As strange as it may sound, Israel was the first to understand that there was a need to establish an international aid agency, and it became one of the world’s largest foreign aid powers
By Haim Divon
In July 2010, while the whole world was absorbed in the Mondial that was taking place in South Africa, a terrible disaster occurred in the Congo. An oil tanker that exploded near an open amphitheater, which was filled to capacity with football fans watching the games on a large screen, caused hundreds of deaths and hundreds of injuries.
The Congo, which is not accustomed to handling such mass disasters, required outside assistance from the countries of the world to enable it to overcome the tragedy and to assist in treating the casualties. The first country to offer assistance was none other than Israel, which sent an aid delegation of doctors and nurses who treated the casualties and succeeded in healing and rehabilitating many of them. Israel had the experience and the expertise, as well as the ability to translate that accumulated know-how into practical use in those circumstances.
You probably did not read about that event in the media, like many other cases in which MASHAV, Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation, was the first to assist other countries facing serious humanitarian crises.
Israel is also one of the largest exporters of knowledge, primarily to countries in the developing world, in fields such as health and agriculture. Yes, what you have heard, in spite of the anti-Israel voices around the world, in spite of all the condemnations at the UN, in spite of the Goldstone Report, and in spite of many other issues that threaten Israel’s international status, Israel is considered a significant entity in international aid, and the country that preceded many others in the field.
As strange as it may sound, Israel was the first to understand that there was a need to establish an international aid agency, and it began to act on the basis of that moral viewpoint less than a decade after its establishment.
Proof of that will actually be occurring now, when Israel hosts dozens of leaders from all over the world, including the deputy secretary general of the UN and the director of UNESCO, at the biennial conference in the Golda Meir Mount Carmel International Training Center (MCTC), the oldest branch of MASHAV, which was established 50 years ago and was the first to help in empowering women in countries of the developing world.
Israeli know-how is in great demand
The way to provide the countries of the world with Israeli know-how is through courses that Israel offers both in Israel and abroad, and through the projects that Israel has initiated to reduce the problems of poverty and deprivation in the developing world.
During its many years of operation, some 270,000 people from all over the world have attended MASHAV courses, receiving training and assistance in dozens of projects in the fields of agriculture, community and socio-economic development, health and medicine, empowering women and, of course, humanitarian aid.
Each one of those 270,000 people who received training and assistance from the State of Israel became an agent of change in his or her country of origin.
Israeli know-how is in great demand because of the “unique Israeli model,” which combines a country that has been in a state of long-term conflict with its neighbors, the fact that it absorbed an enormous number of immigrants, which was greater than the number of existing citizens who took them in, and the fact that a large part of its area is desert.
Despite all the tough starting conditions, within a short period of time Israel transformed itself from a developing country into a developed Western country and an excellent exporter. Aside from that, Israel is an exemplar of a young state and a young economy that succeeded in developing rapidly and joining the ranks of the world’s most developed economies, becoming a full member of the OECD.
We received help – now it’s our turn to help others.
We are often asked why Israel devotes so much precious time to those who are not among its own disadvantaged people. I always reply that, fortunately, the US did not think that way and decided to help Israel in addition to its own disadvantaged citizens. Israel is also a state that arose thanks to foreign aid, and we know better than any other nation just how important it is to have the countries of the world on our side, and what happened when they weren’t. So it is important that 63 years after Israel evolved from a state whose chances of survival no one could predict to one of the most developed countries in the Western world. It will continue the unique endeavor ¬– initiated by the first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, and the minister of foreign affairs at that time, Golda Meir – which has become the Israeli ethos at its finest.
It is particularly important for us to remember the words of Ben Gurion, who said, at the start of Israel’s international aid endeavor, “And we, here, the Jews in our homeland, must also ask ourselves if Israel can help with the advancement and development of the countries of Asia and Africa? This is both a moral and political question for Israel.
And from both standpoints, there is no doubt that Israel is obligated to view assistance to those countries as a great historic mission that is required for Israel no less than the benefit that it gives to the countries it assists.”
The writer is the Deputy Director General of MASHAV – Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs