EXCLUSIVE: Top UAE News Executive Discusses Israeli Media Collaboration

Jerusalem, 17 November, 2022 (TPS) -- On the third and final day of the Global Media Congress in the United Arab Emirates, Mohamed Jalal Al Rayssi, Director General of the Emirates News Agency (WAM) shared his thoughts on Israeli-UAE media collaboration and tolerance in exclusive comments to the Tazpit Press Service

The conference — the first in what is hoped will be an annual event — is a forum for people in the media industry to network, exchange ideas and explore areas of cooperation. More than 1,200 journalists, media executives and publishers are in Abu Dhabi for the gathering.

Rayssi also chaired the conference’s Higher Organizing Committee.

“I think what we have in this global media congress shows us that there is enough opportunity to connect both East and West, North and South together, and to build relations based on respecting each other,” Rayssi said. “Objective number one for us was to make a place where people can come together and talk together and have a conversation and respect each other and have a dialogue between each other. And that’s happening.”

Rayssi hopes next year’s conference will have more Israeli participation, saying, “We are trying to build these bridges between different countries and between the UAE and Israel. We can do a lot of this together when we are talking and sitting together and building such an event together. And highlighting the importance of dialogue.”

People who focus on the small differences between others, often forget about the bigger areas that they have in common, which is why dialogue is critical, Rayssi stressed.

Further, media collaboration between Israel and the Emirates plays an important part in building respect and friendship between the two countries, he noted.

“We see that it’s good to have good relations and the result of this is huge for us and for the next generation. Our leaders always believed that building a good relationship with countries, the result will be not only for us but for the generation to come. And it can build a good and better place for them,” he said.

TPS, an international Israeli news agency that operates as a non-profit, works in collaboration with WAM as WAM’s Israel partner, sharing information and news stories with one another.