Coming soon to Venezuela. Israeli moshav (archives)
Photo: Moshe Milner, GPO
Israeli pioneers in heart of Venezuela
Although its biggest ally is Iran, South American country signs contract with Israeli company to build community based on moshav model
Venezuela may have severed its diplomatic ties with Israel
and formed an alliance with Iran,
but that did not get in the way of a contract the South American country signed recently with an Israeli company for the establishment of a community based on the moshav model.
The moshav (cooperative settlement) will be built some 150 kilometers (93 miles) south of the Caracas Valley, near the Caribbean Sea, by AlefBet Planners Ltd., one of the leading and most experienced planning companies in Israel, which won a Venezuelan government bid.
Six-Day War
Bebe Gabel Attar
The war changed Bebe Attar's travel plans. In place of touring the country for four months, at leisure, she found herself volunteering at the very moshav which her grandparents, whom she had never met, helped build
The local government will invest as much as $400 million in the new community, which will include 500 housing units, schools and kindergartens, a cowshed, a dairy farm, henhouses, and water and sewer infrastructure.
"We are implementing in Venezuela the knowledge we accumulated in the construction of the moshav and kibbutz models in Israel," says by AlefBet Planners CEO Kobi Bogin. "During the project we encountered difficulties which required bridging cultural differences in terms of labor, housing and construction.
"The project can be seen as a containing a pioneering spirit, as in addition to imitating the moshav construction method, we are also developing desolate areas just like we did during the settlement period in the Land of Israel."
