After World War II Liberia under Tubman had to cope with the new political order emerging in post-colonial Africa.
The oldest independent black republic had to find its place among the newly independent nationalist governments. Liberia, which had close political and economic ties with the former colonial powers and with the U.S., and did not belong to either the Anglophone or Francophone zone, had to change her national priorities and focus on cultivating relations with the emerging states in Africa.
Tubman decided on a policy of support to African nationalist movements and newly independent states by taking advantage of Liberia's position as one of the few independent African states already with membership in the U.N. and other international organizations.
The situation in Palestine in 1947, where Jewish settlers struggled to gain independence from British colonial rule, provided Liberia with an opportunity to join some African nationalist movements whose leaders viewed British colonial rule as the enemy and were thus eager to see an end to British colonialism. Liberia, seeking ways to find its place within the nationalist movements emerging in Africa, voted for the establishment of Israel in November 1947 not only because of her belief in the Zionist cause and historic parallel between the New World black settlers and the Zionist settlers, but also because of her wish to be part of the new political order emerging in Africa.
At the same time, Tubman's government had to initiate changes in its internal policy as well. The population of the Black Republic consisted of two groups, the privileged settler minority and the mass of indigenous Africans who had little access to political power. This situation raised apprehensions that the new spirit of liberty and independence spreading in Africa, might sweep the indigenous Africans in Liberia towards ties with the emerging nationalist leaders of the formerly colonial neighboring states, in order to overthrow the yoke of settler-Liberian minority rule. The Tubman government therefore thought it expedient to launch two programs, namely, the Unification Policy and the Open Door Policy. The aim of the first was to integrate the two sections of the Liberian population. The Open Door Policy aimed to bring rapid economic development to Liberia, particularly to the hinterland where Liberia's mineral wealth and most of the country's arable land was located and where most of its indigenous population lived.
The policy was designed to narrow the economic gap between settler- Liberians and indigenous-Liberians. Better standards of living, better education, would create social and economic mobility and thus bring about integration.
The new internal policies implied far reaching reforms in the economic, social, welfare and education spheres. The knowledge and experience accumulated by Israel could help Tubman's regime in implementing its reforms. The Open Door Policy meant, beside financial investment and mining of minerals, the development of agriculture. Renowned Israeli agricultural experts were the right people to assist in this area. When the Open Door Policy was initiated at the end of the fifties, Liberia asked Israel to send an expert to carry out a comprehensive survey of the possibilities of agriculture in the Black Republic. Two surveys were performed by Israeli experts. The first was conducted in 1958 by Chaim Gevati, retired E)irector General of the Ministry of Agriculture of Israel. This survey was followed by a thorough research which took place from October 1959 to May 1960. The report which followed the survey recommended ways of growing market crops in Liberia and the establishment of modern agricultural education programs.
One of the results of these surveys was a $7 million grant for the construction and maintenance of a youth village in Harrisburg (Montserrado County) in which a modem farm was set up with the active assistance of an Israeli agricultural advisor.
Another aspect of the Open Door Policy in which Israel was involved was a large-scale construction project carried out by a private Israeli company. The company was active mainly in Monrovia where it constructed the Ducor Hotel, the new Executive Mansion, the Monrovia City Hall, the Temple of Justice, the Department of Public Works, as well as a number of housing projects in Bong County, in the vicinity of the new iron ore mine.
Beside these large scale operations Israel contributed to the Open Door Policy in small but important projects. Modernizing the economy required high level trained manpower. Israel offered scholarships to Liberian students for a training period in Israel and sent, in 1959, a senior faculty member of the "Technion", the Israeli technical institute, who organized and headed a science and technological department at the University of Liberia.
In the sphere of medicine Israel had accumulated a great deal of experience in treating infectious diseases. Over ten per cent of immigrants to Israel between 1948-1958 suffered from all kinds of diseases which were successfully treated 28 An Israeli eye specialist made a survey in Liberia at the request of President Tubman, another specialist set up the first eye clinic in 1960 and a Liberian doctor and several nurses were trained in Israel.
However, the primary assistance which Israel could offer to Liberia related to Tubman's Unification project. The Liberian President's objective was to make of the indigenous Liberians and the settler-Liberians, "one consolidated whole." In the process of implementing his program Tubman faced critics from several quarters of the settler-Liberian group.
They were afraid that the modernization and westernization of the hinterland and of its people would close the gap between the two sections of the population and turn the indigenous people into a rival group capable of undermining the privileged position of the settler- Liberians.
In order to convince his opponents and to secure aid for implementing his internal policy, Tubman turned to the Israeli example.
The unique position of Israel as a state, that on the one hand had to integrate Jewish groups coming from all comers of the world, and on the other hand had to find a way of cooperation and living together with other ethnic and religious groups, did not escape the Liberian leader. The enormous task of bringing together all of these groups to work as one nation was taken as the model for the situation in Liberia.
The Liberian leaders apparently found a similarity between the "National Unification Council" instituted by President Tubman on 24 May,1954 and the Israeli Committee for Interfaith Understanding established in 1959. Their respective aims were to make the law and the principles of equality and integration understandable to every individual in order to eliminate ethnic and religious barriers between various groups.
Israel's participation in the Unification Program and the Open Door Policy served to strengthen and intensify the relations between the Black Republic and the State of Israel. The material aid and the usefulness of the Israeli example went hand in hand with Tubman's views on the similar historical experience of the settler-Liberians and the Israelis. The practical aid sent by Israel cemented and strengthened Tubman's belief in the spiritual bond between the two nations. The triple task of Israel, as a spiritual fount, a model to be imitated, a source of practical assistance, was summed up by the Liberian President:
'The history of the state of Israel is a great inspiration to the emergent nations of the world.... Your leaders and people have already achieved one of the greatest miracles of modem times by creating out of diversity a people who basically believe in the guidance of the greatest of all books.'
(By: Yekuticl Gershoni.)
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Endnotes
Bernard Reich, "Israel's Policy in Africa" in Middle East Journal, 28, No. 1 (1964), p. 14. For the scope of Israeli activities in Africa between 1958-1960 see: Elliot P. Skinner, "African States and Israel: Uneasy Relations in a World of Crisis," Journal of African Studies, Vol. 2, No. 1,1975, pp. 9,10.
^The Tubman era is crucial to understanding the evolution of relationship between the two states. Tubman laid the foundation for the relationship and provided leadership for most of the thirty years of diplomatic relations between Israel and Liberia.
Edward Wilmot Blyden, The Jewish Question, Liverpool 1898, preface as quoted in Benjamin Neuberger, "Early African Nationalism—Judaism and Zionism: Edward Wilmot Blyden" in Jewish Social Studies, vol. XLVII, no. 2,1985, p. 159.
The Crisis, Feb 9, p. 166, as quoted in Benjamin Noubergor "W. E.
B. DuBois on Black ism and Zionism" in The Jewish Journal of Sociology,
Vol. XXVIII, no. 2, December 1986, p. 142.
B. Neuberger, "Early African Nationalists—in Jewish Social Studies, p. 163.
Speech on the occasion of a dinner in honor of President and Mrs. Tubman by the Israeli President and Mrs. Ishak Ben Zvi, Tel-Aviv, Israel, 15 June 1962, at The Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace Collection.
The author wishes to thank Chanan Eynor, former Israeli Ambassador to several African states and the head of the African department at Israeli's Foreign Ministry, now Fellow at the Truman Institute, for allowing him access to the relevant material.
Editorial, The Liberian Age, vol. 27, no. 77, October 9,1973, p. 2.
