Israeli Foreign Aid

Israeli foreign aid encompasses development cooperation, technical assistance, professional training, demonstration projects, and humanitarian relief provided by government bodies and partner institutions. MASHAV, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Agency for International Development Cooperation, designs and coordinates the state’s principal development-cooperation and humanitarian programs.[1]

MASHAV’s activities are not identical to Israel’s national Official Development Assistance statistics. ODA is a broader accounting category based on OECD Development Assistance Committee criteria and includes qualifying assistance supplied by other public bodies, multilateral contributions, education and training, humanitarian aid, and specified assistance to refugees and new immigrants inside Israel.[2]

Israel’s development assistance began while the country was itself still developing. A 2011 Library of Congress study says aid to developing countries began about a decade after Israel’s independence and initially emphasized training and technical assistance, including grassroots capacity-building rather than primarily financing capital inflows.[3] An early model of technical cooperation is traced to a 1953 mission to Burma, which sent Israeli experts and brought Burmese visitors to Israel for training.[4]

Sources describe different stages in MASHAV’s creation. The Israeli government’s overview dates its establishment to 1958, while another overview says the program was launched in late 1957.[1][5] A historical account distinguishes the 1958 creation of a Foreign Ministry technical-cooperation section from its becoming an independent department in 1960.[4] The sources do not settle whether these dates refer to initial activity, formal establishment, or later organizational status. The government overview says the agency followed the vision of Foreign Minister Golda Meir and Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, sharing know-how and technologies developed as Israel addressed its own challenges.[1]

Early assistance combined development objectives with foreign-policy calculations. In the early 1950s, Israel sought relations with non-Arab states on the periphery of the Arab world, including in East Africa, while supporting newly independent African states. Ben-Gurion and Meir saw aid as a way to assist states emerging from colonial rule and to counter the Arab boycott.[6] Meir’s explanation of the effort, quoted in an INSS study, was: “The main reason for our African ‘adventure’ was that we had something we wanted to pass on to nations that were even younger and less experienced than ourselves.”[6]

During the 1960s, Israel established relations with numerous newly independent African states and deployed substantial technical assistance. One historical account says Israel had diplomatic relations with 33 newly independent African countries during the decade, while an AJC article reports that MASHAV sent more than 1,800 experts in agriculture, medicine, and education to Africa.[4][7]

The 1973 Yom Kippur War and the surrounding diplomatic crisis marked a major break in these relationships. A Library of Congress study says all but four African countries severed relations with Israel after the war. It reports an immediate 50 percent reduction in MASHAV’s operating budget, a substantial decline in assistance and cooperation, and a shift in geographic focus away from Africa toward Latin America and Asia. The rupture also reduced public and political support for the program.[3] A separate historical account says Israel generally suspended MASHAV activity in countries that severed relations and recalled its experts, although some practical cooperation and training continued.[4]

A gradual restoration of relations with sub-Saharan African countries began during the 1980s. MASHAV returned on a smaller scale, with fewer long-term expert placements and greater emphasis on training, cooperation with other donors, and humanitarian assistance.[4] The Library of Congress study describes a partial budget recovery in the mid-to-late 1990s, when the agency also supported newly established relationships in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union. Programs included agricultural demonstration and training in Egypt after its peace treaty, agricultural and medical projects with Jordan after its treaty, and training for Palestinians after the 1993 Oslo Accords. The study says the foreign-aid budget shrank again as hopes for a “new Middle East” receded with the peace process.[3]

Over time, the delivery model also shifted. One account describes a move from numerous long-term expert placements toward more training, collaboration with donors and international organizations, and emergency humanitarian assistance. For 2007, it reports four Israelis on long-term assignments in three African countries and 24 short-term missions in ten countries, compared with hundreds of missions in the 1960s.[4] A 2017 AJC account likewise describes a growing emphasis on economic diplomacy and business partnerships, with private-sector activity increasingly complementing development cooperation.[7]

MASHAV’s stated approach is to share Israeli experience, technologies, and methods while building human capacity and training people who can continue the work locally.[1] It has used courses in Israel and partner countries, expert consultancies, joint research, demonstration projects, humanitarian missions, and the establishment or operation of local projects.[3][8]

The approach has emphasized fields where Israel has relevant experience, particularly agriculture, irrigation, water management, desert agriculture, and public health. Other recurring priorities include food security, rural and community development, education, women’s empowerment, emergency and disaster medicine, and basic health services.[1][9] Traditional agricultural work included instruction in irrigation techniques and crop varieties, the establishment of agricultural collectives, and help with financial and distribution services. The Library of Congress study also lists rural and regional planning, youth programs, nutrition, early-childhood education for rural women, and medical assistance among MASHAV’s activities.[3]

Capacity-building and adaptation to local conditions are central stated principles. The sources describe training local instructors, consulting local partners, aligning projects with recipient-country priorities, and adapting methods instead of imposing a standardized version of Israeli practice. They also identify demand-driven assistance, small-scale and community-led projects, and cooperation between developing countries as guiding principles.[9][4] A motto attributed to MASHAV’s early approach is “To serve, to teach, to leave.”[4]

MASHAV has delivered services through professional training centers and contracted institutions, including universities, research centers, and the Ministry of Health.[3] The Library of Congress study identifies three fully funded centers: the Golda Meir Mount Carmel International Training Center, which covers advancement of women, preschool education, community development, and small-factory development; the Aharon Ofri International Training Center, focused mainly on science and technology education, community projects, and immigrant absorption; and the Center for International Agricultural Development Cooperation (CINADCO), which implements agricultural and rural-development cooperation.[3]

The Golda Meir Mount Carmel center was established in 1961 to train women from developing countries and encourage their participation in community services and national development. Its courses have included community development, preschool education, nutrition, adult education, business management, and cooperatives. An account of the center’s first 30 years reports that more than 10,000 participants from 147 countries attended courses in Israel and abroad.[4]

Training and expert deployment, rather than direct cash grants, have been prominent forms of assistance. A 2012 account of cooperation with USAID says Israel would contribute applied agricultural research, irrigation and water technologies, and expertise in arid-zone production, while USAID funded the framework projects. MASHAV’s director described expertise as Israel’s comparative advantage and said Israel generally did not give grants to target countries, although it sometimes covered part of the cost.[10] This model has included courses in several principal languages—English, Russian, French, Spanish, and Arabic—and subjects ranging from agriculture and medicine to entrepreneurship and rural development.[11]

MASHAV has also pursued cooperation with other donors and international organizations, including joint projects with shared costs.[3] The Library of Congress study records an Israeli-German cooperation agreement signed in 2010 on water management, agricultural development, and public health in the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia. It also lists a Japan-Israel-Egypt training program for arid and semiarid areas, a regional agriculture program involving Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority with Denmark as initiator and main supporter, and a 2010 MASHAV–UN World Food Program agreement on water management connected to Nepal’s development strategies.[3]

U.S.–Israeli development cooperation has included both bilateral and trilateral projects. The U.S. Department of State says USAID and MASHAV signed a global development-cooperation memorandum in 2019 and subsequently carried out trilateral projects in Europe, Central America, the Middle East, and Africa, including work on water technology, agriculture, and education. A separate 2019 Power Africa memorandum addressed energy poverty; Israel committed to financing 300 megawatts of power-generation projects in sub-Saharan Africa through its private sector.[12] The U.S.–Israel Cooperative Development Program, created in 1988, funded Israeli-run technical-assistance and training projects across Latin America, Asia, Africa, Eastern and Central Europe, and increasingly neighboring countries. Its listed fields included arid-land agriculture, livestock, irrigation, rural development, education, health, and medicine; one account gives contributions of $4 million from USAID and $2 million from Israel.[13]

MASHAV’s scale has varied over time, and published cumulative totals are not directly reconcilable. The Israeli government overview lists more than 300,000 graduates from 140 countries, 50 training centers and demonstration projects, and 35 ongoing partnerships with donor countries and international organizations. It also reports annual activity of over 5,000 trainees, 160 courses in Israel and abroad, and 100 short-term consultancy missions.[1] Other accounts give different cumulative totals: one reports almost 200,000 course participants and more than 10,000 Israeli experts dispatched, while another gives nearly 270,000 participants from approximately 132 countries without dating the total sufficiently to compare it directly.[9][5]

Historical figures show how the program’s reach changed. One account records 137 trainees in 1958, 1,262 in 1963, and a milestone of 100,000 trainees in 2005; it also gives 3,214 trainees in Israel and 4,400 in overseas courses for 1994.[9] A separate account reports that in MASHAV’s first year, 1958–59, 137 participants came to Israel for courses and 80 Israeli experts went abroad, including 25 to Burma and 20 to Ghana. Across 1958–71, it counts 4,341 experts serving MASHAV, 2,763 of them sent to Africa, and 15,258 course participants worldwide, including 6,797 from Africa.[4] Scholars quoted in the Library of Congress study characterize Israel’s contribution by the late 1960s and early 1970s as “per capita, one of the most extensive technical assistance programs in the western world.”[3]

For 2010, MASHAV figures summarized by the Library of Congress report 2,459 professionals from 97 countries attending 114 courses in Israel, as well as 3,979 professionals in courses overseas. The same account lists 128 short-term consultancies and humanitarian medical missions in 42 countries, eight long-term experts on demonstration projects in six countries, and 17 hosted professional delegations.[3] A separate account of the year reports 76 overseas courses in 38 host countries, alongside the 114 courses in Israel.[9] For 2007, another source reports 2,465 trainees from 105 countries in 119 courses in Israel and 4,765 trainees in on-site courses in 29 countries.[4]

The mix of training reflected program priorities. For 2003, the latest year covered by a State Comptroller report discussed in the Library of Congress study, two-thirds of MASHAV training courses for people from developing countries were in agriculture; the rest covered health, education, and community development. Courses in Israel ran for longer periods, while overseas courses usually lasted two weeks. Overseas courses typically involved two Israeli experts; the local partner paid daily expenses and facility use, and MASHAV covered remaining costs.[3]

Agricultural projects have translated technical training into local demonstration and settlement work. In Zambia, after President Kenneth Kaunda requested Israeli experts in 1966 to survey and plan settlement in the Copperbelt, Israeli teams worked through 1970 to establish settlements at Kafulafuta and Kafubu. Each comprised several villages and about 500 family units, with work spanning agricultural production and marketing as well as education, health, and culture. The team was recalled after Zambia broke diplomatic relations with Israel in 1973; an account says a Zambian newspaper later ran the headline “Bring Back the Israeli Experts.”[4]

MASHAV has also supported agricultural development in Asia. A 2002 agreement involving Israel, China’s Ministry of Agriculture, and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region planned a demonstration and training center for dryland agriculture in western China. The planned facility included an eight-hectare greenhouse and open-field farm and a second site of 160 hectares; instruction was to cover farming with scarce water, water-saving technologies, fertigation, and controlled-condition crop production.[11] In Romania, a 2002 MASHAV–USAID grant agreement supported joint agribusiness projects intended to improve living standards through a competitive, export-oriented agricultural sector. Planned activities included technical missions, training, grants, product-development and farm-management improvements, and Israeli expertise in agribusiness and irrigation for smallholder farms.[11]

Latin American training expanded to include business innovation and entrepreneurship. In the INSS account covering 2009–2019, regional MASHAV participation rose from 603 people from 20 countries in 2010 to 702 from 23 countries in 2011 and 753 from 27 countries in 2012; it then recorded 565 participants from 20 countries in 2013 and 393 from 24 countries in 2014.[14] The agency added courses in entrepreneurship for small and medium-sized businesses, developing a business from an idea, and support systems for entrepreneurs; the first MASHAV course specifically on start-ups was held in 2014.[14]

In Africa, projects have addressed distinct local needs. In Cameroon, two Israeli instructors worked with teachers at a village agricultural school on Israeli irrigation methods. The country’s deputy agriculture minister said she had taken part in a MASHAV internship in Israel about 30 years earlier and had learned substantially from it.[15] In Kenya, Israeli doctors performed more than 1,000 eye surgeries in 2016. MASHAV projects there also addressed women’s economic empowerment, sustainable-development education, agricultural water supply, and poverty reduction in the Lake Victoria area.[6]

In Rwanda, assistance has particularly emphasized agricultural development, entrepreneurship, technology, and trade. In Ethiopia, MASHAV and the UN Development Programme launched a project on agricultural innovation and technological know-how, entrepreneurship, private-sector development, and gender integration.[6] An INSS study also describes an Ethiopian medical project that reduced annual mortality among AIDS orphans from 25 percent to almost zero.[6] Across several African countries, an ophthalmic project examined hundreds of thousands of people and provided surgery to tens of thousands, while MASHAV organized training courses for hundreds of African medical professionals.[6]

Israeli cooperation in South Sudan has included water systems, infrastructure, and technology, alongside work in agriculture, natural-resource development, science and technology, and education. Examples cited include promoting a model agricultural farm in East Equatoria, renovating the emergency and trauma ward at Juba’s main hospital, and supporting university cooperation.[6] A Library of Congress-hosted publication also describes support to South Sudanese refugees, including work with UNHCR at Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp.[16]

Development and humanitarian assistance have sometimes intersected with strategic interests. The Library of Congress-hosted account says Israeli assistance to southern Sudanese actors during the Sudanese civil wars was linked to national-security interests and that Israel supported the Sudan People’s Liberation Army during the first civil war; it therefore does not characterize this activity as purely humanitarian.[16] The INSS studies likewise distinguish civilian development work from security aid and arms sales, which they describe as additional instruments used to strengthen relationships with African states.[6][17]

Humanitarian assistance is part of MASHAV’s official remit. The agency says it coordinates Israel’s official humanitarian program, organizing supplies, medicines, and urgent medical help in response to appeals from international representatives and direct requests from affected countries. It reports that Israel has provided relief and assistance to more than 140 countries.[18] The government overview also includes emergency response and humanitarian aid among MASHAV’s areas of work.[1]

Israeli humanitarian operations predate MASHAV. One account dates Israel’s first humanitarian action to August 12, 1953, when four Israeli Navy ships sailed for 12 hours to earthquake-struck Kefalonia in Greece. Their crews provided medical care and evacuated survivors.[19] MASHAV emergency operations have been coordinated with Magen David Adom, the Israel Defense Forces, and Israeli volunteer organizations.[4]

Medical assistance has included both emergency response and longer-term health cooperation. In 2002, MASHAV and the Swiss Corvus Foundation arranged joint financing for eye camps in Nepal, Micronesia, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Uganda. The two-week missions examined thousands of patients, performed hundreds of sight-restoring operations, donated medical equipment, and trained local medical staff.[11] That year, an intensive care unit at Amman’s Red Crescent Hospital was rebuilt and equipped, after which Israeli medical teams trained hospital staff. Trauma and emergency-medicine units were built in hospitals in Ghana and Peru, and construction continued on a cancer treatment center in Mauritania.[11]

MASHAV’s emergency response has included major disasters. After the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, Israel sent aid worth millions of dollars, including an Israel Defense Forces airlift of food and medicine; Israeli medical personnel operated a field hospital for several months.[4] Following the 2004 tsunami, MASHAV organized assistance in 2005 for Thailand and Indonesia, including food, medicines, ambulances, and medical teams, despite Israel lacking diplomatic relations with Indonesia. Emergency aid was also sent to the Central African Republic, Kenya, Senegal, and Eritrea in 2005.[4] Following the same tsunami, Israel also dispatched an emergency medical team to Sri Lanka and planned food and medical supplies for other affected countries.[20]

In 2009, MASHAV and JDC Israel coordinated shipments of tents, blankets, medicines, and baby food to Burkina Faso after flooding left many people homeless.[21] After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, an Israeli delegation of engineering, medical, logistics, and rescue experts assessed how to help the population and government. It included personnel from the IDF Home Front Command and Medical Corps, alongside Foreign Ministry officials.[22] An Israeli account describes the IDF’s field hospital in Port-au-Prince and other rescue and medical assistance.[19] A later project, requested by the Haitian government, used Israeli technology and funding to lay the cornerstone for a new emergency room.[23]

Other responses have focused on practical, locally delivered assistance. During the 2010 Colombia floods and mudslides, an Israeli plane carried more than 50 tons of medicine, blankets, and food. Israeli and Colombian defense officials and the Colombian president’s office coordinated the shipment; Israeli reserve general Yisrael Ziv described it as the largest assistance sent to the affected region.[24] After severe flooding in El Salvador in late 2011, the Israeli embassy, MASHAV, and the Foreign Ministry’s Latin American Department donated 22 water purifiers for Bajo Lempa. Each was reported to have a capacity of 45,000 liters, and the units were installed in education and community centers.[25]

During the Horn of Africa drought in October 2011, Israel contributed through the World Food Program to food packages for Somali refugees in Kenya and Ethiopia. A food product identified for children was a fortified blend made from heat-treated maize, soybeans, chickpeas, vitamins, and minerals.[25] During floods and landslides in Myanmar in July and August 2015, MASHAV provided mosquito nets, medicine, food, water, and hygiene kits in coordination with the Israeli embassy.[25]

During the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Israel announced mobile clinics and other assistance. A MASHAV account says three clinics were manufactured in Israel to meet World Health Organization standards for Ebola treatment and were to be supported by Israeli medical experts who would train local professionals. It reports an Israeli pledge of $8.75 million and assistance to Cameroon and Sierra Leone, as well as emergency supplies for the African Union.[25] A separate contemporaneous report describes the “Complete Medicine” initiative as six mobile clinics for Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. Each container was to include 20 beds, protective equipment, a treatment cart, and medical equipment; the reported project cost was NIS 1.2 million, and local teams were to receive instruction in setting up the clinics.[26]

Pandemic assistance during COVID-19 was coordinated through Israeli diplomatic missions and the Foreign Ministry. In Cameroon, the embassy arranged local printing of face masks using a design developed by Israeli technology educators and funded the first 100 masks at a reported cost of $2,500. In Senegal, Israel planned public-health awareness and volunteer training and coordinated with ministries on donating an Israeli company’s geographic information system to monitor the epidemic.[27] Other reported assistance included protective equipment for medical staff in Myanmar; help buying protective equipment for cancer patients and people with special needs in Uzbekistan; medical or protective supplies, food packages, or educational training in Nepal, Rwanda, Zambia, Guatemala, Serbia, and India; heating equipment for a children’s home in Georgia; and training for Red Cross volunteers in Côte d’Ivoire.[27]

Israeli foreign aid can be described using different measures. MASHAV’s program budget is not the same as Israel’s reported Official Development Assistance (ODA), which is defined using OECD Development Assistance Committee criteria. Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) describes ODA as official transfers whose main purpose is economic development and welfare in eligible developing countries and that are concessional, with a grant element of at least 25 percent. Its measure includes bilateral and multilateral assistance and eligible humanitarian aid, technical cooperation, education and training, and specified refugee assistance. Military and security assistance is generally excluded, except for participation in peacekeeping forces.[2]

CBS reported Israel’s ODA at $408.9 million in 2021: $319.0 million bilateral and $90.0 million multilateral assistance. The annual series gives the ODA-to-GNI ratio as 0.085 percent in 2021, compared with 0.073 percent in 2020; the international comparison rounds these to 0.09 and 0.07 percent, respectively.[2] For 2022, CBS reported $521.0 million, comprising $473.9 million bilateral and $47.0 million multilateral assistance, with an ODA-to-GNI ratio of 0.10 percent. The reported components sum to $520.9 million, while the overall figure is rounded to $521.0 million.[28] CBS later reported 2023 ODA of $464.8 million, or 0.092 percent of GNI, without a bilateral–multilateral breakdown in that release.[29]

These totals include some assistance provided inside Israel. In 2021, approximately 36.78 percent of bilateral ODA was assistance to refugees and new immigrants during their first year in the country. Excluding that domestic component, bilateral assistance was $201.6 million.[2] In 2022, about 53 percent of bilateral ODA was attributed to first-year assistance to refugees and new immigrants in Israel.[28] CBS notes that counting refugee support within the donor country has been controversial, although it is an important part of some countries’ reported assistance.[2]

The composition of bilateral ODA also extends beyond MASHAV. In 2021, water and sewage supply accounted for 32.7 percent, assistance to new immigrants and refugees inside Israel for 30.5 percent, and education for 17.1 percent. The education figure includes support for students from developing countries studying at Israeli higher-education institutions; humanitarian assistance accounted for 1.1 percent of bilateral ODA that year.[2] By provider, water-sector organizations accounted for 32.6 percent of bilateral assistance, the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration for 25.0 percent, higher-education institutions for 12.4 percent, and MASHAV activity for 6.7 percent.[2]

Excluding aid provided within Israel, about 84 percent of 2021 bilateral ODA went to the CBS report’s middle-income recipient group, which includes Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. CBS says Israeli water transfers to residents there are included in ODA.[2] In 2022, about 86 percent of bilateral assistance excluding the domestic refugee component went to the same broad recipient group, and MASHAV accounted for about 7 percent of bilateral ODA.[28] Of the $90.0 million in multilateral ODA in 2021, 67.7 percent went through the World Bank Group and 28.0 percent through the United Nations and its organizations. CBS says the multilateral total is affected by Israel’s payment obligations to international organizations, usually transferred as recurring annual amounts.[2]

The UN ODA target adopted by the OECD is 0.7 percent of GNI. CBS reported Israel at 0.09 percent in 2021 and described it as low among reporting countries, without assigning a precise rank; the average for reporting Development Assistance Committee members was 0.33 percent that year.[2] A 2019 INSS study gives a different measure for Israel’s 2017 foreign-aid budget: $319 million, approximately 0.1 percent of GDP, and recommends increasing it. A separate INSS article gives a 2017 budget of NIS 20 million and 0.07 percent of GDP. The sources do not reconcile the divergent figures or their accounting scope.[6][17] A 2018 Globes opinion article, rather than a current official estimate, reported annual spending of approximately $220 million, or 0.07 percent of GDP, and argued that Israel should increase and better coordinate its assistance; it compared the figure with an article-reported 0.32 percent average for 35 OECD members and a 0.7 percent UN target.[30]

The Library of Congress study gives MASHAV budget figures of NIS 36.4 million for fiscal year 2011, about US$10.118 million, and NIS 47 million in approved expenses for fiscal year 2012, about US$13.5 million. It says MASHAV did not distinguish between bilateral and multilateral projects in allocating funds, which appeared to come from its general budget, while a separate authorization covered expenses dependent on joint-project funding.[3] These agency figures should not be treated as equivalent to national ODA totals, which include assistance from other providers and, under the CBS definition, qualifying assistance within Israel.[3][2]

Israeli aid has served both development and diplomatic purposes. The Library of Congress study lists MASHAV’s declared objectives as supporting economic and social development, growth, and poverty and illiteracy reduction, alongside promoting political contacts, strengthening trade and economic ties, and improving Israel’s image in recipient states, donor countries, and international institutions.[3] An INSS analysis says assistance has also been intended to secure support or reduce opposition in international forums. It quotes MASHAV head Gil Haskel saying political considerations are part of decisions about where to direct assistance, while cautioning that an unambiguous immediate connection between aid and political returns is difficult to prove.[17]

The development relationship is not the same as a guarantee of diplomatic alignment. A peer-reviewed study examined aid and UN General Assembly voting data from 2012 to 2021 for Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Uganda, and Tanzania. Its abstract reports that aid helped promote bilateral relations with the five East African countries but did not improve their voting patterns in Israel’s favor. The authors describe this as a duality and say it raises questions about the effectiveness of using aid to obtain favorable UN votes.[31]

Government and oversight accounts also identify questions about program planning and resource allocation. The Library of Congress study says MASHAV had not established predefined criteria for allocating resources and cites a State Comptroller finding that it lacked a clear action plan integrating the international agenda into its activities.[3] These findings sit alongside MASHAV’s stated principles of responding to local requests, consulting partners, and directing projects toward areas of Israeli expertise.[9][4]

The main interpretive question is how to describe the relationship between humanitarian or development aims and foreign policy. MASHAV’s stated principles include a claim that assistance was not to be conditioned on political considerations, while also expecting it to encourage understanding of Israel and friendly relations.[4] Other accounts explicitly list political contacts, trade, and Israel’s international image among the agency’s objectives, and INSS analyses describe aid as one part of a broader diplomatic and strategic toolkit.[3][17] Civilian development assistance should be distinguished from security assistance and arms sales, even where both have contributed to Israel’s relationships with recipient states.[17]

Several numerical and historical discrepancies remain unresolved in the cited material. Sources date MASHAV’s establishment or start of activity to 1957 or 1958.[1][5] Published cumulative participation totals also range from almost 200,000 to nearly 270,000 without sufficiently consistent dates and definitions for direct comparison.[9][5] The two INSS figures for the 2017 foreign-aid budget differ sharply and are not reconciled.[6][17] In addition, Israel’s ODA totals include some qualifying assistance to refugees and new immigrants inside the country, a method CBS notes is controversial; the statistical total therefore should not be mistaken for a measure solely of aid delivered abroad.[2]

Foreign aid to Israel is distinct from the assistance Israel provides through MASHAV and other development programs. A 1952 account of U.S.–Israel relations reports that the U.S. Export-Import Bank announced a $35 million credit on December 26, 1950, for a two-year expansion program in agriculture and fertilizer production. The credit was to finance American equipment and materials intended to help double Israel’s 1949 agricultural output by 1953. The account also says 1951 legislation provided $64.95 million in economic aid, including $50 million for relief and resettlement of Jewish refugees; military aid had not yet been determined in that account.[32]

A historical analysis reports that U.S. assistance averaged about $500 million annually in 1971–73, mostly military loans and small economic grants. It gives a total of $2.646 billion for 1974, when Israel first received military grants, followed by $823 million in 1975. It records a one-time $2.36 billion package in 1976 after the Sinai II agreement, $1.78 billion in 1977, and $4.91 billion in 1979 after the Camp David Accords, describing the 1979 sum as a one-time peace-treaty package; the figure for 1980 is $2.15 billion. The author frames such assistance as part of the U.S. role in supporting Israeli withdrawals and peace agreements.[33]

That analysis also describes later changes in the balance between civilian and military support. A May 1998 understanding linked reductions in civilian Economic Support Fund aid with increases in Foreign Military Financing, at 50 cents of added military financing for each dollar of civilian aid cut. A January 2001 U.S.–Israel memorandum provided for economic assistance to decline by about $120 million annually and phase out by 2008, while military assistance rose by about $60 million annually to approximately $2.4 billion in 2008.[33] The 2022 Israeli state prospectus says Israel receives U.S. military assistance and had received U.S. economic assistance averaging approximately $3 billion annually since 1987, including loan guarantees; it describes the Economic Support Fund as being phased out while Foreign Military Financing increased.[34]

The 2016 U.S.–Israel memorandum of understanding provides at least $38 billion in military aid over ten years, or $3.8 billion annually, according to the 2022 prospectus.[34] A 2025 opinion article describes the agreement as worth $38 billion through 2028 and says the 2025 Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act maintained $3.3 billion in Foreign Military Financing and $500 million for missile defense, while extending loan guarantees through 2030. It also reports that Secretary of State Marco Rubio used emergency authority in March to expedite approximately $4 billion in military aid.[35] These figures cover different periods and forms of assistance—loans, grants, military financing, missile-defense funding, and emergency aid—and are not directly comparable as a single continuous measure.[33][35]

The 1952 Luxembourg Agreement is another form of external funding with a distinct purpose: it concerned compensation for Nazi persecution, not ordinary development or military aid. Signed on September 10, 1952, by West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett, it pledged three billion Deutsche Marks to Israel in money and goods over 12 to 14 years. The account also says Germany agreed to pay 450 million Deutsche Marks to the Jewish Claims Conference; individual claims related to persecution or imprisonment were not affected by the agreement.