Israel Active

Tel Aviv University has produced the second-most unicorn ($1 billion+) companies in the world, based on where their founders went to college. Stanford was the highest, but TAU was next, even beating UK’s Oxford University.

Israel is planning a 100-billion-shekel ($27 billion) high-speed rail line from Kiryat Shmona in the north to the southern city of Eilat 400km (250-miles) away.

Israel’s Arkia is starting flights from Tel Aviv to Sri Lanka in Oct. Meanwhile, El Al is to begin a Tel Aviv to Fort Lauderdale (Hollywood International) service in April plus six seasonal flights this year. However, the recent Jeddah to Tel Aviv flight, for Israeli passengers from the Seychelles, was a one-off.

The Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial R&D (BIRD) Foundation is granting $8 million for 9 joint hi-tech projects. The Israeli startups are , Agromentum (), AlvaLinks, ContainerEyes, , NeuroTrigger, Oshi (formerly Plantish), , and .

The Israeli Knesset has passed the "Angels Law". It grants tax benefits to investors in the local high-tech industry as well as incentives for purchasing other tech companies based in Israel. Benefits take effect immediately. Foreign firms also get benefits for lending to Israeli startups.

In 2020, 25% of Arab women aged 30-34 held academic degrees, double the percentage in 2010. In 2023, 45% of Arab women were employed, up from 33% in 2014. Among Haredi men, employment has reached 56%, up from 52% in 2014.

Unemployment in Israel fell in July to 3.4%, the same as it was in Feb 2020 before the Covid crisis. The employment rate for Haredi men in Israel is at an all-time high of 55.8%

Amazon.com has announced plans to invest 26 billion shekels (about $7.2 billion) in Israel through 2037. It also heralded the launch of its Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers in Tel Aviv, which gives customers the option of running their applications from data centers in Israel.

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Israel’s has been acquired by U.S. company Rubrik for an estimated . UK’s Wireless Logic is acquiring Israel’s for at least . Israel’s has acquired Israel’s for around .