Israel in the world.

Economy | Technology | Science | Society
H.E. Aviv Shir-On, Ambassador of the State of Israel in Austria

On June 18, 2014, in the framework of the MCI Alumni & Friends lecture series, Management Center Innsbruck and the Leopold-Francis University of Innsbruck took pleasure in welcoming His Excellency Aviv Shir-On, Ambassador of the State of Israel in Austria, who spoke on the subject of “Israel in the World”.

H.E. Shir-On was born in Israel in 1952. He studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and joined the diplomatic service in 1978. In 2009 he was posted to Austria as Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the State of Israel.

Ambassador Shir-On opened his presentation with an overview of the historical development of his country, from the foundation of the state of Israel in 1948 to the present day – from the first Jaffa oranges exported from a relatively infertile and underdeveloped land to today’s modern industrial state with its high-tech products. In comparison with the rest of the world, Israel makes an above-average investment in research and development, with a focus on electronics and information technology in addition to biomedicine and clinical research.

Apart from the country’s economic success story, H.E. Shir-On also spoke about Israel’s image problem, the Middle East conflict, the continuing conflict with the Palestinians and the country’s domestic social problems. He particularly stressed the social situation, with poverty on the increase in Israel and the gap widening between the rich and the poor in spite of the fact that per capita GDP has increased from year to year.

With regard to the Palestinian conflict, H.E. Aviv Shir-On, as ambassador of the State of Israel, spoke in favor of a two-state solution and expressed a desire for unconditional peace talks.

The event was moderated by Dr. Eric Frey, Managing Editor of the Austrian daily “Der Standard”.