Culture vital to easing path to Israeli-Arab peace – opinion

• Author: AHMED AL MANSOORI
• Date: 06 December 2020
• Published date: 06 December 2020
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Peace isn't something that happens between governments, it has to cascade down to the people to be meaningful and to endure. This means relationship building, finding commonality and culture have a huge part to play in that.

One can learn so much through the likes of art and culture, music, dance. One doesn't need to have sat in a classroom to study a people if the people can be studied through the expression of art and culture.

We can't be in denial that for decades, Israel and the UAE have been separated by a huge gap. There have been stereotypes, misunderstandings, wrong expectations, so for us, there is a lot of homework we need to do to understand each other.

When my father's generation and older used to travel for work, they didn't have languages but they knew how to trade. Language was not a key. They could promote their culture without this. They didn't have the UN, peace agreements, they had relationships, which even without languages, can be built.

This is a true Crossroads of Civilizations here in the UAE because we have a lot of crossroads here between the east and west – much like Israel – which has become home for Jews from around the Diaspora, from Europe to the Maghreb.

If there is one thing about being Emirati is that I meet people from different cultures so I don't have a psychological barrier from dealing with people. Tolerance has been ingrained into us from the founding father, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who saw humans beyond religion, nationality and gender.

From 2012, since setting up my museum, people see I have artifacts from all religions, even without peace. It took courage for me to have these items, but all of us need courage to see real and lasting change. It includes the largest collection of publicly available Jewish items – all translated into Hebrew too – in the Gulf. I am proud to be a part of a new era and I hope through culture we can show that we all belong together.

Museums are one of the best platforms...