Israel firmly behind Lanka’s efforts to resolve conflict - Israeli envoy

Rafik Jalaldeen

Sri Lanka and Israel are increasingly cooperating in several spheres, the outgoing Israeli envoy David Danieli told the Daily News in a recent interview. Excerpts from the interview:

Q: What are the main areas of cooperation between Israel and Sri Lanka?

A: The main areas of cooperation are agriculture, irrigation and public health. Specially in public health we have established quite significant progress in the aftermath of the tsunami.

“We dispatched doctors and other medical professionals soon after the tsunami. We have also established a few more health facilities in the island, for example we have donated well equipped six Intensive Care ambulances six months ago.

A month ago we had 20 Israeli professionals who arrived to conduct a special course financed and organised by the Government of Israel on emergency medicine and trauma care. In agriculture we are having several programmes including Israeli experts who are giving different training courses in Sri Lanka.

There are also some irrigation programmes as well. A few dozen Sri Lankan trainees are taking part in international technical courses in Israel mostly agricultural related topics. There are some other courses which are open for all students in English medium.

We are pleased to have Sri Lankan trainees among them. This is a well established programme . Over four decades a few hundred Sri Lankans have taken part in these courses in Israel.

Q: During your tenure, how did you strive to improve the bilateral relationship?

A: It is improving and an on going process. I have been in charge for the last four years, during this time we made a quite good relationship and I am confident that the bilateral relationship will continue in the future.

We have signed many bilateral agreements during my term such as economic, commerce and bilateral agreements. We also signed a civil aviation agreement which will allow our airlines to fly to each country.

It is an important agreement but it is not in effect. We also proposed agreements on education, science and research which will be signed mostly in the near future and it is at the final draft level.

Besides, we organised business delegations from Sri Lanka to Israel and vice versa to boost our trade relations. The main trade sectors are garment, jewellery, chemical items, agro technology and irrigation. We wish to expand these sectors to include telecom, water technology as main sectors.

Q: How about defence cooperation between the two countries?

A:I should not elaborate on that. The two Governments are cooperating in this field to extend the necessities when it is required.

Q: Is the trade and investment relationship between Israel and Sri Lanka improving?

A: Yes, we have increased the trade between the two countries on those sectors that I mentioned earlier and we also hope to increase further.

We hope to increase trade and cooperation in the agriculture sector and we have just signed a trade agreement between two countries during the visit of Minister G.L.Peiris and he was accompanied by a Sri Lankan business delegation. We definitely hope to make more progress in the coming years.

Q:Israel can help Sri Lanka in terms of agriculture development. Are any steps being taken in this regard?

A:I have mentioned some of them earlier about the bilateral relationship in agriculture sector. Furthermore, training and scholarships will be offered to Sri Lankans for more exposure in this field.

There will be several courses in agriculture sector conducted by the Israeli experts in Sri Lanka. If the Sri Lankan Government has a specific request to us which applies to a specific need in the agriculture field such as post harvesting techniques or horticulture (Flower plantation) we can help.

Otherwise we have wide programmes in many fields and we are ready to offer them to the Government of Sri Lanka and willing to cooperate very much with Sri Lanka.

There is much friendship in Israel over Sri Lanka, both Israel and Sri Lanka represent an ancient civilization on the one hand and both are young democratic States on the other hand. Sri Lanka and Israel gained their independence in 1948.

Both of them are facing difficult national challenges that they have to overcome. The Government and the people in Israel have very positive views about Sri Lanka and we wish Sri Lanka a much success in resolving its great challenges in a way that will be in accordance with the wishes of the Sri Lankan people. We are very much supportive of maintaining the sovereignty, the territorial integrity and unity of Sri Lanka.

Q: How can the two countries promote tourism to each other mutually?

A: We are already having few dozens of Israeli tourists arriving in Sri Lanka every year. We do make efforts to increase the number. Minister of Tourism Milinda Moragoda was invited to Israel and we intend to make good use of his visit to better introduce Sri Lanka as a major tourist attraction and destination to the Israelis.

Sri Lanka offers very attractive sites such as sandy beaches, landscapes, historical heritage etc. I believe that with concerted efforts to market Sri Lanka in Israel you will have many Israelis coming to Sri Lanka.

Israel is a small nation but many of them are travelling around the world. We are having around 50,000 Israeli tourists annually in India and over 130,000 in Thailand. So the potential for Sri Lanka is with these numbers to be also attracted to the island and I see good prospects for that. I already discussed this with the Minister Moragoda and I am certain that his visit will bring good results in terms of tourism from Israel to Sri Lanka.

There are several thousand Sri Lankan workers mostly in the health care sector.

They have been received warmly and their work in Israel is much appreciated.

By that we also provide some modest contribution to the Sri Lankan economy. Obviously these Sri Lankan workers send their remittances to their families.

Q: What is the current situation of the Israeli-Palestine peace process?

A: Israel is for a negotiated settlement with the President of the Palestinian authority. Israel has reiterated its position that it is not willing to rule Palestinians and it is therefore, calling for a negotiated two states solution. Israel has manifested its serious attitude over a decade of negotiating with Palestinians.

Besides, Israel has completely withdrawn from the Gaza strip in September 2005, hoping this will reinvigorate the peace process. Unfortunately, Hamas was using Gaza since Israel withdrew, as a terror base to constantly harass and attack Israeli settlements across the Gaza border.

The Hamas cannot be considered a partner to the political dialogue as it rejects Israel’s right to exist and does not renounce terrorism. Israel is cooperating with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to promote the political dialogue.

Israel recently agreed to release 250 Palestinian prisoners and to release US$ 500 million to the Palestinian Authority.

This money is taxes that Israel collects in the ports on the behalf of the Palestinians on the basis of the agreement between Israel and Palestine. But we have previously refused to release this money to Hamas.

Q: What is your message to Sri Lankans on your farewell?

A: On completion of my assignment as non-resident Ambassador to Sri Lanka, I wish to thank the Government of Sri Lanka for providing me whatever was required to work closely together for the promotion of good bilateral relations in various fields.

I am confident that the Sri Lanka/Israel bilateral relations will go from strength to strength and will further benefit the interests of the two nations.

I wish the people of the Sri Lanka progress, prosperity and success in accomplishing national tasks and to carry forward important development programmes which will definitely strongly place Sri Lanka on the world stage.

I am hopeful that bilaterally we are about to achieve stronger cooperation in trade, tourism, agriculture, irrigation and technology.