Israel Active

Tel Aviv municipality has restored the original marble seal of Sultan Abd al-Hamid II on the landmark 1903 Jaffa Clock Tower.  The seal was one of four on the structure and the only one that has survived the passage of time. In 2001, three glass replicas of the seal were installed to take the place of the three marble plaques that did not survive.

Travel & Leisure magazine has included Jerusalem in its list of top places to visit in 2017.  It writes “Jerusalem has now emerged as a culinary force to rival Tel Aviv”. It recommends the Mahane Yehuda Market and the new boutique Brown Jerusalem Hotel.

Israel has issued some beautiful, culturally-enhancing postage stamps depicting mosaics, King Solomon’s ships, tourism in Jerusalem and ex-President Yitzhak Navon.

Tel Aviv was the venue for a Bellator Mixed Martial Arts World Welterweight clash - the first time that an MMA world title has been fought in the Middle East.  Douglas Lima from Brazil beat Russia’s Andrey Koreshkov. The fight was broadcast to 140 countries. Great PR video!

Three Israelis won medals at the Ju-Jitsu World Championships in Poland.  Ron Cohen won silver in the men’s under-62 kg event; Nadav Mandil won bronze in the same event; Evyatar Paperni won bronze in the under-69kg category.

The Justin Bieber concert is now officially scheduled for May 3 at Tel Aviv’s HaYarkon Park. Bieber has sold some 100 million records, making him one of the world’s biggest selling artists.  The excitement can be too much for some, as this video of his 14/4/11 Tel Aviv entrance demonstrates.

The annual Hullegeb Israeli-Ethiopian Arts Festival 15-21 Dec will bring a bit of sunshine to a chilly Jerusalem. Hullegeb means “open to everyone/everything” and the festival is dedicated to creations by artists of Ethiopian origin in the fields of dance, music and theater.

I reported previously when legends of Rock Guns ‘N Roses with Axl Rose were last in Israel in 2012. They are returning in the summer (probably July 15) and this time are bringing guitarist Slash with them.

English punk-rock band “The Stranglers” performed some of their classic hits at Tel Aviv’s Charles Bronfman Auditorium on Nov 17, including “Golden Brown” and “No More Heroes”.

The hit Israeli TV series “Fauda” will soon be available for streaming on Netflix, which purchased the rights to it from Israel’s YES satellite TV company. “Fauda” (Arabic for “chaos”) is about a team of Israeli undercover counter-terrorism operatives.