“Israel is of enormous importance to Europe in the domain of the new media,” stressed Dr Hubert Burda when explaining his great personal commitment to Ben Gurion University in Beer-Scheva in Israel.

Dr Burda founded the Hubert Burda Centre of Innovative Communications here in 1999. The centre has adopted the motto of Simon Peres, that is that people who talk to one another and do business with one another will not wage war against one another. Its aim is to promote intercultural exchanges between media scientists, interns, businesses and politicians.

One of the key events hosted regularly by the institute is entitled “Cool People in the Hot Desert”, to which it invites individuals from the most varied walks of life and from all four corners of the globe.