Daily Trust: What does it mean for Israel to be celebrating its 70th independence anniversary at this time?
Guy Feldman: If you had asked any Israeli 70 years ago that Israel would be 70, no one would have believed it. Israel was created by voting in the United Nations. There is a famous question posed by Israel’s first Prime Minister, Ben-Gurion to the chief of staff, “What are our chances for survival?” And he said, “Well, 50, 50. But here, look at us 70 years after. Israel today is good. The economy is doing well. As the Israeli ambassador to Nigeria, what is most important for me to emphasize is the relations between Israel and Nigeria. When Israel became independent, its population was 600, 000 although now we’re 8.3 million people. We were already in Nigeria in the 50s.
We were here because this is the engine of Israel. We have faced a lot of challenges from politics to agriculture. We are a very ancient people. We run back thousands of years back. We came with a very large historical perspective that which we call ‘Tikkun Olam’ which means fixing the world. It is in a way the burden we carry on our shoulders to want to fix the world. We are here because we really want to see a change and help bring the change.
DT: What do you mean by when you say see a change?
Feldman: We want to see improvement in the standard of living, education, health, economic growth. Whatever good things Israel is going through, I want to see Nigeria go through as well.
DT: Cut diamonds are one of Israel’s leading exports. For a country where diamonds are not one of its natural resources, how did you achieve that?
Feldman: Cut diamond is not a real export. Today, Israel’s export focus is mainly in services, in hi-tech and start-ups. A few months ago, Intel bought a company - Mobilleye for $15.4billion. My thinking is that Israel has become a major player in the car industry and we don’t manufacture cars. It’s a symptom. What is going on with diamonds [in Israel] is the same as what is going on with flowers in Holland, tech, agriculture. We have about nine Nobel laureates excluding the peace prize. We met with the then president, Peres who asked us if we knew Israel’s biggest contribution to the world. He said our dissatisfaction with everything we get and our wanting to improve them. If everything in life becomes a challenge you want to fix the world, then you’ll find better things. Israel has the second largest start-up companies after Silicon Valley.
DT: What deliberate steps did the Israeli government take to ensure its health and agriculture sectors grow as they have and a model for others?
Feldman: I wish we had become a model. It is one thing to say you are a model; it’s another thing to follow it. For Israel, celebrating 70 years is not a thing for show off, it’s saying let’s do things together. I was in Lagos a few months ago during the floods. It was a kind of commotion for us to go Watertech, a biannual exhibition. I was hosted by the governor for breakfast meeting with 200 people. We don’t have enough water supplies in Israel or floods. But when I asked Israel for information on flooding they sent me a whole lot. Things like how to tell when it’s coming and prepare for an emergency and all that. During that presentation I showed them an operating room in Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem showing a robot carrying out surgery. Israel puts a lot of its GDP into research and development.
DT: Clearly research and development has played a big role in Israel’s growth. What synergies exist between Nigeria and Israel in this regard?
Feldman: It’s with Israel and any country. It depends on the approach of that country. Why are there so many technological companies in the US? The US market which is the biggest market in the world has embraced it and is pushing. This is why Intel bought Mobileye. This is the US market and they understood that. Every country can do what they want with what they get. Life is not about what you get but what you do with it. I wish I would get a call every morning from anyone in government, saying, “come we have an idea, what can we do together?” When I was ambassador or deputy ambassador in other places, I got such calls. It all depends on the culture, the people and the motivation and what you do. You might ask me how I explain the development of Nigeria, in R & D. It’s not for me to explain or understand. It’s not for me, it’s for Nigeria. It’s the same thing with the corporation of Israel and Nigeria. It depends on Nigeria. Our hands are open. There are a lot of interactions going on way more than most of the countries. At the independence party we’re going to have Israeli vegetables grown in huge farms in Taraba. The question is why do we have only one like that? There should be way more.
From medical to agriculture there is a lot corporation going on in all fields. Some of it is low scale so you don’t see it and a lot it goes unreported. There are companies that have been doing it here for 20, 30 years.
DT: Is Israel receiving more medical than religious tourists?
Feldman: Pilgrimage is still leading mainly because it is a government system but medical tourism you have to pay yourself. I think most Nigerians prefer to go to London I guess because if historical ties. They are two different kinds of tourisms. One is tourism of the body and the second of the mind and spirit. By the way, Muslims come although they prefer to go Saudi Arabia but we have Muslims coming from other parts of the world to Israel.
DT: How has Israel maintained a strong economy?
Feldman: Israel is a strong economy. Its growth in the last 10 to 15 years it has grown about 3½ percent annually. When the world went down, Israel went up. What is important is not where you are at but where you are coming from and where you’re going to. Did you learn, did you fix things? Israel is going up all the time. We started just like you with refugees coming from all over the place from Arab countries, from Europe after the Holocaust. It was a kind of melting pot. I have met bright and very educated people in Nigeria, everybody knows what to do. But at the end of the day it’s how you run politics, run your country to do the best you can.
DT: You mentioned Israel receiving refugees and being a melting pot for all who came there. In recent times, Israel has been accused of not treating all its citizens fairly especially its African and Arab migrants. Could you speak about this?
Feldman: Let’s make question clear. We have about 8.3million citizens. Twenty percent are Arabs, most of them are Muslims Arabs most of them are Muslims, two percent are Christians and the rest are Jews. They are all citizens of Israel. Since 2010 we started receiving mainly Africans coming from Sudan and Eritrea. When they came it wasn’t because of war, it was economical reasons that pushed them to find better places. Israel was not their destination. Europe was. So we have thousands who are not citizens, not refugees according to the international law. We try to see what we can do to solve this because it puts a lot pressure on all kinds of places. A lot of countries are asking how they can resolve this. Israel can’t be the hub for different countries to come in. It’s small, it’s a different culture. It’s not working. Leaving those countries is not the solution. The best thing is to build your home in your homeland. I wish better economic situations will be built for the people.