Israel hails Malawi’s 2012 UN vote

Israel says it is has embarked on a drive to reinforce and strengthen its relationship with Malawi following Lilongwe’s bold step to support it during a United Nations (UN) 2012 vote on the upgrading of Palestinian status.

Malawi was among 41 countries that abstained from the vote.

However, Malawi Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Ephraim Mganda Chiume said in an interview on Tuesday Malawi took the abstain stand to protect its relationship with other countries, but not necessarily supporting any position.

In an exclusive interview in Lilongwe on Tuesday, Israeli Deputy Ambassador Yaki Lopez said although the vote did not go its way and that Lilongwe abstained, Malawi, through President Joyce Banda, took a bold step to support Israel on its position on Palestine.

Lopez described that vote as big and critical to Israel.

He said: “Malawi was one of the only countries that basically supported our position on the issue. To be more precise, Malawi abstained. Malawi was one of the only countries to abstain during this critical vote from our point of view and we are very appreciative of this.

“This led us to understand that we must reinforce and strengthen the existing good relations that we have and that we must make an effort to upgrade it and this I can tell you that it is coming from the highest office of the Israeli government and the office of the Prime Minister himself.”

Since Malawi’s independence, Israel has run a resident embassy in Lilongwe, but it was shut down in 1994 and its operations moved to Nairobi, Kenya.

During the November 2012 vote, Malawi joined 41 other countries to abstain with just nine other nations voting ‘no’ to support Israel.

The voting, however, saw the UN General Assembly passing the resolution to upgrade to a non-voting observer State status by 138 to 9 votes.

Lopez, who is based in Nairobi, Kenya, is in the country to oversee an agricultural programme that his government has embarked on as part of the assistance through the Presidential Initiative on Hunger and Poverty Reduction.

He said after discussions with the Malawi Government and as a way of helping Malawi to fight hunger, food insecurity and poverty, agriculture was seen as one of the areas that will need urgent help.

To kick start the programme, Israeli agricultural experts led by agriculturalist and farmer Shmuel Katz are working with Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Luanar) Bunda College and the Natural Resources College (NRC) in providing practical training to extension workers and farm managers.

The programme is being run under the Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation.