The Sunday Mail
OUTGOING Israeli Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Gershon Kedar, who also covered Botswana, Namibia and Zambia, recently paid a farewell courtesy call on President Mnangagwa, as the diplomat prepares to end his tenure. The Sunday Mail (SM) spoke to Ambassador Kedar (AM) to reflect on his time in Zimbabwe.
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SM: Please give us an overview of your tenure in Zimbabwe?
AK: I served from 2018 to this year. I was lucky that I came at a time when Zimbabwe was re-aligning her diplomatic agenda. During the last few years of the previous administration, the relations between Israel and Zimbabwe were not so good, there was very limited engagement and there was a lot of negativity. Fortunately, this has changed with the new administration.
Part of the policy of the new Government led by President Mnangagwa is to have a foreign policy without enemies. This promotes bilateral relations irrelevant of any differences on Middle East issues.
We also say to ourselves, and I said it to senior officials and the Minister of Foreign Affairs (and International Trade) when I met him last week, that Zimbabwe’s support for Palestine does not mean you can’t work with Israel. We are saying this cannot be a zero-sum game, but there can be a win-win.
So with this realisation together with the appreciation of so many people in Zimbabwe about the abilities and capabilities of Israel, this is a good basis to promote and to further relations.
Unfortunately, Covid-19 really limited our engagement.
Hopefully, the pandemic will wane and we pray that there won’t be another wave. We hope to start more engagement both at diplomatic level and other areas to promote real development and also create synergies between businesspeople.
SM: Can you highlight some of the opportunities that are there for the two countries?
AK: Well, I think there are so many, but obviously agriculture. So many strides have been taken in agriculture to promote industrialisation in Zimbabwe.
So this is a good basis to connect together with Israeli technologies. Israel is renowned for its modernised technology in agriculture and know-how to increase yields, to increase outputs while decreasing inputs using the Israeli experience to decide which chemical fertilisers are needed, and so on.
Israeli technology also encourages use of the GPS system and sensors so that a farmer will not just water the field the same way, but different parts of the field will get different amounts of water.
In the old way, you would just say we have so many hectares, we need so much water per hectare.
In the new way, using high-tech, you can divide the water so that it distributes according to the demands of different parts of the fields. I think there should be good synergy between Zimbabwe and Israel because your country is moving to adopt high-tech agriculture, which Israel already has.
SM: Are there any existing partnerships between Zimbabwe and Israel on high-tech agriculture?
AK: Yes, there are Israeli businesspeople and companies who are here but obviously we want them to be more.
SM: What were some of the highlights of your discussions with President Mnangagwa during your farewell meeting?
AK: The atmosphere was very good and both sides agreed that we should promote bilateral relations. I am glad to tell you that with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, we proposed to sign a cooperation agreement.
The idea behind this agreement is that when it is signed and authorised by both sides, we will then be able to do specific implementation agreements in specific areas, which should then be able to proceed quickly. Yes, the atmosphere was good and the discussion was good.
We discussed the whole gamut of the relations. Essentially the message from both sides was that we should go full steam in terms of improving relations.
SM: You spoke about agriculture, but are there any potential areas of co-operation in mining or other sectors?
AK: In terms of mining, Israel doesn’t really have any big mining companies to talk about.
We do not have minerals such as gold or chrome or coal to mine.
In the Bible, you may have read about the mines of Solomon in the past, but these days, there is not much mining to talk about. However, potential areas of co-operation in the mining sector can be exploration, because we have a number of companies that are into exploration.
We also have companies that are involved in dealing with effluence from the mines, so this is another potential area of cooperation. A common joke in our country that was told by our former president Shimon Peres is that when Moses took the people of Israel out of Egypt, he went to the Holy Land instead of the Oily Land. We didn’t find gas, oil or gold in the Holy Land. But, most recently, we found gas in the sea, which is important to us.
SM: We understand that Israel has a prime market for diamonds and Zimbabwe can trade its precious stones there. Can you shed more light on this?
AK: Yes, Israel is one of the major countries in the diamond marketing industry. There is a very big diamond exchange in Israel and I do know that already, as we speak, there is an Israeli company investing a lot of money in bringing top-class equipment and know-how so that diamonds from Zimbabwe will not be sent abroad as raw materials with low profit margins.
The plan is to value-add the diamonds by polishing and cutting them. So that is something that is happening as we speak. I believe that this is going to be a very good investment that will create new jobs for Zimbabweans and ensure that your country gets better value out of these diamonds.
Obviously, when such deals are sealed, they help to strengthen diplomatic relations between the two countries.
SM: What plans are there to enhance people-to-people relationships between the two countries?
AK: On the educational sphere, we need to increase the number of people that can benefit from scholarships.
In my meeting with His Excellency, President Mnangagwa, we also discussed having more people from Zimbabwe being involved in capacity-building courses. As Israel, we are prepared to invest into this so that even during this Covid-19, engagements can continue through digital frameworks.
Another area that I believe can benefit Zimbabwe is water management. In Zimbabwe, there is so much water that is lost because it is not harvested.
In Israel, 40 percent of our agriculture is supported by treated water and more than 90 percent of our effluents are treated and used in agriculture.
So there are plenty of opportunities there and as Israel we are willing to impart our knowledge to Zimbabwe.
SM: What is the level of trade between the two countries?
AK: It’s very hard to know because a lot of trade comes through South Africa, both exports and imports. I think there is room for more trade because certainly at the moment, there is scope for improvement.
