I share Len Bennett’s sentiment (“The Nakba was a failed attempt to destroy Israel” (Cape Argus, July 12) that one day my fellow Africans will hopefully start seeing through the radical propaganda from some quarters of Palestinian society about Israel (and the conflict that has raged in and around that country for more than 70 years), and instead will start to see and pursue the potential for, and benefits of, more and closer African-Israeli partnerships and synergies.
There is certainly a lot to be gained by Africa through learning about and adopting the agri-business innovations that have seen Israel become a global food tech hub over the last decade and longer, and Israel’s practices and successes as the pre-eminent “start-up nation” have great relevance for realising ambitions on our continent to catalyse and unleash African entrepreneurialism.
In addition, I think that we in Africa could take a leaf from the Israeli book in terms of the massive role played by kibbutzim and moshavim in their economy – because they usually operate as business co-ops.
They pool labour and other resources, aggregate economic value potential, and make it possible both to capitalise on economies of scale, and to operate collectivised living and working arrangements that yield higher productivity and cost savings.
Essentially, if done right and customised to our context, kibbutzim and moshavim could be hugely beneficial vehicles for poverty reduction, employment creation and general socio-economic advancement, all of which Africa, and South Africa in particular, could do with a lot more of!
* Jabu Ntuli, Cape Town.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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