Difference between revisions of "Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Oman"
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{{short description|'''Jewish presence, covert and open ties with the Zionist entity, the 1996–2000 trade offices, the MEDRC desalination centre and the boycott law in the Sultanate of Oman'''}} | {{short description|'''Jewish presence, covert and open ties with the Zionist entity, the 1996–2000 trade offices, the MEDRC desalination centre and the boycott law in the Sultanate of Oman'''}} | ||
Latest revision as of 15:38, 22 October 2026
Jewish presence, covert and open ties with the Zionist entity, the 1996–2000 trade offices, the MEDRC desalination centre and the boycott law in the Sultanate of Oman
Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Oman run mainly through the state. Oman has no indigenous Jewish community and no diplomatic relations with "Israel".[1] Yet it has had covert security ties with "Israel" since the 1970s. It received Yitzhak Rabin in 1994 and Benjamin Netanyahu in 2018, and it hosted an Israeli trade office until October 2000.[2] In 2023 it opened its airspace to Israeli airlines. Its legislature, however, widened the boycott of "Israel" at the end of 2022.[3][4]
Jewish community and religious life
Jewish presence
The US State Department reports that "There is no remaining indigenous Jewish population" in Oman. After the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023 there were reports of antisemitic caricatures in the local press. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators chanted antisemitic slogans, including "Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews!", on several occasions in October. The Grand Mufti, Ahmad al-Khalili, saluted the "valiant Palestinian resistance".[1]
Association of Gulf Jewish Communities
An Omani Jewish community was named as one of the founders of the Association of Gulf Jewish Communities (AGJC) on 15 February 2021, with those of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.[5] The statement names no Omani member and gives no size for the community.
How far is it Zionist? No source found describes Omani Jewish institutions or any tie to Zionist bodies. The World Jewish Congress has no community page for Oman. The only documented link is AGJC membership, which presumably reflects expatriate Jews.[5]
Chabad
No Chabad emissary or centre was found in Oman.
- Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch in West Asia
The Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States lists no rabbi for Oman.[6]
Zionist movement and advocacy
No Zionist organisation operating in Oman was found. The organised activity runs the other way. In December 2022 seven members of the Majlis al-Shura proposed an amendment to the boycott law. It would cut all economic, sports and cultural contact with "Israel" and ban any meeting, real or virtual, with Israelis.[7]
Israeli state and commercial ties
Covert ties, 1970s–1990s
According to the historian Jonathan Ghariani, the covert ties date from 1975, when an Israeli military advisory group helped the sultanate against the Marxist rebels in Dhofar. Ephraim Halevy of the Mossad travelled to Oman to help suppress the revolt, and the Israeli presence was hidden from the British. In the 1970s "Israel" also supplied desalination and drip-irrigation know-how. In 1980 Sultan Qaboos bin Said set up a channel to the Mossad and met regularly with a Mossad operative to discuss Soviet influence and the Iranian revolution.[2]
Rabin's 1994 visit and the trade offices
Oman says it began "diplomatic dialogue with Israel in 1993". It says Rabin's 1994 visit made it "the first Gulf country to receive an Israeli Prime Minister".[8] UPI reported on 26 December 1994 that Yitzhak Rabin had flown to Muscat on an Israeli Air Force jet and dined with Qaboos. He was accompanied by his military adviser, Danny Yatom. The two governments were then discussing "the opening of interest offices in each other's countries". Deputy Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin had already led the Israeli delegation to the multilateral peace talks in Muscat.[9]
Ghariani dates the reciprocal trade missions in Tel Aviv and Muscat to September–October 1995. He writes that Shimon Peres visited Salalah in 1996, after which "Israel opened its trade office in the Omani capital".[2] BBC Arabic likewise reported that an agreement to open trade representation offices was signed during Peres's 1996 visits to Qatar and Oman.[10] Oman closed the Israeli trade office on 12 October 2000, after the start of the Second Intifada, as hundreds protested in Muscat.[11] The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs listed its Muscat mission as established in January 1996 and "Relations suspended 10/2000". It recorded that Morocco, Tunisia and "the Sultanate of Oman closed the Israeli offices in these countries in October 2000 and suspended relations with Israel".[12]
MEDRC desalination centre
The Middle East Desalination Research Center (MEDRC) was established "out of the Middle East Peace Process in 1996". It is an international organisation with its headquarters and research facility in Muscat.[13] Ghariani writes that Oman was the first Arab country to support a regional desalination centre led by "Israel", and that "Israel" agreed to help fund it. He writes that Israeli scientists still take part in MEDRC despite the break in 2000, and that the site "serves as a venue for covert meetings between Israeli and Omani officials".[2]
Netanyahu's 2018 visit
On 26 October 2018 Benjamin Netanyahu made an unannounced visit to Muscat at Qaboos's invitation. He was accompanied by his wife, the Mossad chief Yossi Cohen and the national security adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat. A joint statement said the two sides discussed "ways to advance the Middle East peace process".[14] The BBC called it the first visit of its kind "in over two decades". It reported that the Israeli transport minister was in Muscat days later, proposing a railway between "Israel" and Arab countries.[15]
Airspace
On 23 February 2023 Oman's Civil Aviation Authority said that the sultanate's airspace "is open for all carriers that meet the requirements of the Authority for overflying". The Israeli foreign minister, Eli Cohen, thanked Sultan Haitham bin Tariq and called it "a historic and significant decision for the Israeli economy and the Israeli traveller". Israeli officials had said that the Saudi air corridor announced by Joe Biden in July 2022 could not be used until Oman agreed.[3]
Boycott law
Oman's boycott law, issued by Royal Decree No. 72/9, bans agreements with bodies or persons in "Israel", of Israeli nationality or working for its interest.[7] On 26 December 2022 the Shura Council moved to widen it, referring the amendment to its legislative and legal committee. Its vice-president, Yaqoub al-Harithi, said the amendment meant "an expansion of criminalization and an expansion of boycotting this entity". The Jerusalem Post noted that this came while "Israel" was pressing for overflight rights.[4] The foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, welcomed the vote as "an embodiment of the aspirations of the Omani people".[16] The Jewish Chronicle quoted the analyst Tom Gross as saying that the vote "was primarily designed to appease the Iranian regime".[17]
Arms, trade and intelligence
The SIPRI register records no arms transfers from "Israel" to Oman.[18] The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics country table for 2022–2025 does not list Oman.[19] Citizen Lab's 2018 survey of NSO Group's Pegasus spyware listed Oman among 45 countries with suspected infections. It linked them to an operator it called MIDDLE, which it did not assign to any country.[20]
Regional structures
Ghariani writes that Oman supported the Abraham Accords of September 2020 but chose not to normalise ties. It said it would do so only if "Israel" accepted the Arab Peace Initiative and a Palestinian state on the 1967 lines.[2] Oman remains a mediator with Iran. A US Congressional Research Service report records that the US–Iran memorandum of June 2026 committed Iran to "conduct dialogue with the Sultanate of Oman" on the future administration of the Strait of Hormuz.[21]
Migration and aliyah
No source found records Jewish emigration from Oman to "Israel" or Jewish Agency activity in the country.
Political interference
No documented Israeli political interference in Oman was found. The documented record is of covert state-to-state contact through the Mossad and the MEDRC channel.[2]
No credible sourced link between Jeffrey Epstein and Oman was found, so this page has no Epstein section.
See also
- Chabad-Lubavitch in West Asia
- Association of Gulf Jewish Communities
- Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States
- Zionist movement
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Bahrain
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Qatar
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Iran
External links
- MEDRC (official site)
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 US Department of State, 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: Oman US Department of State, 2024.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Jonathan Ghariani, A Diplomatic History of Israel's Relations with Oman: From Clandestine Ties to the Abraham Accords Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies, Concordia University, occasional paper, undated (after 2020).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 The National, Oman opens airspace for all airlines, says Civil Aviation Authority The National, 23 February 2023.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Tovah Lazaroff, Oman's Shura Council stiffens boycott law against Israel The Jerusalem Post, 26 December 2022.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Association of Gulf Jewish Communities, Jews in 6 Gulf nations form first association to enhance regional Jewish life gulfjewish.org, 15 February 2021.
- ↑ Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, The Rabbis rabbisalliance.org, accessed 20 October 2026 (Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States-side).
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Asharq Al-Awsat, Oman's Shura Council Refers Proposal to Tighten Israel's Boycott to Legislative and Legal Committee Asharq Al-Awsat, 27 December 2022.
- ↑ Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Oman), History of the Foreign Ministry fm.gov.om, accessed 20 October 2026 (Omani government-side).
- ↑ UPI, Rabin makes secret visit to Oman UPI, 26 December 1994.
- ↑ BBC Arabic, رئيس الوزراء الإسرائيلي بنيامين نتنياهو في زيارة قصيرة إلى سلطنة عمان BBC News عربي, 26 October 2018 (in Arabic).
- ↑ UPI, Oman shuts down Israeli office UPI, 12 October 2000.
- ↑ Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Israel's Diplomatic Missions Abroad: Status of relations mfa.gov.il, archived 5 August 2011 (Israeli government-side).
- ↑ MEDRC, About Us medrc.org, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ Al Jazeera, Israel's Netanyahu meets Sultan Qaboos in surprise Oman trip Al Jazeera, 26 October 2018.
- ↑ Yolande Knell, Israel-Arab ties warm up after long deep freeze BBC News, 6 November 2018.
- ↑ Middle East Monitor, Oman FM welcomes vote to further criminalise Israel ties Middle East Monitor, 30 December 2022 (critical).
- ↑ Georgia L. Gilholy, Oman criminalises ties with Israel and Israelis, despite rumours of normalisation The Jewish Chronicle, 5 January 2023.
- ↑ Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database, trade registers, Israel as supplier, 1950–2025, generated 20 October 2026 (library copy).
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy).
- ↑ Citizen Lab, Hide and Seek: Tracking NSO Group's Pegasus Spyware to Operations in 45 Countries The Citizen Lab, 18 September 2018 (critical).
- ↑ Christopher M. Blanchard, Jeremy M. Sharp, Clayton Thomas and Jim Zanotti, U.S. Conflict with Iran Congressional Research Service, R48887, updated 18 September 2026 (US Congress-side).