BENGALURU: Travelling directly from Bengaluru to Israeli capital Tel Aviv will be possible some time later this year, said highly-placed sources. When asked, Tammy Ben Haim, Israeli Consul General, Bengaluru, said it seems possible. At present, travellers from Bengaluru have a stopover at Abu Dhabi, Dubai or Muscat.
“It will make the countries more accessible to each other, and help in better cooperation,” said Tammy Ben Haim. However, Delhi already has direct flights to Tel Aviv.
Haim spoke exclusively to The New Indian Express on the occasion of Israel celebrating 75 years of nationhood. Asked if it has been a time of intermittent conflict, she said, “It has been, instead, 75 years of growth, a time when democracy has grown, of innovation and technology and definitely of challenges.’’
“Chronologically speaking, we are one step behind India, which celebrated its 75th year last year,” she said.
“We are concentrating on how we have grown, developed and matured side by side, with all challenges we have faced as a nation.’’
Although textbooks tell us that Israel’s history stretches thousands of years, way back to when they emerged from Egypt’s Goshen region about 1200-1300 BC to form a new Jewish kingdom, with its history stretching a few thousand years, yet the nation celebrates its 75th year of nationhood. The Israeli community in Bengaluru will celebrate it on Friday at a formal function, where they will recall the setting up of a new nation in 1948.
On Israeli PM Naftali Bennet’s visit that got cancelled last year, and the prospects of a visit by present Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Bengaluru, she said, “There was a plan by PM Naftali Bennet to visit India and see South India and the innovations. It was cancelled. Now there is talk about PM Netanyahu visiting India some time this year.”
She said the two nations were “collaborating in the areas of agriculture, food security, drip irrigation and using water, especially addressing the problem of water scarcity, where we are doing a lot”. The two nations are cooperating in many cutting-edge areas of technological innovation, some of which are semiconductors and drones, among others.