Israeli boutique in Dubai – too early, too much

Posted on April 30, 2008
Filed Under Economy, Israel, Media, Middle East, Multiculturalism, News

[ad#ad-2hr]

The story of the Israeli magnate Lev Leviev attempting to open two diamond shops in Dubai was reported this morning by the major Gulf media outlets.

Israel and UAE do not have a diplomatic relations (although small-scale economic cooperation doest exist), and this is why this story made headlines. In the core is the question whether Leviev and his local partners did or did not obtain the license to operate in Dubai.

Lev Leviev is an orthodox Jew, born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan and currently considered to be one of the wealthiest people of the world, with an estimated capital of $7 Billion. His main business activities are real estate, diamond trade and chemicals.

Much of complaints coming from the Gulf newspapers was over the fact that one of the companies Lev Leviev controls – Africa Israel Investments – is building on what they call “occupied Palestinian territories” and that Lev Leviev himself is a staunch Zionist.

Local authorities claimed that the license to operate has not been granted and not likely to be granted in the first place, since the official policy of UAE is not to allow Israeli citizens to operate - directly or through local partners - in the country.

Whoever broke this story did a very bad service to Leviev and his partners in Dubai.
Even more of a bad service was done to the Israeli – UAE business cooperation and Dubai officials in charge of granting the business licenses, making them a target of criticism and attack for cooperating with the Israelis, and forcing them to deny such cooperation and thus not tell the truth, since despite the claims of Dubai officials, Israeli citizens do operate in UAE through the local partners, and it is a well-known secret to everyone in the area. Israeli business delegations are not that rare of a guest in UAE, and UAE business community is always welcomed to and well received in Israel.

The timing for making such relations public is far from being right. Middle East is a place where things that are to be said must be considered and fully coordinated with things that are to be done, and whoever fails to understand this symbiosis has a very little chance of succeeding in the region - business and politically wise. It seems like in this particular case, whoever broke this story did it out of malicious attempt to sabotage the delicately developing economic cooperation between Israel and the Gulf countries.

If, on the other hand, Leviev and his partners never attempted to be discrete in this business move in the first place, this is definitely “thinking ahead” on their part, but too far ahead – too early and too much.

The entire story, as reported in the Gulf media, can be found here or here