An Israeli minister touring the Pacific to discuss defence and cooperation says Fiji and Papua New Guinea are “great friends”.

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel recently visited the two countries and RNZ Pacific spoke with her during a brief stop in Auckland.

She said the main goal of her trip was to thank PNG and Fiji for their support, including the opening of embassies in Jerusalem.

Israeli Minister Haskel speaks to RNZ on Pacific visit     Video: RNZ

“It was an important message for our people and it was a great opportunity for me to thank them in person and to see how we can strengthen our friendship.”

The countries were “strategic allies” who worked together in the areas of agriculture, water technology and cybersecurity, Haskel said.

She pointed to the agricultural industry in PNG.

“They used to import almost all of their products, vegetables, fruits,” she said.

Agricultural help
“There are a few Israeli companies that went into the industry, developing a lot of the agricultural aspect of it to the point where all of the products they’re eating are local and they’re even exporting some of these products.”

Israeli farms there had also helped with the growth of the local dairy industry, she said.

“This is part of the collaboration that we want to do,” she said. “I came with a delegation of businessmen coming from those industries to see how can continue and develop it, it’s a win-win situation.”

An agreement with Fiji has been expanded to see more agricultural students sent to Israel for an 11-month paid internship.

Also while in Fiji, Haskel signed a memorandum of understanding on cybersecurity.

She said that came after three hacking attacks on the Fiji government’s system.

“[The MOU] starts a dialogue between our cybersecurity agency and between the proper agencies in Fiji as well,” she said.

Cybersecurity experience
““This is something that they’re starting to build, we’ve got a lot of experience with it and I think the dialogue can give them and lot of advice and also to connect them to quite a few Israeli companies.”

A representative from Israeli defence and security company Elbit was among the delegation.

“They have a lot of cybersecurity systems so it’s a start of a building of a relationship,” Haskel said.

Israel’s relationships with PNG and Fiji had been going for many decades, and were not about the amount of aid given, she said.

“Israel is not a major economic power that has a lot of money to spend, especially during times of war,” she said.

“It’s not about the amount of money that we can invest but the quality and the things and how it affects the people.”

Commitments honoured
Asked about aid projects that had been cancelled, Haskel said Israel had honoured any commitments it made. It was not responsible for changes to United States policy that had seen trilateral agreements cut, she said.

“There were many projects that were committed in many different countries, together Israel and the Americans, some are continuing and some are cancelled,” she said.

“This is part of [US President Donald] Trump’s policy. We can’t predict that.”

Haskel also met with people from indigenous, Christian and farming communities while in Fiji and PNG and she said Israel is also hoping to become and observer of the Pacific Islands Forum next year.

The PNG government said it continued to regard Israel as a valuable partner in advancing shared development goals.

Meanwhile, Fiji’s government said the “historic” visit between the nations would foster continued cooperation, innovation and friendship.

‘Strategic step’
Prime Minister Rabuka said the cybersecurity agreement was “a strategic step forward to strengthen Fiji’s security framework and promote deeper cooperation across sectors”.

Israel’s influence in the Pacific has been under the microscope recently, including around the United Nations vote supporting Palestinian statehood.

It follows years of wrangling between superpowers China and the United States over aid and influence in the region.

Oliver Nobetau, a Papuan development expert at the Australian Lowy Institute, told RNZ Pacific that Israel wanted to lock in UN support for the future.

“I think they have demonstrated their support, but also may have an ability to sort of sway between votes,” he said.

“We’ve seen it, between the switching from recognition from China to Taiwan. And this can be another instance now where they can be persuaded to vote in a different way.”

On aid, Nobetau said there would now be a hope that Israel increased its aid to the region.

“I would say there’s an expectation on Israel to carry on or fill in that funding gap,” she said.

“The question now falls on the Pacific governments themselves, if this is something that’s worth pursuing . . .  they would prefer, if the USA are now is out of the picture, if Israel can continue to fill that.”

Nobetau expected Israel to look at bringing its military and intelligence services closer to the Pacific.

“From what I recall, when I was working with the government, there were institutional exchanges with the Mossad: internal capabilities to collect intelligence is something that’s that’s needed within Pacific countries,” he said.

“So I think that could be another area as well.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Fiji opening an embassy in Jerusalem last month in defiance of United Nations resolutions on Occupied Palestine and hosting a visit by a senior Israeli minister from the paraiah state this week has revived condemnation by Pacific human rights groups and Palestinian advocates.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel visited the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Fiji — where she welcomed a possible “peacekeeping” role — in a week-long Pacific friendship mission.

She also faced controversy in New Zealand over the trip.

Both Fiji and Papua New Guinea have opened controversial embassies in Jerusalem, recognised as the capital of Palestine when statehood is granted.

The NGO Coalition on Human Rights in Fiji has condemned Fiji’s coalition government for “callously ignoring the unfolding famine and mass starvation in Gaza”, saying it was being “deliberately orchestrated” by Israel in a statement.

The statement was issued before the opening of the embassy and the declaration of a Gaza ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump and three mediating Middle East countries.

While Israel has violated the fragile ceasefire several times in the past two weeks, killing at least 100 Palestinians, the International Court of Justice has made a nonbinding ruling that Israel must support UN relief efforts in Gaza, including those conducted by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

Embassy entourage
The NGOCHR statement by chair Shamima Ali, dated September 9, criticised widespread reports in Fiji media that Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka would take “an entourage of 17 government officials and spouses” to officially establish the residential Fijian embassy.

“The coalition government appears to be callously ignoring the unfolding famine and mass starvation in Gaza that is being deliberately orchestrated by the state of Israel,” she said.

“This very same Fiji government previously defended the destruction, killing, and maiming of scores of thousands of innocent civilians — 70 percent of them women and children — by Israel at the International Court of Justice [in an earlier and ongoing case on genocide].”

Shamima Ali highlighted the visit in August by two World Elders — Mary Robinson (former President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights) and Helen Clark (former Prime Minister of Aotearoa New Zealand and former Head of UNDP) — to the Rafah crossing into Gaza from Egypt.

They had witnessed how Israel was preventing the flow of food, water, and medicine to the suffering people of Gaza, and declared it as an “unfolding genocide” — “this is not the chaos of war, nor the result of an environmental disaster. It is intentional.”

Ali said Prime Minster Rabuka, and ministers Lynda Tabuya and Pio Tikoduadua had made “rather unconvincing arguments” about opening of the Fijian embassy in Jerusalem on September 18 amid the unfolding genocide in Gaza.

“Whether they like it or not, in the eyes of the world, Fiji will be seen as a country that supports the apartheid and pariah state of Israel, and its genocide in Gaza,” the statement said.

‘Not in our name’
Ali said the NGOCHR reiterated its “Not in our name” opposition to Fiji’s defence of Israel at the ICJ in a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of committing genocide.

It also declared its strongest “Not in our name” opposition to the establishment of the Fiji Embassy in Jerusalem.

“Neither action reflects the wishes of all citizens of Fiji. It does not reflect well on Fiji for the present coalition government to be effectively supporting Israel’s genocide in Palestine.”

Members of the Fiji NGO Coalition on Human Rights are Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (chair), Fiji Women’s Rights Movement, Citizens’ Constitutional Forum, femLINKpacific, Social Empowerment and Education Program, and Diverse Voices and Action (DIVA) for Equality Fiji.

Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG) is an observer.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz