Christchurch mayor visits Israel
Christchurch mayor Bob Parker has returned to New Zealand following a visit to Israel…
Bob Parker reports…
Mayor Bob Parker
Last week, in Jerusalem I joined 37 Mayors for all over the globe who flew into Israel for the 28th annual Mayors Conference from 6 to 10 May. This conference presented a unique opportunity to gather together in one place to help strengthen diplomatic and political ties, discuss the diverse issues our cities and peoples face, learn from each other’s experience, see and hear about new developments and technologies and, importantly, enjoy the fellowship of other Mayors.
A packed conference schedule saw us shuttled across Jerusalem visiting various sites and hearing from community leaders and business people. We visited a recently opened parking complex at the Habima Square in Tel-Aviv – its dual purpose to serve in times of emergency as a mass shelter for all residents of central Tel-Aviv and the Souraksy-Ichilov Medical Centre – with operating systems equipped to deal with large scale evacuation and rescue for warfare scenarios.
Also at Tel Aviv I was very interested to spend time with a number of entrepreneurs and start-up enterprises. We discussed lessons learned from creating new jobs and opportunities we think could be applied here in Christchurch.
At Lod, a major Israeli transportation hub and home of Israel’s largest aircraft industries, we heard about the deployment of emergency management and anti-terrorist systems. While listening to this lecture what struck me was the similarities of experiences. While our own city is facing unprecedented, challenging times – we are not alone, others too know what it is like to struggle and for Israel in particular the need to be prepared. Thankfully, in our peaceful city we are spared the threat of terrorism.
