Bringing Israel closer to Filipinos

BRING ISRAEL TO PINOYS. The Embassy of Israel in the Philippines organized an outreach event in Sta. Ana Elementary School in Manila on Wednesday (Nov. 27) after knowing the story of a kindergarten pupil dressed up as Miss Asia-Pacific Israel during the school’s United Nation’s event. Israeli Ambassador to the Philippines Rafael Harpaz said he knows many Filipinos dream of going to the Holy Land, “for the holidays, we are bringing the spirit of Israel here.”(PNA photo by Christine Cudis)

MANILA — A simple photo of a kindergarten pupil dressed up like Miss Asia-Pacific Israel 2019 during a United Nations event in their school has piqued the interest of Israeli Ambassador to the Philippines Rafael Harpaz.

On Wednesday, Harpaz, along with the Israeli community in the Philippines and the kindergarten of the Jewish Synagogue here, arranged an outreach event in Sta. Ana Elementary School in Manila where five-year-old Angela Alforque is studying.

“I saw this article about the amazing Angela and her dreams about Israel,” Harpaz said in an interview.

An Israeli news site has picked up the story of Angela after her mother Elfe tagged the embassy on their Facebook post.

In an interview with the mother, she said she and their family have been fascinated with Israel for a long time.

“It is his grandfather who really loves Israel. And we as a Catholic family also longed to go where Jesus Christ was as written in the Bible. Her Tito also likes to go there, basically, everyone wants to be there,” Elfe said.

Embassy officials have donated books and other learning materials to the kids. They also shared a good time with the kindergarten pupils during their stay, sharing the story behind the eight candles of Hanukkah.

“I know that every Filipino, being a Catholic country, has this bucket list to visit Israel, the Holy Land, so I had an idea why not bring Israel to here. I told them, one day all of you will go to the Holy Land to visit. Walang visa so I hope she (Angela) will fulfill her dreams,” Harpaz said.

In 2019 alone, the Embassy of Israel has shared much good news to the Philippines–aside from the “No Visa” privilege for the Filipinos–a program that aims to bring a thousand Filipinos to their country to work for the tourism industry is currently in the works.

Harpaz said the Philippines is the first country in the world that Israel has signed a government to government hiring process so private recruitment agencies are not necessary.

In September 2018, President Rodrigo Duterte visited Israel and signed the bilateral labor agreement, improving and regulating the recruitment process and the rights of overseas Filipino workers, and drastically reducing placement fees.

In an earlier report, Philippine Ambassador to Israel Nathaniel Imperial said the labor cooperation agreement will “hopefully ensure that the exploitative placement fees that are being charged to our workers would be substantially reduced, if not eliminated.”

“We have long-standing cooperation and development assistance with the Philippines. There are 600 Filipinos traveling to Israel as part of their Agriculture studies,” Harpaz added.

To date, there are also around 40,000 Filipinos living and working as caregivers in Israel.

“When Filipinos move there or visit there, they will feel at home. In Tel Aviv, you can eat halo-halo and even balut,” he said, adding that there are still Israelis who are fluent in speaking Tagalog.

Harpaz has shared before that their gratitude for the country’s former president Manuel Quezon and the rest of the Filipinos for providing shelter for the fleeing Jews in the 1930s will “forever be etched on their hearts”.