Israel’s Aid to African Countries Has Had Mixed Results, ‘washington Post’ Reports

Israel’s long range program of aid to African countries has had mixed results and caused some disillusionment among Israelis, the Washington Post reported today in a dispatch from Nairobi. Correspondent Stanley Meisler wrote that Israel may be small and poor but most black African countries see it as powerful and influential “and ever present.”

The correspondent cited the example of the Central African Republic where the Israeli assistance program is larger than the American one. The Israelis have built a small industrial center, organized a movement for 3,000 boys and developed six farm settlements. Since 1958, Israel has sent more than 1,700 technicians to Africa, mainly specialists in farming, youth work and medicine–two-thirds of all technicians Israel has sent to the developing world in the past decade, the correspondent reported.

In the same period, more than 5,000 Africans were brought to Israel for training, mainly in farming, cooperatives and community development. Half of the foreign trainees in Israel during that period have been Africans. Israel keeps an embassy in every independent black African nation, except the Moslem countries of Mauritania, Sudan and the Somali Republic. Only the United States, France and Britain are more active in those countries diplomatically.

According to Philip Ndegwa, the permanent secretary of the Kenya Economic Development Ministry, “Israel is a poor country. She cannot give us capital but in the field of technical assistance she can do a lot.” Israel was reported to have other programs to increase its influence in black Africa. The correspondent declared that Israel has trained or helped arm the military forces of nine African countries, particularly Uganda and the Congo, and has increased its small trade from $13 million in 1964 to $24 million in 1967. Solel Boneh, a construction arm of the Histadrut, Israel’s Labor Federation, and Water Resources Development International, an engineering firm, have won numerous contracts.

Recently Israel changed its approach partly because of shortages of funds stemming from the June, 1967 war, with more emphasis on trade. Israeli Foreign Ministry officials, looking for other areas to influence, such as Latin America, were reported to have cut almost in half the number of technicians assigned to African countries while increasing the number elsewhere.

Many Israelis, examining the record, were reported to feel that African support after the Six-Day War was half-half hearted and that a lot of money “went down the drain.” The correspondent said that Israeli African specialists dispute this and cited the voting records of the Organization of African Unity and support at the United Nations. In two key UN General Assembly votes after the Six-Day War, the votes by African members leaned toward Israel, and the specialists said that without African support, the voting would have been lopsidedly against Israel.