NEW YORK — Israel’s consul basic in New York hosted his Emirati counterpart for a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony Monday evening within the newest instance of the 2 nations’ warming relations towards the backdrop of the Abraham Accords.
Appearing Consul Common Israel Nitzan and United Arab Emirates Consul Common Abdalla Shaheen marked the fifth evening of Hanukkah together with simply over a dozen Jewish and Muslim group leaders, who huddled collectively on the 31st-floor balcony of an workplace constructing in Midtown Manhattan.
“Regardless of the difficulties of the previous yr, Hanukkah provides classes of the triumph of hope over despair, of sunshine over darkness,” stated Nitzan, connecting the vacation to the normalization agreements Israel signed with the UAE and Bahrain in September. “The Abraham Accords are a victory of the sunshine over despair in our area.”
“That is the primary Hanukkah celebration that [we’ve] attended, and I actually hope it’s not our final,” stated Shaheen, who introduced his 6-year-old daughter to assist mild the Hanukkah candles with him.
First ever Emirati and Israeli Consuls Common Hanukkah candle lighting in NY! I assume it is actually is an vacation of miracles ????????????????????
Thanks Evan and Barbara Bell for the hospitality.— Itay Milner
“I’m hopeful that the momentum and the power of those new peace agreements will proceed to strengthen the relations between our nations, our folks and our cultures,” he stated.
Additionally providing transient remarks had been Manhattan Borough President Gayle Brewer, JCRC-NY CEO Michael Miller, Rabbi Joshua Stanton from the East Finish Temple and Naz Ahmed Georgas of the Cordoba Home Islamic middle.
Towards the conclusion of brief ceremony, Nitzan introduced Shaheen’s daughter with a toy truck as a Hanukkah present.
It was the second such occasion in days that introduced collectively representatives of Abraham Accords member states.
On Saturday night, the Emirati and Bahraini ambassadors to the US joined a digital Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony hosted by Israel’s Embassy in Washington.
Morocco final Thursday turned the fourth Arab state this yr, after the UAE, Bahrain and Sudan, to announce it had agreed to normalize relations with Israel. US President Donald Trump in flip fulfilled a decades-old aim of Morocco by backing its contested sovereignty in Western Sahara.
