ISRAELI AMBASSADOR “I Discovered a Beautiful Country”

By Rudina Hoxha

Ten months ago, Ambassador of Israel, Her Excellency, Mrs. Galit Peleg came to Albania. Little did she know that she would find a gem country which would satisfy her so much in the professional and personal level too. She was so happy to find in Albania a great friend of Israel.

“Since I came here almost 10 months ago, I discovered a beautiful country, with a vibrant city as the capital, very warm people, great food,” Mrs. Peleg said, adding “I am also very lucky to meet almost daily young people who are very enthusiastic to develop their country, to put Albania on the international map.”

The Ambassador highlights that a business forum will be organized next month with the presence of a business delegation that will accompany the visit of Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr. Eli Chen, to Tirana.

In addition, she firmly states that her country is determined to help Albania in key fields like tourism, health, renewable energy, agriculture, innovation & startups and others where unexpected challenges crop up.

Full interview below:

Thank you, Your Excellency, Ambassador Galit Peleg for accepting our request for this interview with TRAILBLAZING MAGAZINE!

How does it feel to be the Israeli Ambassador to Albania?

Thank you for hosting me in your magazine. Being Ambassador of Israel to Albania is all I could ask for: on the professional level

I found Albania as a great friend of Israel. That fact allows me convenient access to counterparts in every level and every sector.

I meet members of your government, mayors and other senior leaders almost on a daily basis. It opens the opportunity for a real cooperation in every field.

On the personal level, I feel very much welcome, Albanians are very kind and open people and I got the impression that they also like Israel very much. So, so far no complains...

What our country reminded you once you got to know that your next appointment was Albania?

To be honest, my knowledge about Albania was quite poor before I came here. I knew it’s in the Balkans, and I knew about your history of saving Jews during WWII, but not more than that. Since I came here almost 10 months ago, I discovered a beautiful country, with a vibrant city as the capital, very warm people, great food. I am also very lucky to meet almost daily young people who are very enthusiastic to develop their country, to put Albania on the international map. and Israel is waiting to welcome Albanian tourists and vice versa. What can you say about this point please?

What is your focus when it comes to bilateral relations? How important is to these relations the promotion of the bilateral business opportunities, particularly focusing on small and medium enterprises (SMEs)?

To be realistic, with all the mutual emotions between Israelis and Albanians based on our positive historic narrative, I believe that strong economic and business connections are good basis for close and sustainable bilateral relations between our countries. Therefore, expanding the economic bilateral relations is no doubt one of our top goals as an embassy. We already had a mutual tech business conference in Tirana last March and next month, we are organizing another business forum with a business delegation that will accompany the visit of Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr. Eli Chen, to Tirana.

A side mission to that goal we are happy to contribute to strengthening Albania’s economy and development by sharing knowledge we gained in the field of SMEs and building startups.

For example, our embassy, together with the Albanian Women Chamber of Commerce, initiated a contest for women entrepreneurs. The winner will go to Israel to participate in a grand entrepreneurs event and will get mentorship from leading startupists in Israel. But on the way, all participants, whether they win or not, will gain mentorship and life lessons for their businesses.

As I mentioned above, before coming to Tirana, I didn’t know too much about Albania. In the last 20 years, I visited the neighboring countries in the Balkans and never stopped admiring their beauty. Since I came here 10 months ago, I am overwhelmed with how much Albania can offer to its visitors: the coasts of course, but also the impressive mountains, the waterfalls and rivers, the history – far and close, the archeology, the food, the heritage, agro-tourism... not to mention the extreme summer and winter sports opportunities. You really have it all!

But the majority of the Israeli tourists don’t know about it. Israelis are always looking for close, exciting and relatively not too expensive destinations. They like good food, beautiful coasts and adventures. Albania is a perfect match! Now we both need to make it happen. In a conversation with the Minister of Tourism, we discussed some possibilities to expose Albania to the Israeli tourists. Right now, they are coming but the potential is much higher.

As for Israel as a destination for Albanian tourists, well besides having a very similar history as a fellow Mediterranean country, the holy places for the three monotaistic religions, together with the convenient weather Israel is definitely an attractive destination.

Another major aspect of bilateral relations will be driven by tourism on both sides,

In June, we welcomed Israeli airline - Israir which started direct flights between Tel Aviv and Tirana. A nice volume of passengersbusiness or tourism, can create a demand that will make these summer flights to continue all year around.

Talking about Israeli investments, across a number of fields, do you see any joint project between Albanian and Israeli industries (such as health, renewable energy, agriculture education, technology/ innovation - all great topics for Albania) coming into fruition at some point?

For many years, Albania was held back while countries in Europe had the chance to develop. The main challenges Albania is facing are moving forwards and getting in line with the European Union standards in order to join it in the next 10 years or so. For these two reasons, Albania is developing very fast in many fields. This is exactly where it meets Israeli businesses that are looking to exceed the small local market.

Agriculture is a very good example: this sector is the largest component of Albania’s GDP. Israel, on the other hand, realized that it doesn’t have the land to remain in this sector so it combined the knowledge we gain in agriculture with advanced technologies. What Israel can contribute to Albania is modernized and efficient agriculture, improvement and planning of the product. Albania, in return, can supply the products.

Today in Albania there are several Israeli companies which are willing to invest great amount of money because they believe that with their help and their knowhow Albania can improve its agriculture significantly.

Same goes with water – Albania is rich with water resources but is quite challenged in water mobility. Israeli has developed excellent technologies of water treatment that can improve significantly not only the agriculture but also the lives of urban residents of Albania with maintaining the quality of the water to your kitchen tap.

I think that Israeli industries, especially the ones you mentioned, can be defined mainly by their ability to supply solutions to challenges big projects might tackle. The Israeli industries can solve many of those unexpected problems or give the right solutions. And I refer here to renewable energy and health and construction in addition to the obvious IT, cyber issues.

What makes Israel a world leader in healthcare? Can you highlight some key examples?

Israel has one of the highest life expectancies in the world, at 82.5 years, contributing for years to its ranking high in various health indexes.

One reason is a sustainable structure of the health system in Israel. Everyone must be insured by law and the health insurance agencies put a lot of efforts in preventing diseases, not just treating the patients while they are sick. These are also one of the main reasons Israel was the first country in world to be vaccinated during Covid-19 –thanks to that mechanism that enabled fast distribution of vaccines.

The other reason must be investments in R&D and advanced technologies. Add to that creative thinking that enable converting technologies from other fields into medical technology. One example is a company called “Given Imaging” (today it is Medtronic) that took the technology invented in military for cameras used on missiles and applied it to build the pillcam, a tiny camera which is used for medical procedure to record central images of the gastrointestinal tract for use in disease diagnosis.

In Israel, you can find the most advanced researches on fighting different types of cancers, but also creative devices to assist people with disabilities using AI. Take “ORCAM” for example, the same inventors that created “Mobileye” which is a safety system installed today in most cars, now they developed special glasses that help blind people to read texts and identify objects by “translating” the sights to sounds.

The Albanian Jewish Museum will be built in Vlora, a project developed by AlbanianAmerican Development Foundation (AADF) in collaboration with Ministry of Culture, the Municipality of Vlora and the Albania Jewish community, which aims to build a contemporary institution of the 21st century that will tell a unique story of coexistence, trust and hope. In your view, how important will it be to preserve the history of both countries?

I see great importance in building this museum. I must say it was one of the first things I heard from PM Edi Rama when I just came here and I also heard him talking about it in meetings with the Israeli President and the Prime Minister. I must convey my gratitude to Mr. Rama for keeping this issue high in his priorities. Three weeks ago, I visited the city of Vlora and I walked through the charming renovated streets. As I passed through the Jewish Street, reading the names of the families that lived there, I felt connected.

I mentioned that economic relations are important between our countries, but we must never neglect the emotional connection, not to mention the humanitarian aspect of this special connection. On one hand, it is important to remember that Jews were a part of this country (as in all over Europe) and they were a community that contributes to the life, to the economy and to the culture. We must not forget what happened to those who weren’t fortunate enough to be saved. On the other hand, we must always remember how in the darkest time of Europe, Albania was a crack in this darkness, if I may quote the late Leonard Cohen “ There is a crack in everything That’s how the light gets in”.

In my eyes, the museum should maintain the spirit of Jews and Albanians living together in the past and in the present. It should be a place where people can learn about the community that was there and doesn’t exist anymore, but also function as a meeting place with the content of culture and heritage. I’m pretty sure this museum will become an attraction for Israeli and Jewish tourists visiting Albania.

We, as embassy of Israel, will be happy to support and contribute to this beautiful and important project.