- Working in close quarters, surrounded by maps of the Middle East, a small team based in Israel’s foreign ministry are focusing their sights on the Arab world.
The magnitude of the task was underscored by a recent online backlash after photographs of Egyptian actor and rapper Mohamed Ramadan partying with Israeli celebrities at a Dubai bar surfaced on social media in November, along with a video showing guests partying as the Jewish song “Hava Nagila” played.
Yonatan Gonen, who heads the Arabic-language social media unit, said in an interview that they posted the photos of Ramadan with the Israeli celebrities to show “normalization” between Israelis and Arabs. He acknowledged that the furore was disappointing but said there were also positive responses and that “it takes time, people change their minds over generations.”
An October report by Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs found that during August and September more than 90% of Arabic social media commentary regarding the “normalization” deals was negative. During a recent visit to Dubai, team member Lorena Khateeb posted to Twitter a photo of herself outdoors with the Israeli flag draped over her back. “Never imagined that I would raise the Israeli flag in an Arab country,” she said in the Nov. 21 post in both Arabic and English. Days later, one Israel’s official accounts - called @IsraelintheGulf and which she operates - tweeted a similar flag-draped photo of her.
Still, the Jewish state still faces widespread opposition to its reconciliation efforts across the region, which is home to more than 400 million Arabic speakers.
Peace is not the absence of war, it is the presence of justice...
🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸
Shocking and disgusting. Freedom for Palestine
They want to “woo” wealthy emiratis so they won’t see the woe of a life Palestinians live.
No one's gonna accept israel😤
대륙의 풍년--농업-매뉴얼247 그리고 365일농법-- 이 세계인을 먹여살리는 나라---미국 영국 중국 인듯 꼭 돈내시고 정품을 쓰세요
Free speech!
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