The United Arab Emirates has agreed to provide $1 billion to rescue a prominent Israeli businessman from the brink of bankruptcy, further solidifying Abu Dhabi’s comprehensive alliance with Tel Aviv across various sectors.
The UAE’s sovereign wealth fund, ADQ, led by National Security Advisor Tahnoun bin Zayed, has agreed to invest $1 billion in a company owned by Israeli businessman Patrick Drahi.
According to the Hebrew news outlet Ynet News, Drahi was on the verge of bankruptcy, with his business activities heavily impacted by Israel’s war on Gaza and the withdrawal of major investors from Israeli companies.
Drahi, the owner of Israel’s HOT channel and the i24 news network, which strongly defends Israel’s massacres in Gaza, announced his partnership with Abu Dhabi to maintain ownership of Sotheby’s auction house.
Drahi acquired Sotheby’s in 2019 for $3.7 billion but has been facing financial difficulties, with his wealth dropping from around $16 billion to just over a third of that amount.
The Israeli telecom tycoon is now valued at $6.3 billion, according to Forbes.
Major investors have withdrawn from dealings with the Israeli businessman due to Israel’s war on Gaza and escalating tensions with Hezbollah in Lebanon, leaving Drahi burdened with increasing debts in the billions.
The report noted that Abu Dhabi Investment stepped in as a minority partner in the deal, while Drahi retained majority ownership.
Hamad Al Hammadi, ADQ’s Executive Vice President, commented on Abu Dhabi’s decision to invest in the company, stating: “Our investment reaffirms our strong belief in the enduring value of the Sotheby’s brand, its market-leading platform, and the management’s ability to execute its growth agenda.”
Charles Stewart, CEO of Sotheby’s, expressed his satisfaction with the new partnership, saying that the funding from Abu Dhabi “will enable us to accelerate our strategic initiatives, expand our commitment to excellence in the art and luxury markets, and continue to innovate to better serve our clients worldwide.”
He added that if money talks, this deal reveals where alliances lie and illustrates the shifting dynamics in Israel’s relationship with the UAE and other normalization states.
Last month, official data exposed that the UAE doubled its trade exports to Israel, accounting for 81.4% of total Arab exports, amid Israel’s ongoing aggression against Gaza that has lasted for ten months.
The data showed that five Arab countries, including the UAE, increased their trade with Israel during the war and brutal aggression on Gaza, with some even doubling their trade volume compared to before the conflict, despite widespread anger in the Arab world over Israel’s devastating war on the enclave.
The data from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics on Arab exports to Israel showed that the UAE alone accounted for 81.4% of the total volume of Arab exports to Israel during the war, followed by Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Bahrain.
The data covers eight months, from October 2023—the start of the war on Gaza—until May 31, 2024.
Israeli official data shows that Arab exports to Israel from October 2023 (the start of the war on Gaza) until the end of May 2024 reached $2.017 billion, while the total value of exports and imports between these Arab countries and Israel during the war amounted to $2.841 billion.
An analysis of the data reveals that Arab exports to Israel during the months of the Gaza war increased by $77 million compared to the same months in 2022 and 2023, when the total volume of exports from the five Arab countries to Israel was $1.94 billion.
The volume of Israeli imports to these five Arab countries has also increased since the start of the Gaza war until the end of May 2024.
The value of imports reached $825 million, compared to $674 million during the same months in 2022 and 2023, an increase of $151 million.
The official data shows that the UAE has significantly increased its trade relations with Israel during the Gaza war.
The UAE exported more to Israel during the war on Gaza than it imported from it, with the value of UAE exports to Israel from October 2023 to May 31, 2024, amounting to $1.641 billion.
In contrast, the value of exports to Israel during the same months in 2022 and 2023 was $1.480 billion, an increase of $161 million.
The data also shows a gradual increase in the volume of UAE exports to Israel since the start of the Gaza war, with October 2023 being the lowest in terms of export volume at $135.1 million. The export value peaked in January 2024 at $252 million and reached $249.6 million in April 2024.
The UAE also topped the list of Arab countries in terms of the volume of Israeli imports it received during the Gaza war. According to the data, Israeli imports to the UAE amounted to $373.6 million.
When looking at the total exports and imports between the UAE and Israel during the Gaza war, the sum approaches the total trade exchange between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv in 2022, as the figures show that the value of exports and imports between the UAE and Israel during the Gaza war reached $2.014 billion.
In contrast, the volume of non-oil trade between the UAE and Israel in 2022 reached $2.5 billion, according to the Emirates News Agency (WAM). The Central Bureau of Statistics’ data does not indicate the type of UAE exports to Israel.
An analysis of official Israeli data shows that the majority of trade during the Gaza war came from three Arab countries: the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco, the countries that signed normalization agreements with Israel in the second half of 2020, which Israel calls the “Abraham Accords.”
According to the data, the value of exports from these three countries to Israel during the Gaza war reached $1.704 billion out of $2.17 billion (the total volume of exports from the five Arab countries).
The UAE alone accounted for $1.641 billion of exports with Israel during the Gaza war, followed by Bahrain with $53.2 million, and Morocco with $10.1 million.
In terms of imports, these three Arab countries imported goods from Israel worth $485.7 million during the war, including $373.6 million worth of imports to the UAE.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza, resulting in at least 126,000 Palestinian casualties, most of them children and women, over 10,000 missing persons, and widespread destruction and famine that have claimed the lives of dozens of children.
