A commitment to diplomacy

CYNTHIA RAMSAY

The Vancouver Jewish community had a special visitor last week for Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut – Hadas Wittenberg Silberstein, deputy consul general of Israel in Toronto.

On her first official visit to the city, Wittenberg Silberstein joined the community in marking both Israel’s Memorial Day and Day of Independence, as well as meeting with various media and organizations in the Jewish and general communities, and speaking to students at King David High School.

Wittenberg Silberstein became interested in the civil service while studying for her master’s in social work at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and began her diplomatic career in 2002, with training at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Her first ministry posting was in Belgrade, Serbia, where she was in charge of the political and cultural section, from 2004-2007. After returning to Israel for almost two years, she was then sent to Costa Rica for a mission before coming to Toronto with her family – her husband, Assaf Silberstein, and their three young children – in October 2010.

While the Israeli embassy is located in Ottawa, there are two Israeli consulates in Canada, one in Montreal and one in Toronto. At the Toronto consulate, Wittenberg Silberstein told the Independent, “We are working a lot with the Jewish community, with the local media.... We are working a lot on tourism, economic relations, and there are lots of missions, delegations and mutual projects. We’re trying to work a lot in the field of academia, to approach universities to develop programs to send students to Israel and from Israel to here – just lately, there was a high-level visit of a delegation to explore developing mutual research when it comes to brain research and water management.

“We are trying to focus really on those issues [around which] both countries already have some common base: democracy, promoting tolerance, absorbing immigrants. I think that we both have a lot to give to each other and it works.”

Noting that, of course, the Jewish community is the main focus of and main partner for the consulate, Wittenberg Silberstein said the consulate sees as very important the need to reach out to other communities, “to build bridges, to share with them some of our experience and knowledge.” Unfortunately, she acknowledged, there are people who associate Israel only with the Arab-Israeli conflict. One way in which she and the consulate are working to counter this perception is not only by presenting Israel’s side, but also by sharing such facts as, for example, that there has been economic growth in the Gaza Strip over the last year, “and there were lots of goods [that] may enter and that some people can enter Israel, either if it’s business or for humanitarian or for health reasons. It’s not black and white,” she said of the situation.

“On the other hand,” she continued, “we have to mention that almost on a daily basis, missiles are being launched into Israel from the Gaza Strip, aimed at Israeli citizens and Israeli cities and, just lately, yellow student buses.... We are trying, in this reality, to manoeuvre. So, again, it’s to share with others what’s really happening there.”

And part of what is happening in the region is that Israel is celebrating its 63rd anniversary. Said Wittenberg Silberstein, “It truly is a start-up nation: it has the highest ratio of start-up companies, it has the highest ratio of scientific papers that are written, it generates the biggest number of Nobel Prize winners, it leads in the field of patents, so Israel is really the centre of innovation and creativity and we really have a lot to share with other places. So, this is something that we’re trying to promote and to explore – and, I don’t know if you know, but, for example, even the Blackberry, that Canadians are so proud about, it has a Jewish soul; one of the chips that allows it to function was actually developed and manufactured in Israel. It’s just one example of the way that we can cooperate and make great things together.”

There are challenges, of course.

“We can talk about the Middle East today because it’s really impossible to talk about the Middle East tomorrow, no one knows,” said Wittenberg Silberstein. “We really hope the last events that happened in Tunisia and Egypt and, unfortunately, the current events in Syria and Libya, will end up for good and we will find ourselves with happier neighbors who will promote democracy and this will allow the whole neighborhood to develop better. On the other hand, we have to remember that similar things happened in 1979 and then we found ourselves with a radical Muslim republic and winds of change also blew ... in Lebanon and we find ourselves with the Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran. So, we hope for good, but, at the same time, we prepare ourselves for [whatever is] the outcome.

“As for the other political trend, in light of the agreement of Hamas and Fatah, in a way, we will be very happy to see the Palestinians united; we have, at the same time, to remember that Hamas is a terrorist organization. In their charter, it calls for the destruction of Israel, the charter from 1988, which this [recent] agreement doesn’t change.... So, again, we will be very happy to develop negotiations, but it has to be under the conditions of the Quartet [the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, and Russia], which are known to everyone, and we cannot really give up on recognition of Israel and the renouncing of violence and terror.... This is a very complex political arena to manoeuvre in, but still, Israel is managing to develop and, just a year ago, in May 2010, we were accepted into the OECD, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, which is really a great achievement for such a young country.”

Wittenberg Silberstein stressed the value of the Israel-Diaspora relationship.

“I think that the Jewish community in Canada is really amazing, not only that it’s so big and active ... and people really know a lot about Israel, they really care about Israel,” she said, but the consulate is “covering so much activity that we cannot actually cover everything because a lot of things are happening. People are taking initiative; they send delegations and they arrange seminars and they promote Israel. It’s really amazing, and I like it because it really shows a high level of involvement and we are working very closely with different organizations ... from left to right, from ultra-Orthodox to Reform. I think that the connection is essential to Israel. Jews in the Diaspora are of great importance to Israel and it’s very important to us to share with them ideas, to promote some projects together. For us, they’re a very important partner here.”

About promoting Israeli culture in both the Jewish and general communities, Wittenberg Silberstein said the consulate has been working closely with several festivals, including Chutzpah! and, for the first time, with the local Dancing on the Edge festival. She also mentioned that a couple of Israeli movies have been accepted to the Toronto film festival, and that the consulate will help directors and others to attend the festival’s events. “Every time you can present a cultural product and also come and talk about it openly with the audience, it really creates a great opportunity,” she said.

About such ventures, she added, “Especially in the field of culture, it shows the openness of Israeli society and the great dialogue because lots of the work being done is considered, in a way, to be ‘left.’ There is a place for that, it’s OK. Also we, as a government, within certain limits, can support it. I wouldn’t put any obstacles to some artists or filmmakers who are dealing with the complexity of Israeli-Arab citizens. It’s important to speak about the differences, dialogue is so crucial; it’s a great opportunity, I think, to approach people.”

While stressing that negotiation and peace are essential to Israel, Wittenberg Silberstein cautioned that the global war on terror continues and that Israel remains committed to that fight. However, she also noted, “It was a couple of years before anyone believed that we would be able to do something with suicide bombers. It looked like an endless, terrible thing, and no one thought that Israel would be able to solve it, and we did. Lately, with missiles against tanks that were launched from Gaza, and, of course, all the missiles that were launched toward Israeli cities, and we developed the Iron Dome. I think that, also here, creativity and the sense of innovation and, really, the fact that we don’t have another option [motivate us]. It’s so basic: that’s what we have, that small piece of land that we own and we have to keep it – and Israel has managed....”

She said that the United States’ killing of Osama bin Laden “is one very important step, but it’s a long way and ... terrorists are still there, al Qaeda is still there and Iran is still there.” But that doesn’t mean she’s pessimistic about the future.

“I think that, once you know this is what we have and we have to manage and to manouevre within this complex neighborhood and reality, and especially once you have a young society and more and more people and you want for them a better place and a better reality, I think that Israel is very committed to do everything it can to gain peace and to improve its society.”

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