Wednesday, September 11, 2024, 18:11
October 7, 2023 marked a turning point in Israel. The terrorist attacks that killed 1,200 citizens and kidnapped 240 people halted for a few days the social and economic life of a state that was shocked by the massacre. The country focused on finding a plan to surrender the dead and bring home the hostages who were taken to the tunnels controlled by the terrorist organization in Gaza. Israel responded to the attacks with a war that is still ongoing and in which more than 40,000 Palestinians have already died, including nearly 14,000 minors. To this must be added that many of the hostages Those still in the hands of terrorists are being killed, which has led to the first mass demonstrations against the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
But in the Negev – a desert in southern Israel that makes up more than 60% of the country’s territory but is home to less than 10% of the population – sits InNegev, a technology accelerator working to make this area prosperous after the war is over. In other words, according to the director of this project, to “win from the desert.”
InNegev started its journey in 2020, but with the outbreak of the war, the incubator – built in an area that reaches 50 degrees – changed its way of working. They went from focusing on drought and water management – 2 billion people around the world do not have access to safe and clean drinking water – to developing these projects with a vision of survival despite adversity. To this end, since October 7, the center has established a “control room”, in collaboration with the Israel Innovation Authority, to help young companies overcome the impacts of the conflict and ensure that the war does not have unwanted long-term effects on the Israeli ecosystem.
By 2029, they expect to have 120 initiatives working in the area as well as having generated approximately 700 new jobs. Even so, these expectations are linked to the country’s economic development. Thus, it must be taken into account that for this year alone, the Israeli government expects the country to grow by 1.1%, eight-tenths less than estimated, which would leave the economy growing at the slowest rate since 2009, with the exception of the pandemic years.
But according to those in charge at InNegev, the war will end sooner rather than later, so they see an opportunity to improve an environment in which living conditions are not the most suitable for living, not only because of the proximity to the conflict, but also because of the climate and the characteristics of the desert. “We have to do things to ensure that the day after will be very promising, that we will have a good economy, that is, to ensure that we have a great future,” says the executive director of the incubator, Arnon Columbus.
High-tech companies account for 12% of Israel’s employment and more than half of its exports
In this way, they see in the technological ally the possibility of life prospering and of the children of families born in the Negev living there and not being forced to move to Tel Aviv, the political centre of Israel. In Columbus’ view, not everything can be concentrated in one place in the state, but rather the periphery must also prosper. “Since a very important part of Israel’s economy comes from technology, we have to make sure that it is well developed throughout the country,” he says. Specifically, high-tech companies account for 12% of the country’s employment, more than half of exports, 25% of income taxes and a fifth of its overall economic output, according to the consulting firm Yahoo Tech.
That is why Columbus believes that the Negev needs to choose the business sector that will give it an edge over Tel Aviv. In his opinion, the development of climate-related startups is what a region that is peripheral to the Gaza Strip can specialize in. That is why he is committed to bringing large startups to the desert, while developing an educational system that allows people to believe in the future of the area. For Columbus, who believes that his companies will be able to grow internationally over the next few years, one of the priorities of the project he leads and which has the support of the Israeli authorities is “that young people see the rise, see what we are doing in the Negev and have hope for the future.”
The proximity to the conflict is what has really pushed the region to be more depopulated, more lonely and with many businesses and streets abandoned. “We feel that we have to do things for this society, for our communities, for our families or friends who were killed,” Columbus said in a talk with journalists at the second edition of PLANETech World, the global climate technology conference whose initial date was October 18, 2023 but which had to be postponed for nine months after the attacks. That is why the program was dedicated to studying how to accelerate the Israeli climate technology ecosystem – which has more than 700 startups dedicated to this sector – and to show attendees in Tel Aviv its resilience in the midst of the war in Gaza.
Technology as an ally
The number of participants has now dropped from what was originally expected, partly due to the climate of uncertainty generated by the war, says the director of the congress, Noam Sonnenberg, and this is also why the number of visitors to the country has dropped. But although Sonnenberg acknowledges the “valid” concern about the future of the Israeli economy, he sees the war as an opportunity to make the country prosper: an opportunity for the reconstruction of companies that fight against climate change, which is a problem that affects not only Israel but millions of people around the world. He sees technology as an ally that can help rebuild the destroyed areas with a vision of low emissions and the use of renewable energy in a country that, as the director of the congress regrets, does not stand out as a “climate-friendly” state.
But in the context of the congress, which also featured startups with innovative ideas such as laboratory-grown meat, a booming sector in Israel, or cutting-edge systems to combat drought, an initiative called ‘Next October’ was presented by former Israeli minister Izhar Shai, who lost his son during the attacks on October 7. The initiative, he explained, seeks to create more than 1,400 new innovative companies “to create a better global future in memory of those killed on October 7.”
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