They've stomped Israeli folk dances with Afghanis and trained hundreds of people from countries with no official diplomatic ties to Israel in good farming practices. Now, the educators at the Galilee International Management Institute (formerly the Galilee College) are welcoming former militant Nigerian rebels to Israel.

 

The Galilee Institute gives management and agriculture expertise to people in developing nations so they can build sustainable communities with good business practices back home. So it was only logical that the Nigerian government turned to Israel to help rehabilitate some of the 20,000 former militants. The Galilee Institute ran a summer class for 28 men and two women, who graduated with expertise in fisheries, farming and livestock. Others were sent to agriculture centers in other countries, but the Nigerian government has chosen Israel as the site to continue the program. Another 23 former rebels participated in a one-month training program in September 2011.

 

 

Joseph Shevel, president of the Galilee Institute, balks at the suggestion that the former militants are dangerous. Coming mainly from the Niger Delta, where there is an abundance of oil and human rights violations alike, these citizens emerged as a local militia to sabotage pipelines of big oil companies that were forcibly displacing them from their homes. "Whenever there was an explosion in a pipeline, world oil prices went up. The government granted them amnesty and allocated land to each one of them; they surrendered their weapons to get the land. Since they only know how to shoot and not to be farmers, we have to train them," says Shevel.

 

In the course of the training sessions, paid for by the Nigerian government, the institute teaches a range of skills that can be applied to setting up businesses in fisheries, poultry and dairy farming and agriculture. Back in Nigeria, the government follows up with the trainees to monitor their progress and give additional support.

 

Shevel says the Israeli kibbutzim housing the trainees have no fears; they have successfully hosted people from 160 countries.

 

 

A great number of the countries using the services of the institute did not or still do not have diplomatic ties with Israel, such as Afghanistan and Indonesia. Classes are available in English, French, Russian, Arabic, Spanish and Portuguese. At the Galilee Institute, the past is forgotten as people come to learn a new trade for a new future.

 

Earlier this year, a group of Afghanis graduated. "We took them to Israeli folk dancing," Sheval says. "Can you imagine? And the Israelis danced Afghani dances."

 

Diplomatic ties between Israel and Nigeria were restored in 1992, and today many Nigerian Christians - 31,750 in 2010 alone - come to enjoy the Holy Land. The Nigerian trainees also get to see the sights on Saturday, their day off. "Every Saturday they travel," says Sheval. "They get baptized in the Jordan River, eat St. Peter's fish at Capernaum and visit Nazareth, a walking distance from the college."

 

He's not sure when the Afghanis will be back but expects to train about 500 more Nigerian ex-rebels in 2012.