Arutz Sheva visited the Agritech 2012 International Agricultural
Exhibition and Conference, which is taking place in Tel Aviv this
week.
During the conference, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon met with
South Sudan’s Minister of Agriculture, Betty Ogwaro, and together
they decided to promote the establishment of an agricultural village
in South Sudan which will be constructed based on Israeli methods and
technologies and will serve as a model for other villages in the
future.
Soon after South Sudan became an independent nation, Israel and the
new country decided to establish diplomatic relations at the
ambassadorial level.
Arutz Sheva spoke with Ogwaro about the cooperation between Israel
and South Sudan.
“Cooperation is very important between government and government,
government and investors, and investors and investors,” said Ogwaro,
adding, “What I see here is a lot of cooperation between investors
and government.”
Ogwaro said that she “would like Israel to translate its skills in
small-scale agriculture to [South] Sudan, because we are still small-
scale. I see [Israelis] improving agriculture through irrigation.
This is very important because irrigation is more efficient than
rainfed agriculture.”
She addressed the phenomenon of the illegal infiltrators from Africa
who enter Israel through the non-hermetically sealed border with
Egypt. The infiltrators have become an issue of controversy in
Israel, with several MKs calling to deport all the infiltrators who,
in some cases, have been involved in crime and other violent
activities.
“What I would like to tell the public is that there’s a difference
between Sudan and South Sudan,” said Ogwaro. “In the past we were one
country but now we are South Sudan. When the Israeli people talk
about the Sudan, they’re talking about the total Sudan. There are not
many South Sudanese in Israel.”
Ogwaro added that she believes that “for humanitarian purposes, I
feel the Israeli government should support all the Sudanese who are
here, whether from the north or from the south, because they came
here for a purpose. They came here because they’re afraid for their
lives and they came here to seek better opportunities.”
