Ministers on official visit and trade mission to Israel
Monday 11th April 2011, 3:00PM BST.
The ministers will be travelling to Tel Aviv
TWO Island ministers are to pay an official visit to Israel next month as part of a trade mission.
Economic Development Minister Alan Maclean and ‘foreign minister’ Freddie Cohen will travel to Tel Aviv on the three-day trip from 22 to 25 May.
And Jersey Finance chief executive Geoff Cook will join them on the journey, along with three senior civil servants.
During the visit, the delegation will meet representatives from the Israeli finance and environment ministries.
Read the full story in the Jersey Evening Post.
Click here for subscription details.
Individual editions are also available online.
The Queen's Diamond Jubilee
JEP Jubilee Editions
Saturday 2 June: Guide to Celebrations
Wednesday 6 June: Souvenir of Events
View The Queen in Jersey supplement
Travel
To, from and around the Island
Airport Arrivals/Departures
Harbours Arrivals/Departures
Bus Information/Timetables
This is Jersey
Jersey Evening Post
Useful links
Another jolly for Freddie & co.
Wish they were so keen to promote tourism.
Report abuse
strange 2 ministers to go but it takes another 4 civil servants to hold thier hand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!and what cost!!!!!!!
Report abuse
Is there any oversight as to what these missions achieve?
Six senior bods fly out there, presumably business class, have a chat to the locals, stay in a very expensive hotel, maybe do a bit of sight seeing aka fact finding and then come back with the tans topped up.
Just last week Freddie Cohen’s department was rolling out a plan to replace travel with on line conferencing, but a week is a very long time in politics
Report abuse
Another Jolly like India & Abu Dhabi ? Go for it Freddy, taking Ozouf with you ????
Report abuse
Personally, I take great care to avoid buying anything from this disgusting country that drops phosphorus bombs on civilians, slaughtering hundreds of children and traumatising thousands.
We should be supporting the growing outcry against this regime instead of trying to drum up business with them. One more black mark against Jersey.
Report abuse
The States seem to have a remarkable gift for palling up with not very nice places with a dodgy record on human rights and more besides.
Israel has an interesting environmental record including pumping the Jordan dry for irrigation purposes that is gradually causing the disappearance of the Dead Sea and other unsustainable practices.
Report abuse
Not really a surprise that this story would attract the odd ignorant anti-Israeli comment. FYI martin, Israel is the only truly democratic country in the middle east, definitely not a ‘regime’, but it is surrounded by anti democratic regimes intent on its destruction.
If you had extreme Islamic terrorist organisations firing mortars indiscriminately onto your neighbourhood or you had to live with the prospect of suicide bombers getting on board your Connex buses or popping into your Co-op locale, you might feel a little bit differently.
Report abuse
5 Martin – while commending your stance, do you buy anything from Japan or China, you can’t have double standards.
Report abuse
It aoopears to me that Freddie is getting in as many trips as he can before he l;oses his job later on this year.
Report abuse
So what happened to the Eco States that was reported in the JEP only last week? One of the savings listed was video conferencing?
Talk about cutting back…..
Also if this is a Finance trip why is Freddie going?
Report abuse
Star of David @ 7
FYI I am definately not ignorant but your slur is par for the course from supporters of Israel when the atrocities of that state are condemed by anyone with an open mind.Your comments about democracy are interesting. Democracy in all its glory has blaized from our TV screens for weeks now as one by one, the arab countries have rid themselves of their dictators. Israel will now have to deal with the people of the region rather than a few USA puppets.Democracy aye! Be careful what you wish for.
Mogit @ 8…..I don’t think much of the Chinese government but I have nothing but sympathy for the Japanese people and we have been fundraising for them.
Report abuse
You compound your ignorance martin and you are the one slurring, not I. It is very easy to throw around cheap accusations about atrocities and children being slaughtered when you don’t back them up. And I would have bet good money on you coming up with the usual anti-American jibe for good measure.
As for your thoughts on democracy, don’t make me laugh. You wouldn’t last one minute in any of the arab countries you mention, none of which is yet democratic. I do wish all those states would become free and democratic, just like Israel, but there is still a long way for them to go.
Report abuse
Martin You are parroting the anti-Israel rhetoric without stating any real facts. An opinion that is propaganda-driven is really worth very little. Israel has been backed into a corner by three truly non-democratic regimes on it’s borders: Hamas, PA and Hezbollah. None of these three have any sort of elections to speak of, they suppress human rights and freedom of speech. Hamas/PLO/Hezbollah is notorious for not only deliberately firing on innocent civilians but cynically using it’s civilian population as human shields and then trumpeting their deaths to garner sympathy.
Do you condemn Hamas’/PA’s/Hezbollah’s treatment of gays, woman and free speech or do you just blindly support them? If it is the second then it is not an open mind that you have but one that is tightly locked shut and shuttered.
Report abuse
Martin; Jersey collaborated with the occupying Nazis to round all the Jews during WWII.
Report abuse
Well done Cohen & Mac Clean
buddy up to the war criminal, torturing, ethnic cleansing state. How many UN resolutions are Isreal currently in breach off?
So is this the sort of trade partners Jersey needs – the type more and more of the world is saying enough off for their contempt for human rights.
Support a no fly zone over Gaza. Stop the murder and displacement of Palestinian men, women and children. Enough is Enough.
Report abuse
No. 5/11 – It shocks me that your comments have been posted here to be honest. Yours are some impressively naive comments. I wonder where you got one one-sided opinion or if your just regurgitating something you sore on TV backed up by your comment “I don’t think much of the Chinese government”
What do you actually KNOW?
Report abuse
I see that bigotry and anti-Semitism are still alive and well in Jersey.
Nothing much has changed since the Occupation- when Clifford Orange – the States officer in charge of population registration under the Nazis – willingly handed over the names of Jersey’s Jewish residents to the Germans.
Report abuse
Is it possible to voice criticism of Israeli policies and actions without being accused of being anti-semitic?
Report abuse
This could go on an on and the history of the region is so complex that I doubt any of us have a true handle on it. It is interesting that for such a persecuted nation (historically) Israel seems intent on bullying its neighbours by continually taking land for settlements.
We only know what we read and I have no doubt that we could read on this subject for weeks and not truly understand it.
Report abuse
To answer your question Nick (18) yes it is perfectly possible, but looking at the hateful, ill informed brand of sloganising criticism on this thread it is hard to conclude otherwise with regard to one or two of the Israel haters on here.
Report abuse
PS Just seen Cathy’s post and that one is critical without being anti-semitic. It’s all in the tone of those other critical posts.
Report abuse
15. Kev The no fly zone needs to include the rockets and mortars that are coming from Gaza. You are talking about protecting a tyranny that is notoriously cruel towards it’s own people.
19. Cathy Try reading Israeli newspapers(Jerusalem Post, YNet News) and getting their own opinion. This may give you a more balanced view of the situation. If you want to know what the Palestinians really think try “Palestinian Media Watch”, it translates what they are really saying in Arabic to their own people and it is profoundly different than what they say to us in English.
Report abuse
as far as i can see, no one has actually made an anti-sematic comment here. There is a vast differnce in judging the unethical conduct from isreal or gaza than that of the jews or muslims. lets not get religion involved, its an unecessary evil. And why isreal anyway, what does their economy bring to us? It all looks like another jolly for cohen and his cohort to look important, when really they are little fish, trying to swim in a very big ocean…..they arent even fish come to think of it!
Report abuse
Did anyone see the Louis Theroux documentary about ultra orthdox Zionists? I found it jaw dropping that they could support the kind of ethnic cleansing that their own people were victims of 70 years before.
Still when you have a book of fairytales as the basis of your whole worldview, what can you expect.
Report abuse
Two of the most arrogant men in local politics going to Israel……Yeah it figures.
Report abuse
Yes J-Cat, I saw it and as a secular supporter of Israel I don’t warm to its religious fundamentalists either. But far more disturbing than that was this week’s Panorama on the crushing of human rights in Iran, although you hardly hear a peep from our right-on liberal lefties about the terrible oppression of the people in that Islamic dictatorship.
Report abuse
So, the estate agent & sen.dandara off on another “jolly”.. Plenty of affordable housing to view in Isreal.Freddy getting in as much free trips before he is voted out in october..
Report abuse
Ah But, they will be having a good ole beano, Freddy and Mcclean, and those public servants. They should take Tom Binet and Ronnie Bartlett along and flog the Israelis some spuds while they’re at it!!
Report abuse
22. Loretta
Thank you for the suggested reading material. I do actually try to avoid the internal publications hoping for a more balanced outside view. Perhaps you might like to try:
Israel and Palestine: Reappraisals, Revisions, Refutations by Avi Shlaim
The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War (this one is particularly good)
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Israeli author)
I found these books balanced, eminent authors or perhaps more impartial views.
Hope the suggestions are useful
Report abuse
I remember being at the Dome of the Rock and having young Palestinian kids mime having my hands chopped off when I picked up a camera case I had dropped earlier. The cultural divide between Israel/the West and Palestines/the East is beyond belief.
Say whatever you want about Israel, but the human rights of a Palestinian in the “occupied territories” are far greater than those of a homosexual or a Christian or the victim of a rape in the same place.
Report abuse
I wouldn’t want to go and promote the island in the middle east, and certainly not given the usual foul ranting on this website from critics.
So I’m glad we have politicians who are prepared to put in the time and effort on our behalf.
Report abuse
One contributor raises the question as to whether you can be anti-Israeli and not be anti-Jewish. I think the answer is technically yes as what might be espoused is anti-Zionism and this is arguably totally different.
However the problem is that anti-Zionist sentiment is often a cover for anti-Semitism as it is far more socially acceptable and easier to hide behind. The sad fact is that anti-Semitism has been with us for two thousand years and engrained in our culture by the church and its insistence that Jews are responsible for the death of Christ. It sorts of escapes their notice that Christianity needed a martyr otherwise it would have withered on the vine like so many religions.
Israel is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination and its citizens would be the first to admit it but it is a democracy and has Arab members of the Knesset; however the fact that the UK has black and Asian MPs does not mean that those communities are treated fairly and without prejudice but it is a start.
Israel has fought for its survival since 1948 and the spread of so called democracy in the Middle East is not going to make it feel any safer. Think back to what we did fighting to survive in World War II (by ‘we’ I mean the British). We deliberately bombed civilian targets and killed thousands by way of collateral damage, let’s not get holier than though with the Israelis trying to defend themselves and take a look at a few of their causalities as well. Just like in Northern Ireland for every victim on one side the other can put up another more appalling tragedy and it gets us nowhere. Seems to me that the West has been happy to give the Jewish People victim status when millions were murdered in German death camps but if they fight back suddenly they are not so popular.
Report abuse
Thank you Jon @ 23 . Anyone anywhere on this planet who voices opposition to the Israels can expect the anti-semetic card to be played instantly. There are people of the Jewish faith around the globe and in Israel itself who condem the treatment of the Palestinians.I watched the Louis Theroux documentary.Its a must-see.Sure, there is evil on both sides but there is absolutely no equality of arms.Just as (quite rightly) our armed forces have stepped in to stop a blood bath in Bengazi, so the international community needs to address the great injustice currently festering away in Palestine.Public awareness of the plight of the people of Gaza is growing and growing.I for one WILL voice my support.
Report abuse
More ignorant, simplistic nonsense from martin. To compare Israel with Gaddafi’s lot in Libya is a disgrace. You can’t bear to admit it but Israel is a full, open democracy with a free, critical press, social liberty and equality under the law for all – and that includes arabs, the gay community and women. The exact opposite is the case with regard to the Hamas regime that you appear to support.
Another inconvenient truth for you is that the moderate Palestinians who live in the West Bank are living in relative harmony and enjoying a level of economic success that is currently out of reach for their despairing brothers in Gaza. If you really cared about the ordinary people of Gaza you’d be condemning their Hamas leaders for the destructive, terrorist policies that are directly responsible for their continuing plight.
Report abuse
Mike R – agreed. the message of the trip does seem to have been lost and any promotion of Jersey is surely in the interests of the island.
Report abuse
It all makes me so cross. And they cant give our little children a free carton of milk!!!
It stinks to me!
Report abuse
Jersey needs new partners to trade with, this seems to have been forgotten somewhere in this debate.
The book reader above has never set foot in Israel and has only second hand knowledge borrowed from a politically motivated group of authors.
The anti Israel group have rarely been outside Europe and never been near a terrorist attack.
In Jersey we have a very safe island and the only government I know of where no politician has ever been prosecuted for corruption. That does not mean we are the cleanest of jurisdictions. We do break laws on the collection of evidence to secure a conviction for instance.
We do not have freedom of information or a governmental system that stands up to close scrutiny. I have to ask, would we do business with ourselves?
Ask yourself would you do business with Israel if it was required for Jersey to afford to care for your loved ones, or pay you a pension?
Report abuse
Israel is a state which is unrecognised by many. On one level, it is not a legitimate state, having been illegally installed on occupied arab territories. On another level, it continues to flout international law with further illegal occupations on the West Bank. It is only though a policy of grovelling to America that the situation is allowed to continue. Not something which the island would really want to be involved with.
Once the freedom of information law comes in, we will be able to find out the cost of this kind of Mickey-taking. How many politicians, advisers and civil servants does it take to change a light bulb at our expense? What a lovely jolly junket for those involved!
Report abuse
before we descend into the never ending argument surrounding religion and the vailidity of the holy land and who owns who, can someone please answer my original question. Why are we trying to do trade with isreal. what does isreal do that makes it the number one place for us to be setting up trade with. as far as i can see it doesnt really do anyhting of importance to jersey. unless we open up a tourism route from isreal to try and boost our failing industry. Also, i think some people here are getting a bit riled up by some rather tame comments. Please calm down and listen and accept others have points of view you may not agree with. no country in the world is perfect! certainly not isreal, gaza and may i hasten to add our own little jersey!
Report abuse
Hi Jon 39,
Israel is a world leader, it has so many new companies it has been called “The start up nation” it registers as many patents a year as America and has a thriving economy of international significance.
It is a world leader in irrigation technology, alternative power sources, water purification and is an IT technology hub developing many new software’s. There is an area of Tel Aviv almost totally dedicated to software developers.
Property in Tel Aviv is as expensive as it is St Helier. Israel would be far more valuable to Jersey as a trading partner than Jersey will ever be to Israel.
Israel may not be number one for us to do business with but it can be very beneficial and we need as many sources of income as possible.
I just hope they look on us kindly as an alternative place to bank.
Report abuse
# 40 ‘Israel is a world leader’
It’s not a G8 country. They must be doing something wrong.
Maybe ‘the future’ is being futuristic?
Report abuse
the futre#40
thank you for your answer, i now see more reason for the trip. i do, however, certainly hope that is the case with isreal and we do benfit from these partnerships, otherwise i fear another load of our money has been spent on a dead chicken.
Report abuse