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'Silicon Wadi': UAE Firms Touted To Join Israeli Tech Project In East Jerusalem

Zero Rss
1 week ago
'Silicon Wadi': UAE Firms Touted To Join Israeli Tech Project In East Jerusalem

Via Middle East Eye

The Israeli-run municipality of Jerusalem has recruited companies from the United Arab Emirates to invest in a modern industrial park, called Silicon Wadi, in the city's occupied east. However Palestinian urban planning experts have told Middle East Eye that the plans and the UAE's involvement has been kept unusually under wraps.

Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, Israel's deputy mayor of Jerusalem, told Makor Rishon newspaper that "Jerusalem's branding in the UAE is very strong. They are very excited to see someone from Jerusalem and waiting to visit there." Israel and the United Arab Emirates have been building official ties since August 2020, when they announced a normalization of relations.

via Associated Press

Hassan-Nahoum, who visited the UAE last week, is in charge of the foreign relations and tourism portfolios on behalf of the municipality. My dream is that Jerusalem will become a high-tech center for the entire Middle East,” she said, adding that there an “opportunity” to connect Palestinian high-tech graduates to the UAE.

The project, which was announced in January by the mayor, Moshe Lion, is ambitious. According to Israeli media, it will stretch over 250,000 square meters of real estate for high tech companies and 100,000 square meters split between commerce and hotels. People behind the scheme say it will create 10,000 jobs.

Its estimated cost is 2.1 billion shekels ($600m), and will include 13 pedestrianized thoroughfares, which will replace the industrial area located in Wadi al-Joz, an area of hundreds of workshops, catering units, shops, warehouses and mechanics workshops. 

Wadi al-Joz, meaning the Almond Valley, was once an orchard on the eastern and northern slopes of Jerusalem, within a short walk from the historic walls of the Old City. It is also near the Hebrew University's facilities and dormitories to the north. 

Despite several comments in the Israeli media, Khalil Tafakji, head of the maps department at the Arab Studies Society in Jerusalem, told MEE that “officially” nothing has been launched.

“When you have a building project such as this, you will officially announce it in the newspaper. This did not happen,” Tafakji said, adding that the only information available are the statements to the media.

Tafakji, an expert on Israeli building projects in East Jerusalem, said Wadi al-Joz is currently slated to be the site of a different project, which will also see facilities rented or owned by Palestinians demolished.

“Normally, when the municipality wants to build a project, they should publish and issue a building scheme, and also seize and expropriate the land, and this did not happen so far,” Tafakji said. MEE has asked the municipality for comment, but received no response by the time of publication.

Hatem Abdel-Kader, a former minister for Jerusalem affairs in the Palestinian Authority, told MEE that the Silicon Wadi project is under study and research. 

"It did not start the official approval procedures yet, but what is certain that the Wadi al-Joz area, in the near future, will not be the same," Abdel-Kader said. "I do not have information about UAE investment in the project, but if it is true, it is certainly dangerous, because this is a settlement project that harms the Arab identity of Jerusalem, despite Israelis claiming it will benefit Palestinians."

Abdel-Kader added that Israel's plan is to connect East and West Jerusalem together with the Silicon Wadi project, and "any Arab involvement in it means helping the Judaization of Jerusalem, and helping in making it the unified capital of Israel".

Last week, Israel and the United Arab Emirates set an agenda to discuss bringing thousands of visitors from the Gulf to the occupied Old City of East Jerusalem, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

"Jerusalem will host between 100,000 and 250,000 Muslim tourists a year; they dream of visiting Al-Aqsa," Hassan-Nahoum told newspaper Israel Hayom. Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates signed a US-sponsored normalization deal with Israel on September 15, 2020 in Washington.

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Tyler Durden

Lakers will be ‘championship-level team’ this year: JJ Redick bleeds optimism in first presser

NY Post
1 week ago
When it comes to the Lakers, only one thing matters.  Are they championship contenders? That’s what happens when you’re a 17-time championship organization. That’s what happens when guys named Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant have worn your jersey. It’s title or bust. It’s Larry O’Brien or 911.  So, when Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka...
Melissa Rohlin

Dem Senator Wants To Regulate The Internet To Prevent Another Trump From Happening

Zero Rss
1 week ago
Dem Senator Wants To Regulate The Internet To Prevent Another Trump From Happening

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) called for government regulation of the internet as part of a broader effort to reduce loneliness and powerlessness among Americans, two conditions he argues push voters toward leaders like President Donald Trump. Murphy made the remarks on September 21 during an appearance on the I've Had It podcast, where he discussed his book, Crisis of the Common Good.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)

Murphy told the podcast hosts that isolation and helplessness define the country right now. "Those are the two things I think Americans are going through right now... They don't feel powerful at all, and they feel lonely," he said.

His remedy for loneliness coincidentally becomes an excuse to grow the government even further.

"And so, government should build a set of rules in which people feel more powerful - that's why the minimum wage is so important - and people feel so more connected," Murphy said.

He added, "That's why, you know, rebuilding healthy institutions in your town should be a project that government is involved in."

Then he got to the internet and revealed his true objective. "Regulating the internet so that you're spending less time alone on Instagram should be an important government project," Murphy said. And if Americans feel more powerful and less alone, Murphy argued, "they are going to be less likely to fall for a bullshit demagogue like Donald Trump."

Senator Chris Murphy to Jennifer Welch: Government needs to regulate social media so people are less likely to support a candidate like President Trump.

The left will censor your speech as soon as they have the power to do so. They're not hiding the ball here.

They did it…

— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) September 21, 2026

Murphy's framework leaves little room for the more than 77 million Americans who voted for Trump in 2024 over high inflation, the border crisis, or high crime. In his telling, they were lonely, they spent too much time alone on Instagram, and they "fell for" something.

The platform he picked out makes an odd target. A 2024 Pew Research Center survey of U.S. Instagram users found that 23% described the political content they see there as mostly liberal, and only 7% called it mostly conservative. Another 26% said they don't see political content on Instagram at all. By its users' own account, whatever politics the app serves up leans left. Though it's far more likely he has other platforms in mind when he talks about regulating the internet if he thinks social media is causing people to vote for Trump.

Murphy gave no details on what his regulation would look like, whether time limits, design mandates, or rules on content. He was specific about its purpose. He wants fewer voters who "fall for" Trump, and a goal defined by one politician's support points toward regulating what people see, which is where the censorship concerns begin. Murphy insists none of this is partisan. He claims the things that make people "more connected" and "more powerful" cut across political lines. His own summary of his idea runs counter to that. "Unless you fix what's broken with the culture, you're going to be stuck with people like Trump for a long time," Murphy said.

Murphy's comments come as lawmakers in both parties push to rein in social media companies to protect younger users, and some have floated rolling back Section 230's liability shield. Protecting children is a legitimate cause. Any tool Congress builds for it, however, will belong to whoever holds power next.

Journalist Lara Logan couldn't help but acknowledge the hypocrisy of Murphy's proposal to regulate the internet.

"Are these the same people screaming foul about certain media organizations being kicked out of the White House?" she asked on X.

Tyler Durden Thu, 09/24/2026 - 18:50
Tyler Durden

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