It is difficult not to kill innocent people - Israel Ambassador

In the wake of the rising criticisms on Israeli trained Cameroon armed forces for allegedly killing innocent civilians in the war against Boko Haram, the Israeli Ambassador to Cameroon, Nadav Cohen, says it is difficult for soldiers fighting an asymmetric war against terrorists, to completely avoid killing innocent civilians mistakenly.

He spoke in an exclusive interview to The Cameroon Journal in Yaounde. He also gave an insight into the Israeli-Palestinians conflict as well as bilateral relations with Cameroon.

Q: Most Cameroonians have a feeling that Israeli diplomats are not too open. The international media always paints the image of Israel as a bully over Palestinians. What is the relationship between Israel and the media?

A: Before I came to Cameroon, I worked as the Director of Palestinians and Regional Cooperation mainly with the Palestinians, Jordanians and some other Arab countries. In this role, I discovered how far the reality is from the reports in the media.

On the ground, there is more cooperation than you can expect but when you follow media reports, you get the impression that many things are going on negatively whereas, there are a lot of things going on positively. Hence, anytime I get the opportunity to talk with the media, I use the platform to tell the real story about what is going on.

Q: What is the relationship between Israel and Palestine? Would you say they are friends or enemies?

A: First of all, Palestine is the name of the area that was controlled by the British mandate between 1922 and 1948. Right now, there is no Palestinian state or Arab Palestinian State.

Before we get into the relationship between Israel and the Arab Palestinians, it is important to note that what is supposed to be the future Arab Palestinian land is the Gaza Strip and West Bank which are split right now; the West Bank is controlled by the Palestinian Authority and the Gaza Strip is controlled by Hamas, a terrorist organization.

Even among themselves, they cannot agree on common policies and they have conflicting views on a variety of issues.

Since last summer, after the last fight that Hamas forced upon Israel, most of the people of the Gaza Strip are still suffering because Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are at loggerhead and this has also hindered the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

Q: Several peace agreements have been proposed at various levels. Now it seems the bi-national solution is the only way out. What if it still fails?

A: In September 2014, Israel was backed in an international initiative led by some Security Council members; US, UK, France and Jordan, to renew the peace process, regain Palestinian Authority’s control in the Gaza Strip and to promote the rehabilitation process for the sake of the Gaza people.

After it was concluded, Mahmood Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, was the one who rejected it and not Benjamin Netanyahu, Isreali Prime Minister.

Before that, there had been previous peace initiatives which were rejected by the Palestinian Authority. You may remember that the former Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert made an offer to the Palestinian Authority which was the most generous offer any Israeli leader had ever made but the Arab Palestinians did not respond to it. Before that, US President, Bill Clinton brought up a proposal to Yasser Arafat and again the Arab Palestinians rejected it.

Q: So, are there fears that Hamas would take over Palestinian territories in case they become independent?

A: Our concern is that if we withdraw unilaterally without taking into consideration security measures to protect Israel, we will be exposed again to other threats as it can be seen from our previous withdrawals.

When we withdrew from South Lebanon, Hezbollah took over and when we withdrew from the Gaza Strip, it is Hamas that took over.

Today, we are certain that if Israel withdraws from the West Bank, the next day, Hamas will take over as well. Now we have other threats like different radical Islamic terrorist organizations near our borders that would use the Arab Palestinian’s division and the weakness of the Palestinian Authority to their advantage and pose security challenges to Israel. This is a very clear fact. No one needs to be an expert to notice.

Q: In effect, what you mean is that there is no possible way to a peace process?

A: Today, the Palestinian Authority has succeeded in maintaining security in the West Bank due to the good cooperation that they have with us and they have been also assisted by the Americans, Canadians and Jordanians. However, this is not the case with the Gaza Strip which is controlled by Hamas. It is for this reason that in the last peace initiative, President Abbas was offered to get back control of the Gaza Strip.

This peace initiative was supported by the international community and the UN Security Council. We believe that this will facilitate the peace process if the Palestinian Authority has control over the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

However, this is not the case because since 2005 up to today, President Abbas and Hamas cannot agree on a common agenda. So, the peace initiatives are supposed to lead to the future Arab Palestinian state that will be the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but the problem is with whom are we going to discuss in order to have an Arab Palestinian state?

We know that President Abbas has said that he is committed to non-violence and to the peace process as well. Nevertheless, he still cannot do anything without listening to Hamas which is the terrorist organisation that controls Gaza.

This is not a matter of the Israeli government or the opposition parties in Israel. In Israel, if you do a public survey, you will notice that about 60% to 70% of the population will like to see a peaceful political agreement with the Arab Palestinians. But if you ask them whether an agreement with the Arab Palestinians can be possible today, only about 40% would agree. This is because the reality on the ground is different since, as we established earlier, the Arab Palestinians are divided. So you cannot expect us to negotiate with people who are deeply divided.

Q: So, what is Israel proposing to Palestinians, given that Gaza is controlled by terrorists?

A: We believe that the only way for the Arab Palestinians to have their own state is through a mutual negotiation with Israel. All the other ways, like taking unilateral steps to create their state, will not help them, but they will instead cause more damages and a waste of time, just only to achieve anything concrete.

Since 1993, we have been on the negotiation table and all the issues are well known by both sides. There are 5 main issues at stake: Security, Borders, Jerusalem, Settlement, and Refugees. There are also other issues like water and economic cooperation. The problem here is that the Arab Palestinians always find an excuse not to continue the peace process. They instead prefer to leave the negotiation table and start a new wave of violence against Israel. That is not how negotiations work.

This is exactly what happened in 2000, and as a result, the Arab Palestinians lost all of the advantages they had had between 1993 and 2000. During this period, they saw an increase of their economic growth. But when they started the violence against Israel in 2000, their economy deteriorated. These attacks were led by Hamas, a terrorist organization. It was even reported 2 weeks ago that the Federal Court in the US, not the Israeli Prime Minister, published a verdict against the Palestinian Authority for supporting terror activities.

Q: It is alleged that US president would not want Netanyahu maintained as Prime Minister. What if his wishes become reality?

A: The United States is known as one of the world’s strongest democracy. It is also one of our closest allies. Therefore, I believe that President Obama will respect the results of the democratic legislative elections that will come up on March 17 and will work with whichever leader the Israelis choose.

Q: Do you think there will be a change in the negotiation process if Israel gets a new Prime Minister?

A: I do not think that the election results will cause Hamas to change its policy. Therefore, it will be difficult to have a peace agreement soon.

Q: Let’s leave the long-drawn-out conflict and talk about Cameroon-Israel relations. How would you assess the bilateral relations between both countries?

A: There is a good relation between the two governments and there is also diplomatic connection but unfortunately, this good relationship has not been reflected in the same way in the cooperation level. The embassy’s main challenge is to try to move the cooperation forward and to try to extend it to other areas. Right now, our main area is agriculture, livestock, health and training.

We also want to exploit other areas of cooperation, like we did last year, to assist Cameroon to face its humanitarian challenges. For example, we vaccinated over 5000 refugee children in the refugee camp in Gado-Badzere- who mostly came from the Central African Republic. Last December, we also organized football activities in the same camp which involved two Israeli trainers and two Cameroonian Physical Education teachers who trained refugee children and youth from the camp and the local population.

The main aim was to use football to encourage peaceful coexistence between both communities. In addition, last September, two Israeli physicians came to Cameroon, during the outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa, to assist Cameroon in its fight to prevent the Ebola virus. The two physicians trained more than 100 medical personnel from different hospitals and sectors in Yaoundé.

Q: What concrete activities have you carried out in the area of livestock and agriculture?

A: Last year, we started a new pattern of activities through trilateral cooperation which is different from the current format that involves short courses in Israel and in Cameroon. This trilateral framework involves working with other countries and international organisations in Cameroon.

We started the first one with the Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD), the second one is with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and thirdly with the German Embassy and the GIZ. The purpose is to join our efforts to promote agriculture in Cameroon.

With AFD, we have started the first phase, to improve some agriculture schools into training centers. The main training we try to promote is drip irrigation. We have built a demonstration field where we use drip irrigation in the agriculture schools in Obala and Garoua. We intend to extend this to other schools in Cameroon and enable students to use this method in the future after their training.

With IFAD we are involved with Cameroon in the development of a new program to train students on agro-pastoral entrepreneurship.

Q: Many countries have provided support to Cameroon which is facing security issues with Boko Haram in the Far North region. When are we expecting support from Israel?

A: I don’t like to talk about security issues in public. I don’t think it will contribute to the matter. They are sensitive issues and it is better to keep them discrete.

Q: Amnesty international, in its February 2015 report, indicted the Israeli-trained elite corps of the Cameroon Armed forces, the BIR (Rapid Intervention Battalion) for wrongful killings. How would you assess the respect for human rights in Cameroon?

A: I have not seen the report. I don’t have enough details or know if they mentioned specific cases in order to answer your question directly. However, since 2013, the BIR have been faced with a lot of challenges from Boko Haram. The question should be whether they have improved since Amnesty International made its studies or that they are taking human rights into consideration during their operations.

When you are faced with an asymmetric war, like it is happening in Israel and now Cameroon with Boko Haram, sometimes it is very difficult to avoid casualties or harming innocent individuals and it is difficult to avoid mistakes. I personally believe that the situation should be investigated to prevent mistakes from happening in the future.

I learned that the BIR held an open dialogue meeting with international human rights organizations to improve its way of handling the situation in the Far North where they are fighting against Boko Haram.

Q: Bilateral relations are most often based on win-win cooperation. What does Israel expect from Cameroon in return for all the support you are offering?

Israel expects mainly that Cameroon continues its mutual and friendly cooperation and give moral and political support in the international arena and institutions in general.

Q: Most Cameroonians believe Israel is not politically stable, thus not a good place to visit. How easy is it to travel to Israel?

A: Visa procedures are not different from those of other countries; Europe, Asia or US. Most people who have traveled to Israel always return with a different view.

The comments I get from people who have visited Israel are very positive and are contrary to what is portrayed in the international media. Israel is a modern vibrant economy.

The climate is very unique because it is on the edge of Africa, Asia, and Europe. Its people are very nice and open. Generally it is an enjoyable adventure to visit Israel.