Israel announced today that it has prepared a shipment of “protein food-stuffs and medicine to be sent at once to famine-stricken areas in Africa.”
The announcement was made by Ambassador Binyamin Netanyahu at a meeting of the General Assembly on the “Critical Economic Situation in Africa.” The Israeli envoy also said that Magen David Adom was starting a public campaign in Israel to raise funds for “food, clothing and medicine for Africa’s hungry.”
“We believe that both kinds of aid, public and private, should be enlisted in this campaign, and that it should come from as many countries as possible, despite their own economic difficulties,” Netanyahu declared.
Noting that about 14 percent of the world’s population, or 500 million, suffers daily from hunger and that “many thousands starve to death every week,” Netanyahu said the shipment of food from elsewhere to Africa’s hungry is the only way to reduce the suffering. But, he said, action must be taken to insure that famine and hunger “do not become a permanent feature of African life.”
ISRAEL WILLING TO SHARE ITS EXPERIENCE
Netanyahu said that the solution to the crisis could be found in greater food production through improved farming methods. He said that a study prepared by the Israel Ministry of Agriculture shows that “even with a very modest improvement of farming methods” enough food will be produced to feed twice the world’s population.
The Ambassador said that Israel is willing to share its experience in food production with any country in the world. “In the past, we have eagerly shared the fruits of our experience with others, particularly with the nations of Africa. We are doing so again. Israel is now cooperating with close to 50 countries around the world in agriculture, and in such related fields as water resources, rural development and public health,” Netanyahu said.
He concluded: “Above all, we would like to share our experience with those who think such cooperation would be directly useful to them. We offer to share with any country, whatever its political relationship with us, the fruits of our own efforts in food production. We are prepared to establish immediate contacts with such countries to invetigate their specific problems relating to famine and drought.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
