Israeli president Isaac Herzog > Elad Brami, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Israeli president Isaac Herzog has praised a summit involving the biggest business delegation from the Gulf which “would have been pure fantasy a few years ago”.
Herzog formally opened the OurCrowd summit, the biggest investor event in the Middle East for start-up companies, saying he was particularly glad to see so many delegates from Israel’s new Arab allies: the UAE and Morocco.
“It is especially exciting to welcome our brothers and sisters from the Abrahamic countries in the Gulf states”, he said.
“It is an inspiring reminder of what can become possible with good will, openness and the intention to harness our collective creativity towards finding common solutions that benefit us all.”
More than 8,500 people from 80 countries attended the summit in Jerusalem, the focus of which was sustainability.
The conference involved around 200 start-ups, featuring milk produced from cow DNA to drones used for reforesting.
This year marks the first OurCrowd event since the Abraham Accords were agreed in 2020, with both the UAE and Morocco having large stands.
Dr Sabah Al-Binali, executive chairman of OurCrowd Arabia, added: “The Abraham Accords are here to stay. The political will is there and now it’s up to the private sector to continue that roll out”.