Tel Aviv Mayor Believes Russian-Speaking Community Great Benefit For Israel

Faizan Hashmi Published October 20, 2018 | 03:37 PM

Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai believes that the Russian-speaking community is a great benefit for Israel helping to establish cooperation, attract tourists and exchange experience with Russian cities, particularly with Moscow.

TEL AVIV (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th October, 2018) Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai believes that the Russian-speaking community is a great benefit for Israel helping to establish cooperation, attract tourists and exchange experience with Russian cities, particularly with Moscow.

"We can always take advantage of the ties that were kept by repatriates from the former Soviet Union who came to Israel," Huldai told Sputnik in an interview.

Huldai noted that a twin-town agreement between Moscow and Tel Aviv had been in effect for almost 20 years. It helps the Israeli side use the city-planning experience of the Russian capital thanks to contacts of the Russian-speaking colleagues.

"Moscow's experience was useful when we decided to build a park in place of residential buildings, but at the same time we wanted to preserve housing. We recalled that Moscow knows how to 'move' buildings, we sent Russian-speaking colleagues there.

Our experts spent some time in the Russian capital, where the owners did not hide their secrets from them. As a result, we successfully conducted an operation to move buildings," he said.

Almost half of Tel Aviv residents speak Russian, the mayor said, talking about the development of the tourism industry and the high stakes being made in Israeli cities to receive Russian guests.

"Muscovites have long left Parisians and Londoners behind in terms of the frequency of visits to our city. Moreover, tourists from Russia usually come with their entire families and feel very comfortable with us, because they can almost everywhere speak their native language," Huldai added.

Huldai said that he planned to come to the Russian capital next year and discuss new plans for cooperation in the innovation sphere with Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin.