Israel will continue giving technical support to Uganda in the areas
of agriculture and agribusiness to ensure that the country acts as a food basket for the region, the out-going Israel Ambassador to Uganda, Yahel Vilan has said.
According to Vilan, Israel has sponsored 900 Ugandans for training in
his country in various agriculture practices ranging from animal and crop husbandry and irrigation to sophisticated systems of cell culture farm microbial science.
The Ambassador made the statement yesterday as paid a courtesy visit
to Vice President Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi at his office in Kampala following his end of tour of duty as Israel top diplomat to Uganda.
Vilan urged the Ugandan government to utilise the trainees, saying
that the knowledge they have acquired can
support the country’s efforts to become a middle income country.
“Given Uganda’s fertile soils and temperate climate, the country can rely on agriculture more than any other sector,” the diplomat said.
He also appreciated the support of president Museveni and his Government, saying that made his work easy and that it saw the Israeli Prime Benjamin Netanyahu visit East Africa for the first time, starting with Uganda, a move he said has made East Africa one of Israel’s greatest allies.
On his part Vice President Ssekandi said Israel and Uganda have long standing relations since bible times when the Israelites were in Egypt
surviving on the River Nile waters and later when attempts were made to settle some of them in Uganda which could have been their second home.
He hailed the relationship between the two countries and invited more Israelites to visit Uganda, saying it is ‘an amazing country equally shared by the two hemispheres.
Ssekandi said that Ambassador Yahel was leaving the country at the
time Uganda needs strong allies and support to achieve its
middle-income status and asked the outgoing Ambassador to be Uganda’s good will promoter in Israel and wherever he will be.
HThe VP also lauded the diplomat for his positive attitude that has contributed to the revsumption of relations between Kampala and Tel-Aviv after a bleak history and hostility between the two countries following hostage-rescue mission carried out by commandos of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) at Entebbe Airport on July 4, 1976.
At the time, an Air France plane bound for Paris with 248 passengers on board was hijacked by two members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations.
During the rescue operation, five Israeli commandos were wounded and one, unit commander Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, a brother to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was killed. All the hijackers, three hostages, and forty-five Ugandan soldiers were killed, while thirty Soviet-made MiGs of the Uganda Air Force were destroyed.
