Esra’a Says:

2007-04-22 at 3.48 am
This is great! I hope this would increase dialogue amongst all kinds of students within the Middle East. Qatar in many ways is really trying to advance itself and the best way to do it is through being open to all forms of education. It is a big step forward, and I am very excited to go there (most likely this summer) in order to check their many new campuses and facilities out.

I think it’s superb that there is communication and goodwill between some Arabs and Israelis and hopefully it will increase

Btw a big Israeli fashion chain — Fox-Wizel said awhile back in 2004 that it is planning on opening a chain of stores in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), following a deal it signed with Royal Sporting House (RSH), a subsidiary of a Dubai based company,headed by Mohamed Ali Rashed Alabbar

Anyone live in Dubai and been to the Israeli/RSH stores

All sides need to change int his conflict. All sides have extremists. All sides have moderates. All sides need to change. This is a great step, but “forward” doesn’t exist in the Middle East. We have to take these steps in all directions.

There are some Israelis, for example, who won’t appear with me as a comedian because I am Palestinian; and some venues that are not interested in having our show appear.

Of course, the same exists among Palestinians and Arabs — five groups cancelled my shows when I returned from Israel. But, we are going ahead with the shows in June and we are trying to get Israel to give permission for the show to go to Bethlehem and Ramallah and to allow Palestinian journalists this time to cover the evenet — they were blocked from attending by Israel’s communications bureau last time.

Who knows, though. We keep trying and something can happen.

Ray Hanania
http://www.hanania.com

Rohan, there are also Doha interfaith conferences in which many Jews, Muslims, and Christians participate in… some I believe are also from Israel. It is refreshing to see that the government is playing a positive role by funding and supporting such events, so this is something to be proud of.

Well done Qatar! Let’s see who else is brave enough to follow.

I actually got to attend the Doha Debates episode with Peres, (not the best episode ever though, because a lot of the students weren’t there to learn from the debate, just for the chance to somehow prove Peres wrong, and he sure held his own), and have also interacted with the students from Israeli High Schools at the MUN conferences. I don’t think any Israeli students would have any problems studying and living here, (except maybe because there’s nothing to do in this tiny city)