“Now I truly understand what you went through on Oct. 7. It’s unimaginable,” said Muhammadou Kah, Gambia’s ambassador to the U.N. institutions in Geneva, after visiting the Nova festival site. Kah was one of six ambassadors to the U.N. institutions in Geneva who visited Israel this week as part of the Foreign Ministry’s effort to expose the world to what Israel has experienced over the past three years.
The delegation included ambassadors from Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific who represent Gambia, Zambia, Ethiopia, Panama, Fiji and Mongolia at the U.N. in Geneva.
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U.N. ambassadors embrace Sarah, a survivor of the Oct. 7 massacre, during a visit to the Nova memorial site
(Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Kah chairs several U.N. committees dealing with technology. During a visit to the technology hub in the southern city of Sderot, which specializes in disaster response, he said: “There are lifesaving things here, such as VR that simulates earthquakes. I want to bring this to the U.N.”
As a Muslim, Kah also used his visit to Israel to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Fiji’s ambassador to the U.N. institutions in Geneva, Laitia Tamata, said: “I’m calling the prime minister of Fiji now and asking him to bring engineers from Fiji to help the communities near the Gaza border after what you have been through. You give us assistance, but I want my nation to give something to you.”
ביקורי משלחת שגרירי האו"ם עם מנכ"ל משרד החוץ - עדן בר טל
(Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Israel’s ambassador to the U.N. institutions in Geneva, veteran diplomat Daniel Meron, led the delegation, which visited communities near the Gaza border, including Kibbutz Nahal Oz, the Nova memorial site and the Sderot memorial site. The ambassadors also visited northern Israel, Tel Aviv and the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem.
Some of the ambassadors said the visit gave them a better understanding of Israel’s challenges, which they said would help them represent their countries at the U.N.
Meron said the visit had two emotional high points: “They cried twice — once at the Nova memorial site, when Mazal, a single mother of Ethiopian descent and a survivor of the massacre, told them about her bravery and that of others, explaining how they pretended to be dead and survived. They cried for the second time Thursday during the final meeting at Save a Child’s Heart.”
The ambassadorial delegation visits Sderot
(Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
At the organization, the ambassadors saw children from their own countries who had undergone lifesaving heart surgeries in Israel. They also met doctors from Ethiopia and Zambia who are training in Israel in cardiac surgery. The doctors explained how Israel assists countries around the world through MASHAV, Israel’s national development cooperation agency.
Meron added: “The ambassadors said that they now understand what Oct. 7 was and compared it to the 9/11 attacks. They were amazed by the coexistence they saw, with Jews and Arabs sitting together in cafes in Jaffa. They repeatedly said they were amazed by the resilience of this people after everything we have been through — young people full of life.”
“I felt that their views of Israel had changed completely,” Meron said. “But let’s not be naive. It’s not certain that tomorrow all of their countries will vote with Israel the way Argentina votes with Israel. But in discussions and in highlighting Israel’s contributions, they are fully with us now.”