After having served as ambassador of Israel to Mauritius with residence in South Africa for three years between 2021 and 2024, Eli Belotsercovsky paid a farewell visit to Mauritius. In the interview he gave to “l’express”, he talked mainly about the avenues of cooperation that can be developed between our two countries – agriculture, education, social development, tourism and health.

Many times have you been in Mauritius where you do not enjoy the privilege of having a fully-fledged embassy?

Because of the war against the Hamas that started on October 7, 2023, I have visited Mauritius on three occasions only.

How long did you stay in Mauritius during these three visits

It was between 3 to 4 days.

What lies behind the Israeli government’s intention to try to seek how it can gradually bring to a new level its diplomatic relation and cooperation with Mauritius?

One of my main tasks was to try, as best as I could, to see how we can strengthen our relationship with Mauritius. One aspect of this strategy that we have been able to achieve has been to see how we can increase the number of people who are willing to travel to Israel to benefit from all existing facilities that we offer in the field of training.

In what fields of interest these training facilities are able to come to fruition?

Agriculture, education, social development and health care are the domains where these training facilities can be offered.

What has been the response to your proposals?

It was quite positive and encouraging because quite a lot of people from Mauritius have openly shown their interest to take advantage of these training facilities. Some moved to Israel while others benefitted from courses that were available online. In addition to this, we have chosen water as one of the main area of cooperation because this is a big challenge for Mauritius and for Rodrigues as well. However, many parts of the main island Mauritius suffer from the consequences of water shortages. We have been able to send an expert from Israel to Mauritius where he stayed about a week. The main purpose of the visit has been to see with the responsible parties from the Central Water Authority how a transfer of knowhow that Israel has acquired in the field of management of water resources can be considered. It was also agreed that an extension of this project could take the form of exchanges between representatives from the Ministry of Energy and Public Utilities and those of a selected group of companies in Israel who deal with water technologies by having recourse to audio and/or video conferencing facilities offered by Zoom Communications.

What other fields of interest whereby cooperation between the two countries could start or move a step further from what the situation stands today?

I would spontaneously move out of the list, tourism and agriculture.

What are your arguments to justify this choice?

The reason why tourism arrives at the top of the list is that it is an area of interest where we have already started to cooperate and would like to continue in the future. So far, we have seen quite a number of tourists from Israel who have travelled to Mauritius.The country is becoming more and more known in Israel. However, the potential of that sector is much higher and there is sufficient room to believe that future development of that sector between the two countries is really possible.

If this is the case, what have you done to allow this sector to develop further?

We invited the Mauritian government to participate in a tourist exhibition that was scheduled to take place in February 2024 in Tel Aviv but didn’t take place because of the war with Hamas. We hope that it will take place next year, I mean 2025. Hopefully, we are expecting that Mauritius will send its representatives to this event. Tourism has a significant chance to develop further because people from Israel are fond of travelling since our country is very small. They are looking for new destinations. The potential of the tourist sector is there.

What is the Israeli government prepared to commit so that tourism occupies a more prominent place in the cooperation process that is highly desired?

It would be a good idea to organise a visit or even several visits to Mauritius for travel agents of the Israel Travel Association. In Israel, as in many other countries, the government is doing its best to have as many tourists as possible at home. The Israeli Travel Association is interested in sending tourists abroad. So, the idea is to have a fully-fledged delegation of travel agents over here to visit every corner that will enable them to take stock of the potential of the Mauritian tourism sector they can refer to when they come back to Israel to organise a promotion campaign in favour of Mauritius as a destination that needs to be visited. If the response gathered following this promotion campaign is such that a fair number of Israelis wish to spend some days over here, we can consider the possibility of starting direct charter flights between Mauritius and Israel. It can be expected that people from Mauritius would be eager to seize this opportunity to visit Israel. This development, if it comes into place, should benefit both sides.

Let’s shift to agriculture, an area where the Israeli government is eager to share the know-how the country has acquired after many years of practice, and which can be subject to a process regarding the transfer of technology in this field?

Agriculture is a very important area. Last year, we already had two experts from the Food and Research and Extension Institute (FAREI), who benefitted from a tailored-cut trip to Israel in the field of cattle breeding for milk production and horticulture. The FAREI, which plays an important role in the agricultural sector of Mauritius, aims at implementing programmes relating to research, development and training that can contribute to help the country attainits food security level, competitiveness as well as stakeholder equity across the whole agrifood value chains. Our aim is to see how we can promote cooperation in the area of agriculture mainly in terms of seeds that give higher yield and extending shelf-life tomato. We can also work together by conveying methods of agricultural practices to farmer communities of Mauritius by establishing over here centres of excellence in agriculture, as we have done in many countries such as India and Rwanda.

We cannot end this interview without referring to a specific aspect of the military conflict that started on October 7, 2023, and which took Israel by surprise. It is the possibility of a ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas. Why doesn’t Israel seem too enthusiastic about that solution, which could bring peace to the whole region?

There will never be a ceasefire as long as Hamas’s main objective is to destroy the State of Israel. Until we come to destroy all terrorist infrastructure over there, capture the terrorists, disarm them and create in Gaza some kind of Palestinian government, there will no peace over there. If this political authority declares that there is an issue with the State of Israel, then it will be quite possible to sit around a table and discuss the matter with a view to find a solution. It is unnecessary to face a conflictual situation where there is a risk that many innocent people can get killed. This is our aim.