People tear a picture depicting Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, during a protest against the United Arab Emirates, in front of the Dome of the Rock, in Jerusalem’s Old City, Aug. 14, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Ammar Awad.

Last summer, Israel announced a massive “Silicon Wadi” project in the Arab Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi al-Joz, converting an industrial park that is mostly garages into a high tech area specifically meant to provide quality, high-paying jobs for the Arab residents of Jerusalem. The proposed area is supposed to add 250,000 square meters for tech, 50,000 for tourism, and 50,000 for commercial space — all projected to add 10,000 jobs.

Naturally, Palestinian leaders complained, saying that it was an excuse to extend Israeli sovereignty over all of Jerusalem. They complained about the loss of the existing garage jobs, and about Jews taking all the new jobs.

But now there is an interesting possible wrinkle in the plan. According to some reports, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, deputy mayor of Jerusalem, specifically recruited UAE companies to invest in Silicon Wadi — in order to invest in the Palestinian Arabs of Jerusalem, as well as a tech hub. UAE companies in the tech center would naturally recruit Arabic-speaking Jerusalemites for their ventures.

Here would be a direct way that the UAE could invest both in Israeli tech and in the future of Arabs in Jerusalem.

The question is, will Jerusalem’s Arab citizens welcome Silicon Wadi if fellow Arabs invest in it? This would somewhat blunt their fears of Jews taking the new jobs.

This may be a way to find out if Palestinian Arabs are as opposed to Israeli peace with the Gulf as their leaders are.

Elder of Ziyon has been blogging about Israel and the Arab world for a really long time now. He also controls the world, but deep down, you already knew that.