www.uaeisraelbusiness.com/