The University of Haifa has signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work with UAE’s Zayed University to work together on environmental and other research.
Previously, Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) launched a program with the Weizmann Institute of Science on AI research.
These are welcome developments, but it takes time to reverse the antisemitism in the UAE.
News site UAE71 reports on how some activists find the idea of Jews in UAE universities as “ominous.” And yes, the headline says Jews, not Israelis.
One activist, under the hashtag “#Normalizaion_Betrayal,” says that the incoming students will be Mossad spies.
Someone responded that there is a plot to render “normalization” to be normal. (He doesn’t seem to quite grasp the concept.” He goes on to say that the goal is to make the UAE students love Israel and paper over how much Jews hate Islam and Muslims, which is a textbook case in psychological projection.
The news site seems to have gone out if its way to find these negative reactions – those tweeters are not hugely popular – meaning that the UAE media is not on board with peace with Israel. But it also means that there is some level of freedom in UAE media to criticize the government.
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