'India the playground for Israel innovation': Fleur Hassan-Nahoum

FLEUR HASSAN-NAHOUM was born and raised in Gibraltar, where her father, Sir Joshua Abraham Hassan, was the first mayor and chief minister. She studied law at King’s College, London, where she met her husband, Adam Nahoum, an Iraqi-Baghdadi Jew, whose father was born in Kolkata. Adam’s family opened the famous Nahoum and Sons Bakery―one of the oldest shops in Kolkata owned by Jews.

Fleur told THE WEEK that India and Israel were great partners and that the triangulation between India-Israel and Gulf countries was extremely important. Edited excerpts:

Q / How do you see India’s role in the success of the Abraham Accords?

A / I visit the UAE a lot and recently I was in Morocco and Bahrain, which are Abraham Accord countries. The triangulation between India-Israel and Gulf countries is extremely important. India and Israel are great partners; India has huge human capital and there are 3.5 million Indians living in the UAE. This regional partnership is a game changer for all. I also say this because innovation in Israel is huge, but we are a small country and the playground is India with its huge market and potential. We have a natural synergy and mutual appreciation and respect which is the basis for many future partnerships.

Q / How do you see the role of women in politics in Israel? What are the challenges?

A / It is ironic that India and Israel, born a year apart, also have had their third and fourth prime ministers as women and they are the only ones till now. We have not had a female Prime Minister since Golda Meir. In fact, people call it the Golda syndrome, where the exception proves the rule! I believe that we live in an unbalanced world and we won’t restore that balance until women are 50 per cent in decision-making positions. The more diversity around the table, the better the decisions.

Q / Israel has seen protests against judicial reforms. Your views?

A / I am part of the Likud party which is the ruling party and I personally believe there is a real need for some judicial reforms. We cannot have a situation where the president of the supreme court is more powerful than the democratically elected government. However, I believe the programme could have been presented differently, maybe with a longer consultative process. We hope compromise talks yield a result everyone can live with.

I have been the head of key committees in Jerusalem and I always aimed to pass decisions with consensus. I am co-founder of Gulf-Israel’s women’s forum because I believe that women can make peace in a more sustainable way. In the Jerusalem city council, one of our main problems is that the ultra orthodox parties who form a big chunk of it do not allow female representation. The main problem we have with the ultra orthodox is not borne out of religious beliefs but the ethos. For example, exclusion of women in the public space is a problem as they won’t allow pictures of women in newspapers. So there is a built-in advantage for men.