Jerusalem Recruits UAE Investors for 'Silicon Wadi' Tech Park, Palestinian Planners Say No Formal Approval Exists

The Israeli-run municipality of Jerusalem is pitching companies from the United Arab Emirates on investing in a planned tech and commercial district in East Jerusalem, according to reporting by Middle East Eye that was picked up by ZeroHedge and Gulf Insider. The project is called Silicon Wadi.

Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, Jerusalem's deputy mayor for foreign relations and tourism, told the Israeli newspaper Makor Rishon that Jerusalem's brand is strong in the UAE and that Emirati firms are eager to visit. "My dream is that Jerusalem will become a high-tech center for the entire Middle East," she said, adding she sees an opportunity to link Palestinian tech graduates to Emirati companies.

The project traces back to a January announcement by Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion. According to Israeli media cited by Middle East Eye, the plan calls for 250,000 square meters of real estate for tech companies and another 100,000 square meters split between retail and hotels, plus 13 pedestrian corridors. Backers say it would create 10,000 jobs at an estimated cost of 2.1 billion shekels, roughly $600 million.

The target site is Wadi al-Joz, an area on Jerusalem's eastern and northern slopes near the Old City walls and Hebrew University, currently home to hundreds of workshops, garages, warehouses and food businesses.

This is happening against the backdrop of the 2020 Abraham Accords, when Israel and the UAE normalized relations. That deal has since produced real trade and tourism flows between the two countries. A $600 million tech district with Emirati capital, if it materializes, would be one more data point that the accords are generating tangible economic activity rather than just diplomatic photo-ops.

But the project isn't officially real yet, according to Palestinian planners.

Khalil Tafakji, head of the maps department at the Arab Studies Society in Jerusalem, told Middle East Eye that "officially, nothing has been launched." He said any real building project would have to be published in the official gazette, and that hasn't happened. "When you have a building project such as this, you will officially announce it in the newspaper. This did not happen," Tafakji said.

Tafakji says the municipality hasn't published a required building scheme or moved to expropriate the land, both standard legal steps for a project of this scale in Israel. He also says Wadi al-Joz is already earmarked for a separate, different project that would demolish facilities owned or rented by Palestinians.

If a government announces a $600 million redevelopment to international investors before it has published zoning documents or begun land acquisition, local business owners who'd be displaced have no formal timeline, no compensation framework on record, and no legal process to respond to.

Hatem Abdel-Kader, a former Palestinian Authority minister for Jerusalem affairs, told Middle East Eye the project is still under study. Middle East Eye says it asked the Jerusalem municipality for comment and received no response before publication.

East Jerusalem's legal status remains disputed. Israel annexed it after the 1967 war and treats it as part of its unified capital, but the UN Security Council, in Resolution 478, and most of the international community do not recognize that annexation.

All three write-ups reviewed for this story trace back to the same original Middle East Eye reporting, republished with minimal changes by ZeroHedge and Gulf Insider. None of them appear to have obtained an independent response from the Jerusalem municipality, Mayor Moshe Lion's office, or any UAE company named as a prospective investor. The Jerusalem municipality's silence to Middle East Eye's request for comment is significant. Until it publishes an actual zoning scheme or names a specific Emirati investor on the record, Silicon Wadi is a mayoral talking point and a deputy mayor's sales pitch, not a confirmed construction project.