Israel and Botswana have official relations though neither country maintains a formal consulate or embassy in the other. The two countries, nevertheless, have reached cooperate agreements at the government level and there is private sector activity between the two countries.
History
Botswana broke relations with Israel in 1973 but re-established in 1993.
The two countries established diplomatic ties in 1993 after Israel and the
PLO
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establishing Arab unity and st ...
signed the
Oslo Accords
The Oslo Accords are a pair of agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993; . In February 2012, a Dan Shaham-Ben-Hayun presented his diplomatic credentials to Botswana as an official representative. However, he is currently based in
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and e ...
.
Economic and educational ties
Six Israeli-centered diamond firms have operations in Botswana's
Gaborone Diamond District
Gaborone ( , , ) is the capital and largest city of Botswana with a population of 246,325 based on the 2022 census, about 10% of the total population of Botswana. Its agglomeration is home to 421,907 inhabitants at the 2011 census.
Gaboron ...
, apparently employing about 1,000 Botswana citizens.
In December 2012, Ben Gurion University agreed to facilitate a new institution called the
Botswana International University of Science and Technology
The Botswana International University of Science & Technology, or BIUST, is an international university located in the town of Palapye, Botswana. It is the nation's second university, after the University of Botswana in the country's capital, Gab ...
. BGU will be in charge of teaching and building the university's research capacity. Students from the African country will also be invited to Israel to complete their studies before returning to build the staff of the university. According to Israeli ambassador Dan Shaham, "Some 250 students will be selected to begin their studies in the coming months. More and more students and more and more subjects will be added gradually, until it becomes a real university."
Botswana is fighting a severe
desertification
Desertification is a type of land degradation in drylands in which biological productivity is lost due to natural processes or induced by human activities whereby fertile areas become increasingly arid. It is the spread of arid areas caused b ...
problem. Israel has been suggested as a model for combating the problem based on the country's technological developments in agriculture and desalination.
Water Resources Management in Botswana
Physics and Chemistry of the Earth 29 (2004) 1357–1364
Mr. Richard Anthony Lyons is the Honorary Counsel for Israel in Botswana.
See also
*Foreign relations of Botswana
Botswana has put a premium on economic and political integration in southern Africa. It has sought to make the Southern African Development Community (SADC) a working vehicle for economic development, and it has promoted efforts to make the reg ...
*Foreign relations of Israel
Foreign relations of Israel refers to diplomatic and trade relations between Israel and other countries around the world. Israel has diplomatic ties .
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Botswana-Israel relations
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
Bilateral relations of Israel