DUBAI, UAE – It was a scene that a few months ago would have been unthinkable. As they watched the emirates in white dresses and headdresses, the Israeli bride and groom were hoisted on the shoulders of the hooded groomsmen and taken to the dance floor, where dozens joined the crowd swinging and singing in Hebrew. .
Noemie Azerad and Simon David Benhamou not only launched a somewhat normal wedding amid a pandemic that has shut down their country and ravaged the world. They were enjoying Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, which — like most of the Arab world — had had an Israeli passport outside the borders for decades.
The couple was part of tens of thousands of Israelis who had flocked to the UAE in December after the two countries normalized ties in a negotiated advance with the US.
Israel’s latest virus-induced blockade, which began earlier this week, temporarily chilled the fever of the trip. But Israelis with messy vacation plans, now trapped at home, hope vaccination campaigns will help contain the outbreak and make trips to Dubai possible soon.
The appeal of Dubai, the mall of sand beaches with sandy beaches and marble malls in the UAE, has already proven powerful. Lots of Israeli tourists, looking for revelry and relief from virus restrictions for months and not being discouraged by their government’s warnings about possible Iranian attacks in the region, they have celebrated weddings, bar mitzvahs and the eight-day Hanukkah Jewish holiday with large forbidden gatherings at home.
“I was hoping to feel really uncomfortable here,” said Azerad, a 25-year-old Israeli bride from the hotel’s ballroom, bathed in the glow of Dubai’s bright skyline. But all of their favorite wedding destinations announced severe restrictions on meetings to check for the spread of the virus. Dubai surpasses the holidays at 200.
The will to delay the wedding, the choice was obvious.
“I think it’s Tel Aviv,” Azerad said of Dubai. “I hear Hebrew everywhere.”
His French father, Igal Azerad, said he always hides his cap in his pocket for fear of assaulting the streets of Paris. But in Dubai, the sight of his kippah makes the Emirates come to call me “Shalom,” he said.
The dizzying pace of normalization has stunned even skeptics. Despite the countries ’secret ties, the United Arab Emirates had considered Israel a political pariah during the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The modest Jewish expat community of the seven sheikhs federation 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 chandelier appeared beneath the Burj Khalifa, the tallest tower in the world, where Jews gathered to light candles and take selfies as festive Hebrew songs sprang through. the huge fountain in the center.
The Jewish community’s stealthy Shabbat meal on Friday night has turned into celebrations in two cavernous banquet halls with flooded seats for Israeli visitors. “Made in Israel” posters have appeared on Dubai’s grocery and liquor store chains, which now sell wine from the Golan Heights, annexed to Israel. Wine, honey and tahini from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank will hit shelves in the coming weeks and will be labeled products from Israel, according to a Dubai-based commodity company.
On social media, a trip to the UAE has become a status symbol for Israelis showing photos of themselves in Dubai. A dozen hotels across the city claim to have booked thousands of Israeli travelers and organized several Israeli business conferences, holiday parties and day weddings. Israeli singers have scheduled concerts for spring. Kosher catering companies in the UK and other countries have established a store in the UAE. According to Rabbi Mendel Duchman, who helps run the country’s Jewish community center, plans are underway to open land in the country’s first Jewish cemetery and ritual bath known as the mikvah.
“It was amazing, it was a tsunami,” said Mark Feldman, head of Jerusalem-based Ziontours, noting the contrast to Israel’s “cold peace” with Egypt and Jordan. “Dubai became an oasis for Israelis in the midst of the pandemic.”
For weeks of December, the only other countries where Israelis were able to land without a 14-day quarantine at home were Rwanda and the Seychelles. Dubai has remained open to business and tourism, with few restrictions beyond social distancing on the inside and masks on the outside. Guests at weddings and other gatherings often do not wear masks.
While Israelis are sinking with the warm embrace of their hosts, very little has been heard about the UAE’s 180-degree change in its 1 million citizens, who are granted housing, education and free health care and tend to move away from the great expat in their country. population. The hereditary rulers of the sheikh suppress dissent. Even dramatic political decisions are met with acquiescence.
Ahmed al-Mansoori, a director of the Emirates Museum who has welcomed dozens of Israeli visitors to his collection of ancient maps and manuscripts, including a 4th-century Torah scroll, acknowledged “some cultural misunderstandings between populations that have not really been treated before. “
“Each emirate has its own psychology in this regard,” he said when asked about the reversal of the policy that Palestinians consider a betrayal in their search for a state in Israeli-occupied lands.
But he noted that Dubai, a city driven by millions of workers from Africa, Asia and the Middle East, easily absorbs waves of expatriates, including countries locked in bitter struggles between them.
Despite initial concerns about Iranian threats and the diplomatic consequences of tourists not behaving badly, travel agencies say there has only been one hiccup. A number of Israeli tourists were trapped in sand dunes while racing quads, prompting an elaborate rescue mission by a government helicopter, said Privilege Tourism owner Yaniv Stainberg. Some were arrested for taking photos at a mosque, he added. Others were reprimanded for kissing in public, a crime punishable by the United Arab Emirates Islamic legal system in prison.
But as the virus rose in Israel and photos of major unmasked parties in Dubai erupted via social media, it was reported that Israeli health and foreign ministries were vying for the UAE’s classification. as an area of high infection, which would require quarantine upon arrival in Israel and perhaps mark the new courtship of the countries.
After a few days, the point was debatable. Israel entered its third closure on Sunday. By then, the bride and groom, 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 agreements. with Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. “Vaccines, however, will change the game.”