BY
RAKESH MOHAN CHATURVEDI
, ET BUREAU | UPDATED: JUN 12, 2017, 12.44 AM IST
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will once again address people of Indian origin overseas when he speaks at a community event during his three-day visit to Israel in July. As many as 4,000 Jews from the country settled in Israel are expected to attend. His last such event was almost a year ago in Kenya.
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s foreign department headed by Vijay Chauthaiwale is engaged in elaborate preparations for the event that will be held on July 5 at the Convention Centre in Israel’s capital Tel Aviv. Modi will be the first Indian PM to visit Israel.
“We expect a crowd of around 4,000 Indian Jews, who migrated to Israel, to attend the programme,” Chauthaiwale told ET.
An estimated 70,000 Indian Jews belonging to four different communities — Bene Israel, Cochinis, Baghdadis and Bnei Menashe — are settled in Israel. Around 10,000 nurses from the country, who hold Indian passports, are temporary residents working there.
Many of them, hailing mostly from Kerala, are also likely to attend.
Entry will be free. The organisers are hopeful that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu will also attend the programme. In November 2015, Modi was accompanied by the then UK Premier David Cameron when he arrived on stage at Wembley stadium to address a crowd of around 60,000.Modi’s past addresses in the US, UK, South Africa and elsewhere have seen enthusiastic crowds drawn by his oratory.
In Johannesburg, South Africa on July 9, 2016, Modi had invoked Mahatma Gandhi and talked about satyagraha to Indians settled there. His address at Madison Square Garden in New York in September, 2014, and at San Jose in 2015 drew huge crowds.
The last such event addressed by the prime minister was in Nairobi, Kenya, on July 11, 2016, where he said terrorism is an “anti-humanity” menace. This was preceded by Mozambique (July 7, 2016) and South Africa (July 9, 2016).
Singer Sukhwinder Singh will perform at the Israeli event as part of various cultural programmes.
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