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David Ige and the Israeli Consulate General today signed a “historic” agreement to share technologies that could help Hawaii’s seawater desalination, water production from “thin air,” cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.
Israel can learn techniques from Hawaii to protect the marine environment of the Dead Sea, the Sea of Galilee and the Red Sea, as well as ways to protect other natural habitats, said Hillel Newman, Israeli consul general at the Israeli Consulate General in Los Angeles.
The MoU calls for “collaborative research” on a wide range of common interests, including water, agriculture, food security, sea level rise, marine science and alternative energy.
The University of Hawaii is already working with Israel on research, but the deal could bring Israeli researchers and companies to Hawaii, Neumann said at a press conference in the Ige ballroom. , and was attended by UH Rector David Lassner, who worked as a shepherd in Israel in his twenties. Ige held a press conference on “Aloha and Shalom” and Newman began speaking on “Shalom and Aloha.”
Ige and Newman separately talked about similarities between Hawaii and Israel, with Newman coining the new word “shaloha.”