The high-tech nation of Israel was also a topic at this year's Congress of Christian Leaders (KCF) in Berlin. Among other things, the Minister of Economic Affairs of the state of Brandenburg, Steinbach, recommended looking to Israel for guidance on water management. CSI provided visitors at their booth with facts and figures about Israel.
Jörg Steinbach, the Minister for Economic Affairs, Labour and Energy of the state of Brandenburg, has advocated for the introduction of Israeli water technologies in Germany. At the Congress of Christian Leaders (KCF) in Berlin, the SPD politician pointed out that Israel recycles 95 percent of its wastewater. In contrast, Germany maintains a water management policy that does not value this resource.
After his presentation on the sustainability of words in politics at the congress, Steinbach answered questions from the audience.
When asked why he ruled out cooperation with the AfD in a democracy, he replied that there was, of course, cooperation with AfD politicians, for example in the Economic Affairs Committee, and that they were treated like everyone else. However, he personally considered any further cooperation problematic. This became clear to him after a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. There, he read press articles from the 1930s. If he found the same tone in the AfD's current discourse as in those texts, then he saw no possibility of cooperation.
Israel's economic miracle
Christians Standing with Israel (CSI) offered congress attendees the opportunity to learn about Israel as a startup nation. In a presentation at the organization's booth, Ansgar Niehoff, Innovation and Tech Venturing Manager at the company REHAU, spoke about the "Israel economic miracle." Among other things, he referred to the company's drip irrigation system. This technology has now been used to irrigate more than ten million hectares of land worldwide. Around the globe, drip irrigation is used by well over two million farmers.
In 2020, the first year of the pandemic, no other European country saw as many so-called unicorns founded as Israel. Eleven such startups emerged there, each with a market value of at least one billion US dollars. That was almost twice as many as in the UK, which came in second, explained Niehoff. He advised visitors to network with Israeli entrepreneurs, for example on social media, to learn from them.
Business trip to Israel
Building connections between German and Israeli entrepreneurs is also a goal of Christians Standing with Israel (CSI). Together with their Israeli partner organization Keren Hayesod, CSI offers a special business trip. Participants can discover Israel's startup scene and establish contacts in Israel. More information is available at CSI Business.
The KCF took place in Berlin from April 27th to 29th. More than 2,000 participants came to the German capital for the event. It is organized every two years by the Evangelical news agency Idea.
