ISRAEL AT WARMinistry of Foreign Affairs shuts down global diplomacy activities at height of war due to lack of funds
ISRAEL AT WAR
Ministry of Foreign Affairs shuts down global diplomacy activities at height of war due to lack of funds
"We produce videos with our mobile phones,” is how Emmanuel Nahshon, Deputy Director of Public Diplomacy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the State of Israel's budgetary investment in world diplomacy. According to him, Israel invests in diplomacy about 10% of the amount invested in tourism. Yesterday, it was agreed with the budget department to advance a payment of NIS 100 million.
At the height of the war, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the global diplomacy system had been shut down due to an insufficient budget, saidEmmanuel Nahshon, the ministry’s Deputy Director of Public Diplomacy to the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee during a discussion on budgets of Israeli diplomacy agencies. In describing Israel's budgetary investment in global diplomacy Nahson said, "I wish we had the Iranians’ budget. We produce videos with mobile phones.”
It also came up in the discussion that the Ministry of Tourism invests NIS 300 million ($80M) a year in campaigns to bring tourists to Israel, only about 10% of which is dedicated to Israeli diplomacy. Beyond budgetary problems, quite a few issues were raised in the discussion that show the failures of the Israeli diplomacy system.
For example, for nearly 20 minutes Knesset member Ze'ev Elkin tried to understand from National Public Diplomacy Directorate Head Moshik Aviv how much money Israel invests in international diplomacy. The answer? They don’t know. The question of how much Israel invested in diplomacy before the war was also not answered. A number that was mentioned was NIS 20 million ($5.3M from the Prime Minister's Office budget which was transferred to war diplomacy, but even then Aviv could not say how much of it would be dedicated to campaigns for the Israeli public and how much for the global public.
So, how much is invested anyway? According to Nahshon, in previous years, the department managed about NIS 80 million dedicated to activities, including international Jewish communal and advocacy organizations. However, he said that after the establishment of the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, the department's budget decreased by approximately NIS 30 million. In other words,another unnecessary government ministry that diverted resources from f the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whose status has been weakened greatly during Netanyahu's years in power.
After Nahshon announced at a meeting of the Knesset's Diplomacy Subcommittee that he was forced to shut down his global diplomacy activities due to a lack of budget, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a clarification. "Contrary to the publications in the media, yesterday it was agreed between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the budget division of the Ministry of Finance to advance a budget of NIS 100 million for the activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which will allow it to carry out all its tasks during the war, including diplomacy activities and advocacy"
