Emirati Astronaut Gives Israel Flag He Took to Space

The first ever astronaut from the United Arab Emirates, Hazzaa al-Mansoori, presented the Israeli flag that he took to the International Space Station in 2019 to officials at the Israel pavilion at the Expo 2020 in Dubai.

Alon Ushpiz, the director general of Israel’s Foreign Minister, tweeted his thanks in Mansoori for the gift on Thursday.

Mansoori took the into space a year before Israel and the UAE signed the Abraham Accords normalizing relations between the two countries. Israel and the UAE in October agreed to cooperate on several space programs, including Israel’s next attempt to land an unmanned space craft on the moon, dubbed Beresheet 2.