MY 13-YEAR-OLD HERO

by Dov Lipman  November 23, 2017

Imagine if children throughout Israel spent the year leading up to their bar and bat mitzvas raising funds to bring electricity and water to children in Africa.

The daily news usually covers the negative: scandals, corruption, wars, etc. I once heard a nightly news anchor say that she begins every night with the words “Good evening” and that is usually the last good thing she says for the entire broadcast. But in a country like Israel, filled with so many challenges and hardship, we cannot forget the extraordinary beacons of good and light living in our midst.

Which brings me to my new hero. His name is Eytan Kramer, a 13-year-old boy from Ra’anana.

Eytan and his mother, Liza, with the solar panels prior to their installation. (photo credit:LIZA KRAMER)

As Eytan was approaching his bar mitzva a year ago, he and his mother had a discussion about what it means to “become a man.” Eytan concluded that it means not just taking responsibility for yourself, but for the needs of others as well. So Eytan decided that he wanted to take on a project for his bar mitzva that included helping the less fortunate.

He found out that there are some 600 million people in Africa who live in darkness – no electricity – and another 300 million Africans who do not have access to clean water. Most of us hear these statistics and sigh for a moment, and maybe even appreciate what we have – and then carry on with business as usual.

Eytan heard those numbers and decided to take action. He and his mother contacted Sivan Yaari, founder and CEO of Innovation Africa, and after raising $18,000, Eytan and his mother traveled to Uganda a few weeks ago to see, as a result of Eytan’s efforts, the lights switched on at the Bukalikha Primary School.

That’s right: 959 children now have electricity in their school because of the efforts of a 13-year-old Israeli boy who spent months raising the funds to bring them Israeli solar technology via this non-profit organization. Electricity for that school means they can attract the best teachers and provide the children with a place to study in the nighttime hours. These children now have an opportunity for a high-level education and a brighter future.

The impact that this had on the children could be seen by their reaction when the lights went on: absolute euphoria, cheering, singing, dancing. Sheer joy. And Eytan was there to dance and celebrate with them.

Eytan Kramer reminds us what our society can look like: a world in which people look for ways to help others. Eytan also reminds us of something else – what Israel is, and how much greater it can be.

Imagine if college campuses were filed with students partnering with Israel to solve the problems that worldwide organizations such as the United Nations have not solved.

Innovation Africa has improved the lives of a million people in 160 African villages by installing electricity in their schools and medical clinics, and providing them with clean water. Imagine if we all joined together to bring electricity and water to 1,000 villages, impacting the lives of millions of people who currently live in the dark and in drought.

Aside from the inherent good of transforming lives for the better, such generosity would demonstrate once again that Israel not only stands for human rights, but is leading the world in fighting for it.

Thank you Eytan, for reminding us of who we are and who we can be.

African Christian Leaders Hold Jerusalem Start-Up Summit

Ilanit Chernick August 30, 2017

About 70 delegates from countries including Nigeria, Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique, Lesotho, Tanzania and Kenya took part in a four-day event in Jerusalem.

Christian leaders from several African countries concluded meetings recently with Israeli start-ups, politicians and businesses during the African Leadership Summit hosted by the Institute for Christian Leadership Development.

“Africa Celebrates Jerusalem” is this year’s theme for the summit, which aims to strengthen ties between Israel and Africa. The main goal is for African Christian leaders to connect with the different sectors of the country including agriculture, economic and technology.

Pastor Segun Olanipekun, summit coordinator and chief executive officer of the Institute for Christian Leadership Development, said what encouraged the organization to call the summit was the leadership crisis in Africa.

“There’s not a lot of leaders that the youngsters can look up to because of the poor and inept leadership. Israel has united and strong leadership and we are looking to it for help,” he said.

Olanipekun explained that Israel’s leadership and the Jewish people have a purpose, to build a nation. “Israel has empowering start-ups... it grows and exports [fruits and vegetables] from the desert – Africa has good, fertile land but we are begging for food. As Africans we desire all of this and we want to learn from Israel,” he said. “We want to reconnect with the covenant of Abraham – the land, the people and the culture.”

Talking about the summit’s theme, “Africa Celebrates Jerusalem,” Nigerian-born Olanipekun (he also lived in Kenya and now resides in South Africa) said he is encouraging all African countries to show support for Israel and the Jews. “Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish and Christian faiths. If the Jews lose Jerusalem, Christianity loses its roots and foundation.

“Jerusalem must remain the capital. It belongs to the Jewish and Christian faiths and drives millions of people,” Olanipekun added. “The ultimate goal is to have a generation of African leaders who support Israel and to increase the presence of Israel in Africa and Africa in Israel.”

“We want Israeli farms in Africa that employ local people – Africa has land, Israel has good technology – our partnership can only do good for the world,” Olanipekun said.

Pastor Ben Naude from Johannesburg said that if “we’re going to counter organizations like BDS,” it was important to give Israel positive exposure and to educate people about the truth.

“There are so many cultures and groups who live here and they live together peacefully – South Africa can learn a lot from this,” he said.

“At the end of the day, Israel has incredible technology and agriculture – you can’t argue with this, the technology in cellphone in your hand was created here – minds and opinions [of Israel] must change.”

“Israel and the Jews have a zest for life and focus on the positive; in South Africa we need to learn from this, come together and go forward instead of focusing on the bad,” Naude said.

Nigerian Pastor John Adejolrooluwa, who is the leader of the Plummet Mission, a Missionary House that trains missionaries and sends them mostly to African countries, said education was the only way to combat the negative rhetoric on Israel.

“We have to reach out to as many people [as possible] and make them question this negative narrative and work with the Israeli government – make an effort to show that part of the problem is Israel’s neighbors and their connections and influence with bodies like the UN who are making certain [negative] proclamations about Israel,” he said.

“We are committing to Israel and we will not believe this negative, man-made bias,” Adejolrooluwa said.

Addressing the delegates, Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky spoke of his journey at the agency and of his life in Russia, also emphasizing the values and ideals that went into creating “the Holy Land.”

The summit has taken place in Jerusalem biennially since 2013.

Israel’s recent activities in Africa

In early July 2016, Prime Minister Netanyahu became the first Israeli premier in decades to travel to Africa when he visited four East African nations: Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia. Since then the frequency of talks, exchanges and bilateral visits has increased. Israeli entrepreneurial spirit and innovation can play a crucial role in the development of Africa. Israel can prove to be a great partner for the young African entrepreneurs who are harnessing the power of technology. The approach of Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation (MASHAV) in Africa is integrated and sustainable, with a focus on food security, water safety, sanitation, healthcare, economic growth, community building, women’s empowerment and education.

MASHAV is working to reduce neonatal and maternal mortality in Ghana and has established the mother-and-baby neonatal unit in that country. In Ethiopia, MASHAV is involved in horticulture, healthcare, clean energy and other sustainable development programs through its Centers of Excellence. Last year, MASHAV and USAID launched the IV Phase of the Joint Cooperation Program in Smallholder Horticulture in Ethiopia. In 2016 MASHAV also launched the first Israel-Kenya Steering Committee on Water Cooperation.

Israel is also cooperating technically and financially in the Galana/ Kulalu food security project, which is one of the largest irrigation projects in Kenya. The goal of this project is to provide water for sustainable farming through development, rehabilitation and modernization of irrigation and drainage. The cooperating parties in this project are the Kenyan government, MASHAV through CINADCO, and the Israeli company Green Arava. Initiatives such as “Training the Trainers,” Project TEN, the “Kangaroo System” introduced by Israeli medical trainers, and other Israeli organizations’ projects on solar energy, drip irrigation, water and food safety, etc., have received a good response in Africa.

Last year MASHAV and ECOWAS hosted a conference related to sustainable agricultural productivity in arid and semi-arid regions. Ministers and many other top officials from a number of Western African countries participated in this conference. An Africa-Israel summit is scheduled for the coming October, too. Over 100 Israeli companies are expected to participate.

Africa is blessed with an abundance of natural resources. Africa has 60% of the world’s arable land reserves. The combination of Israeli innovation/conceptual abilities and India’s “collective effort, inclusive growth” approach can provide the right direction to sustainable development efforts in Africa. Clean and renewable energy, healthcare, agriculture and rural development, vocational/technical education, and entrepreneurship promotion are some of the key areas where India and Israel need to collaborate for a better future for Africa.

Israel’s Strategy Shift Bears Fruit

Evelyn Gordon , July 22nd 2016

Full article at https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/israel/israels-strategy-shift-bears-fruit/ 

Wednesday’s announcement that Guinea is resuming ties with Israel almost half a century after severing them is a nontrivial piece of good news. Granted, Guinea is a poor and relatively unimportant African country. But it’s 85 percent Muslim, and few Muslim-majority countries have yet been willing to forge open relations with Israel; consequently, its decision could encourage others to follow suit. Guinea was also the first country in Africa to sever relations with Israel following the 1967 Six-Day War. For both those reasons, its renewal of ties underscores the degree to which a new Israeli strategy aimed at improving relations with the non-Western world has begun bearing fruit.

The Guinea announcement comes on the heels of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s successful trip to Africa earlier this month. Highlights of that trip included announcements by both Kenya and Ethiopia–two of Israel’s closest African allies–that they would push for Israel to receive observer status at the African Union, as well as Tanzania’s announcement that it planned to open an embassy in Israel, 21 years after renewing relations.

Israeli media outlets have also reported that officials from three other Muslim-majority African countries that don’t have relations with Israel–Mali, Chad, and Somalia–recently paid secret visits, indicating that the prospect of other Muslim countries following Guinea’s lead is far from inconceivable. Indeed, just last week, Foreign Ministry Director General Dore Gold visited Chad for a meeting with its president. This prospect is made more plausible by the warming of Israel’s relations with key Arab states. As several African leaders noted during Netanyahu’s trip, there’s little point in African countries continuing to give Israel the cold shoulder when some of the very Arab countries that originally pushed them to do so now have either overt or covert relations with it.

There are three reasons why Israel ascribes such importance to its warming ties with Africa, and both have more to do with the long term than the short term.

-       The first is the need to diversify its trading partners. Currently, about a third of Israel’s exports go to Europe. But the combination of Europe’s slowing economy and its growing hostility to Israel make this heavy reliance on Europe a potential threat to Israel’s economic future. Africa is the world’s poorest continent, but it’s experiencing rapid economic growth, and many of Israel’s fields of expertise fit well with Africa’s needs, including agricultural technology, water conservation, and counterterrorism. Thus by expanding and improving its diplomatic relations with African countries, Israel hopes to eventually expand its trade relations as well.

-       The second, as Netanyahu said during his Africa trip, is the hope of ending the automatic majority against Israel in international forums. As he readily acknowledged, this could well take decades; long-entrenched voting patterns don’t change overnight. Nevertheless, change is far from impossible: See, for instance, the 2014 Security Council vote on setting a deadline for Palestinian statehood, which was defeated because the Palestinians failed to muster the requisite nine votes. Two of the five crucial abstentions came from Africa (Rwanda and Nigeria).

The improvement  stems partly from Israel’s longstanding policy of proffering aid even to countries it has no relations with, which sometimes bears belated fruit. For instance, Israeli officials said one factor in Guinea’s decision to renew relations was the medical aid Israel gave it during the Ebola crisis two years ago. A salient example from Asia, another continent with which Israel’s ties have recently blossomed, is Singapore. Singapore asked Israel to train its army in the mid-1960s, before the two countries even established relations, and then concealed that fact for decades. But last month, as Elliott Abrams noted, Singapore joined forces with India and Rwanda–the third country in the club of Israel’s closest African allies–to help Israel gain the Non-Aligned votes it needed to win the chairmanship of a key UN committee.

-       The third reason for Israel’s declining isolation, however, is a deliberate decision by successive Netanyahu governments that the country could not afford, either economically or diplomatically, to keep focusing almost exclusively on the West while largely ignoring the rest of the world.

This constituted a major shift in Israel’s strategy, and it stemmed from a simple realization: Relations with Europe are inevitably being frayed by the fact that what the EU seems to want most from Israel is something beyond Israel’s power to provide. Namely, a peace deal with people who have consistently refused every Israeli offer and are currently refusing even to negotiate with it. 

The restoration of relations with Guinea is yet another sign that this strategy is starting to pay off. And that’s very good news for Israel.

Imams and Other Muslims Visit Israel

Rather than isolation, as some in the media would have the world believe, more and more representatives of more and more countries are visiting or making contact with Israel.

Many countries are waking up to the fact that they need to seek help and Israel can do just that.

Another example of this is the arrival of Imams and other Muslim religious leaders from a number of central African states in Israel on Sunday for a four-day visit (13-17 March 2016). The visit was arranged by the Africa Division and the World Jewish and Interreligious Affairs Bureau of the Israel Foreign Ministry, in conjunction with the American Jewish Committee. The visit aims to familiarize the visitors with socio-political aspects of Israel; to generate an interreligious, intercultural dialogue; and to explore possibilities for economic and agricultural development cooperation.

The delegation is comprised of senior religious leaders and imams from six African states spread throughout the continent, which gives the visit high strategic importance with regional implications and media impact beyond the states represented by the delegates. In most cases, the Muslim religious leaders serve also as community leaders and have broad political influence; their visit will contribute to strengthening the diplomatic ties between Israel and Africa.

The agenda for the visit includes meetings with senior officials; diplomatic and strategic briefings at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; meetings at the Knesset; meetings between the imams and the chief rabbis on the subject of coexistence; a visit to the holy sites of the three religions, including Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem; and tours of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Haifa and Acre - cities that serve as models for interreligious coexistence in Israel.

At the present time, when African states are confronting threats from Islamic jihadist terrorism, we attach prime importance to meetings with moderate Muslim religious leaders. These meetings could serve as a stabilizing factor and boost Israel's connection to these sectors of African society.

Background:

The delegation numbers nine leading Muslim religious figures from South Sudan, Zambia, Cameroon, Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia. Interreligious dialogue holds a central place on Israel's diplomatic agenda in Africa. Israel's ambassadors to Africa are involved in activities to strengthen ties with the Muslim community, such as donating sheep for the Eid al-Adha holiday, engaging in interreligious dialogues, and more.

Delegations of Senegalese imams and senior clergy visited Israel several years ago (2013 and 2014). The visits were very successful, showing the visitors different aspects of Israeli life and Jewish-Arab coexistence. The visitors returned to their country with high motivation to strengthen diplomatic ties with Israel and improve Israel's public image through the media and academia. Long after the delegation returned, the media continued to portray Israel as a multifaceted and open society.