On Tuesday 10 May, the Embassy of Israel in Accra held a reception to mark the 74th Independence anniversary of the State of Israel. The celebration was under the theme “Partnering for a Better Future.”

The reception brought together guests from the diplomatic community, government representatives, Israeli community, religious community, friends, and partners of the embassy. 

In her remarks, H. E. Shlomit Sufa highlighted some of the projects the embassy has embarked on in the last one year to strengthen Israel-Ghana Relations.

“From 2020 until now, more than 100 professionals have benefited from MASHAV trainings in areas such as Agricultural extension, Precision Agriculture, Plant Nutrition, Intensive Fish Farming, Milk Production, among others. In person trainings have re-started and soon, we shall have a good number of professionals traveling to Israel for different programs and trainings. Moving on to the health sector, Just this March, about 60 midwives, nurses and paediatric specialists from these hospitals graduated from a training programme facilitated by MASHAV and the Soroka Medical Centre in Israel”, she said. 

According to H. E. Shlomit Sufa, “plans are advanced for us to launch our new innovative project - Make Lab Ghana. Together with our Ghanaian partners, we intend to create a space where entrepreneurs and individuals could come and learn from Israeli experts on actualizing their dreams; working on their individual innovative ideas to create new projects and businesses.”

H. E. Shlomit Sufa also used the occasion to emphasize on the strong relationship between Israel and Ghana.

“Ghana is a priority country in the Israeli Economic and Development policy because of its huge economic potential, its stability and democracy, the dominant role of the civil society and the freedom of the press. We continue to work tirelessly on the level of government-to-government, business to business and people to people relations to create and achieve a better future for our people. We look forward to more fruitful partnerships that creates a better future for the betterment of our people. Together, we shall take inspiration and innovate for a better prosperous and harmonious future.”

On his part, the Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, Hon. Yaw Frimpong Addo, who represented the Government of Ghana at the reception expressed that  “since 1996 following the restoration of diplomatic relations, our two countries forged stronger bonds of friendship and expanded our cooperation to include various agricultural specialisation, health, education, entrepreneurship, innovation and ICT,  digital technology, cyber security and military cooperation among others.”

He added that Ghana and Israel’s “bilateral relations have witnessed an increase in people-to-people contacts in the participation of several Ghanaian students, public servants and private individuals in various MASHAV training programs in health, education, agriculture, entrepreneurship and innovation and are making significant contributions to Ghana’s development. We also welcome the increase in Ghana’s quota of the Agricultural Trainees from 70 to 200 for the 11-months intensive training in agriculture.”

Hon. Yaw Frimpong Addo was hopeful of a stronger relations between Ghana and Israel especially in the area of trade and business. “We welcome the increased business to business engagement and the several Israel companies that are flourishing in Ghana, made possible by the conducive business environment, not least Ghana’s peace and political stability.”

At the height of the celebration was the distribution of a jar of honey which was produced by one of our MASHAV Alumni’s projects. In 2020, they received a grant award to rehabilitate the Twifo Praso beekeepers library and apiary.