Sheba Medical Center hosted a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony on Sunday night with the Bahraini Ambassador to Israel H.E. Khaled Yusuf Al Jalahma to celebrate the Abraham Accords and the collaborations that have resulted from them.
This was the first candle-lighting celebration and public event with the new Bahraini ambassador.
The Abraham Accords were signed in August 2020. Even before their signing, Sheba had been working in various low-key capacities with some countries in the Gulf region. Since then, it has signed multiple deals to work together with Bahraini and Emirati medical partners.
For example, Sheba has partnered with two of Bahrain’s largest hospitals on research initiatives and has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Health in Abu Dhabi for developing improved healthcare services. Sheba is also in dialogue with an additional Bahraini hospital.
Other hospitals, too, are working with the Gulf region, and new research and development opportunities have emerged as a result of the peace deal.
“Healthcare is the most powerful engine of growth in life,” said Sheba director-general Prof. Yitshak Kreiss. “Fueled by the notion that healthcare is a non-political issue with no barriers in terms of what can be shared in health, together with the government of Bahrain, we devised the ‘Prosperity Through Healthcare’ initiative to change the future of the Middle East.
“I am excited to see this friendship and partnership grow,” he said.
“I am honored to celebrate Hanukkah with Sheba Medical Center, who have become great partners to the Kingdom of Bahrain in a very short period of time, becoming instrumental for building people-to-people relations between our two countries,” the ambassador said, adding that the collaboration between Sheba and two of the country’s government hospitals will lead to the creation of an exchange program, fellowships and training courses.
Other attendees at the event included members of the hospital’s diverse medical team, former ambassador to the UAE Eitan Naeh and former Bahrain ambassador to the United States Houda Nanoo.
“While there have been many large and small miracles since the signing of the Abraham Accords, I am particularly excited by the partnership between Bahrain and Sheba which will enable the miracle of health and research to be delivered to so many,” Nanoo said.