Haiti–Israel Relations

Haiti voted in favor of UN General Assembly Resolution 181 on November 29, 1947, when the recorded vote was 33 in favor, 13 against, and 10 abstentions.[1] Haiti also voted for Israel’s admission to UN membership on May 11, 1949.[2] A Jewish Virtual Library diplomatic-missions table, attributed to Israel’s Foreign Ministry and last updated in 2016, lists Haiti as recognized by Israel in January 1950.[8]

The World Jewish Congress and Jewish Virtual Library describe Haiti and Israel as maintaining full diplomatic relations.[3][9] Israel’s representation has been organized on a nonresident basis, and Israel maintains an honorary consulate in Port-au-Prince, where the World Jewish Congress identifies George Bigio as honorary consul.[3][8]

A U.S. State Department memorandum dated May 31, 1962, records that Haiti had “no resident diplomatic representation” in Israel when the United States approached the Haitian government in 1958. The document does not establish whether Haiti had nonresident representation or what arrangements existed later.[10]

Before 1980, Haiti maintained an embassy in Jerusalem. After the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 478 in August 1980, calling on states with diplomatic missions in Jerusalem to withdraw them following Israel’s enactment of the Jerusalem Basic Law, Haiti was among 13 countries whose embassies left the city.[11]

The humanitarian dimension of the relationship has antecedents predating Israel’s establishment. During World War II, Haiti allowed Jews fleeing Nazi persecution to settle on the island, and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee provided care to those refugees.[12] Haiti’s support for the 1947 partition resolution and Israel’s 1949 admission to the United Nations later formed part of the diplomatic background to bilateral relations.[1][2] Israel’s recognition of Haiti is listed as dating to January 1950.[8]

Haiti has historically hosted a small Jewish community shaped by successive waves of migration. Jews from Brazil arrived in the seventeenth century; migrants from Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon came around the start of the twentieth century; and Jews fleeing Eastern Europe arrived in the 1930s.[3] During World War II, Haiti admitted Jews fleeing Nazi persecution, and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee provided care to refugees on the island.[12]

Steady emigration during the second half of the twentieth century significantly reduced the community. Most remaining Jews live in Port-au-Prince, and religious services are held in a private home.[3] In January 2010, Ambassador Amos Radian said Haiti had approximately seven Jewish families.[13]

Israeli engagement in Haiti has combined emergency response with longer-term development work. The IDF and Foreign Ministry deployed medical and search-and-rescue capabilities after the 2010 earthquake, while MASHAV pursued health and reconstruction projects.[14][15] IsraAID and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee maintained programs involving safe water, trauma care, local training, disability support, and disaster preparedness.[4][12] Israeli cooperation also included agricultural seminars and training for Haitians in Israel.[13]

The earthquake of January 12, 2010, prompted a large Israeli humanitarian deployment. On January 14, two El Al-leased Boeing 747s departed Israel carrying a 220-person delegation of volunteers, doctors, and soldiers, together with aid supplied by the Foreign Ministry, Magen David Adom, and the Israeli Police. The delegation began arriving in Port-au-Prince on January 15 and established an operations center near the airport.[14] Separately, an American Jewish Committee account states that a small IsraAID group reached Haiti within 48 hours after traveling approximately 6,500 miles.[7]

The Israeli operations center and field hospital were established on a soccer field near the airport.[14][16] Congressional Record remarks described the hospital as having operating rooms, intensive-care, maternity, and pediatric wards, incubators, a pharmacy, X-ray equipment, 90 beds—including 66 intensive-care beds—and approximately 10 tons of medical equipment.[17]

The same congressional remarks separately estimated that approximately 250 personnel staffed the field hospital, including 40 doctors and specialists and 20 nurses. A Congressional Research Service table instead listed 40 doctors and 24 nurses among Israel’s in-kind contribution.[17][18]

Israeli search-and-rescue teams, including canine operators, worked with local authorities at the UN headquarters and other disaster sites.[14] A local Israeli who had lived in Haiti for 30 years helped the teams navigate local conditions. Information relayed through a local radio effort led the Israelis to a man trapped in rubble, whom they rescued.[16]

Ambassador Amos Radian coordinated Israel’s contribution with Haitian authorities and international aid agencies. On January 19, a senior delegation including Home Front Command head Maj. Gen. Yair Golan, Health Ministry director-general Dr. Eitan Hai-Am, and chief medical officer Brig. Gen. Nahman Esh visited the field hospital and met Haiti’s prime minister to discuss continued assistance.[14]

The IDF medical and rescue team concluded operations on January 27. Published totals differ: Jewish Virtual Library reports more than 1,110 patients and 319 surgeries, while a contemporaneous Ynet report gives 1,102 patients and 314 surgeries. Both report that the hospital delivered 16 babies.[14][19] The delegation left approximately 30 tons of medical equipment and relief supplies, including two incubators, 1,150 blankets, 30 large tents, 500 mattresses, and 200 sleeping bags.[14] U.S. forces subsequently took over the Israeli field hospital’s work.[16]

After the IDF delegation withdrew, Israel’s government decided to continue official assistance through MASHAV, Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation within the Foreign Ministry. Plans described at the time included an Israeli Children’s Village with an elementary school, playground, sports field, and medical center, as well as a community center for trauma treatment, counseling, psychological rehabilitation, and youth activities.[14]

Rehabilitation professionals from ALYN arrived in February 2010 to assess injuries, amputations, and local rehabilitation capacity. Natan organized a temporary school in the former IDF tent compound, Latet worked on schools and medical care, and Tevel b’Tzedek, under IsraAID, provided post-trauma treatment with the Israel Center for the Treatment of Psychotrauma at Herzog Hospital.[14]

In November 2010, Israel’s Foreign Ministry, acting through MASHAV, shipped about 200,000 doses of medication to address a cholera outbreak.[15][20] MASHAV also worked to establish a Trauma and Emergency Unit in a hospital in Cap-Haïtien, providing medical equipment and training local staff through a pilot project intended to develop sustainable local capacity.[15][20] A primary-care clinic in Léogâne, established through cooperation among MASHAV, Sheba Hospital, and IsraAID, participated in the cholera response.[15]

IsraAID remained in Haiti for eight years after the 2010 earthquake, developing local partnerships and training.[4] Ambassador Radian said in 2010 that Israel periodically conducted agricultural seminars in Haiti and sent Haitians to Israel for further training.[13] A 2011 article also recorded that Israel had sent police support to Haiti through the United Nations, without specifying the timing, size, or activities of that support.[21]

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee worked in Haiti from the 2010 earthquake onward and also responded to Hurricane Matthew in 2016. Its activities included emergency food, water, and medical care; health services for women and children; support for people with disabilities; rebuilding schools and hospitals; disaster preparedness; and employment and social-service programs. The organization reported reaching hundreds of thousands of people in coordination with the Israeli government, the U.S. State Department, USAID, the United Nations, and local and international partners.[12]

A 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck southwestern Haiti on August 14, 2021. IsraAID dispatched an emergency response team that included former Haitian staff members and personnel with experience from the 2010 response.[22] The team distributed emergency supplies and water filters and trained local leaders to operate the filtration equipment.[23] IsraAID coordinator Ben Katzir—an Israeli who speaks Haitian Creole and had worked in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake—helped train principals and teachers at four schools in Torbeck to use a water-filtration system serving approximately 1,000 students.[4]

Haitian trauma specialists trained by IsraAID after the 2010 earthquake participated in the 2021 response, illustrating the organization’s emphasis on local capacity-building.[23] IsraAID’s work focused on humanitarian relief, safe water, family hygiene kits, and psychological and mental-health support, with backing from the American Jewish Committee.[24]

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, working with its longtime partner the Afya Foundation, supplied hospitals with surgical instruments, fluids, IV starters, sutures, protective equipment, and clean linens. The shipment was directed to a hospital in Aquin.[12]

Israel’s response to the 2010 disaster received attention in the United States Congress. Congressional remarks stated that Israel sent “hundreds of its citizens to treat the injured and search for survivors.”[6] A House resolution introduced on April 20, 2010, expressed solidarity with Haitians and commended the Israelis who worked on the ground, the State of Israel, the IDF, and the Israeli people; it was referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.[5]

Israeli officials and humanitarian organizations have presented such operations as expressions of national and Jewish humanitarian values. At IsraAID’s twentieth-anniversary celebration, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said, “When an Israeli doctor helps a child injured in an earthquake in Haiti, that’s Israeli pride.”[7]

Sources differ on several administrative and operational details. The World Jewish Congress and Jewish Virtual Library’s Haiti page say the Israeli ambassador in Panama represents Israeli interests in Haiti, while a diplomatic-missions table updated in 2016 lists the ambassador in the Dominican Republic.[3][8] In January 2010, Ambassador Amos Radian said he was then responsible for Israeli interests in Haiti from the Dominican Republic.[13]

Published accounts also use differing personnel and treatment totals. Congressional material lists both a 220-person delegation and approximately 250 field-hospital personnel, while sources differ between 20 and 24 nurses.[17][18] Jewish Virtual Library reports more than 1,110 patients and 319 surgeries; Ynet reported 1,102 patients and 314 surgeries, and a later JNS account cited approximately 1,110 patients and 317 surgeries.[14][19] These differences appear to reflect varying reporting dates or counting methods, but the sources do not reconcile them.[25]