Israel says Expo 2020 in Dubai is a bridge to Arab world

Israel's newly appointed commissioner to Expo 2020 said Monday that next year's world fair in Dubai offers the country a unique opportunity to present a fresh face to the Arab world, just as the Israel is growing closer to the United Arab Emirates and other Arab Gulf states.

Elazar Cohen presented plans for the Israeli pavilion at the world's largest exhibition, in which it aims to project its technological, scientific and agricultural innovations to the 25 million visitors expected to descend upon the glitzy city-state.

But Cohen said the true target audience was the Emirati hosts and the majority Arab visitors, whom he said would find great interest not only in Israeli technology but in its good intentions and outstretched hand.

"There is curiosity, mixed with concern, about this thing called Israel and we want to alleviate that concern," he said in a briefing at Israel's Foreign Ministry. "We want to project that Israel is an open country, that Israel is a democratic country, that Israel is a country that respects all its citizens, that everyone finds their place in it."