Experts Urge Israeli Organizations to Manage Dependency Risks After Venezuela Earthquake

A severe earthquake struck Venezuela about two weeks ago, causing extensive damage that will affect the country for years. While an Israeli delegation remains in Venezuela for an additional two weeks, experts are raising critical questions about Israel's preparedness for a similar event and its potential impacts. Noam Farkash, partner at GT Israel, emphasized that the real risk lies not just in the earthquake itself but in economic dependencies. He explained that in today’s globalized world, the greatest damage often spreads through long-established economic dependencies, affecting supply chains, energy exports, and international companies indirectly connected to the disaster.

Farkash pointed out that while many organizations map their suppliers, few understand their true dependencies, such as shared ports, shipping companies, cloud providers, or energy sources. This represents a fundamental shift from merely managing risks to managing dependencies across supply chains, infrastructure, information, energy, and business partners.

Ariel Pokotinsky, CEO of ECOWALL and an expert in industrialized construction, highlighted the importance of building envelopes in earthquake resilience. He noted that public discourse often focuses on structural strength and safe rooms, but the building’s exterior cladding also requires attention. In Israel, cladding systems are often attached mechanically after the structural frame is completed, unlike in many European countries where stricter seismic standards apply. Pokotinsky warned that failure in cladding systems could cause heavy panels to detach, posing serious risks to residents and the public, and called for regulatory updates to ensure building envelopes meet rigorous earthquake resistance standards.

In Israel’s high-risk environment, earthquakes also pose significant challenges to the insurance sector. Maor Eliasi, CEO of Orient Insurance Agency, explained that such disasters instantly alter the country’s risk profile. The insurance market must reassess coverage adequacy, pricing, and readiness to handle potentially unprecedented claims volumes. Eliasi stressed that earthquakes test not only infrastructure and emergency response but also the financial resilience of the state and the insurance market’s capacity to absorb shocks without passing excessive costs to policyholders.