Israel Active

The shortage of infant food in the USA is extremely serious for premature babies and for infants dealing with food allergies and sensitivities. Israel’s MyOr (see previously) has applied to the US FDA for approval to ship 200,000 cans of formula immediately, with plans for a further 250,000 cans a month

President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen was in Israel to strengthen the EU’s relationship with Israel. “I came to Israel to make our unique partnership even stronger, by deepening our bilateral cooperation on many topics, from energy to health and innovation,” she said.

Research firm Startup Genome has ranked Tel Aviv and Jerusalem together as the fourth best startup ecosystem in the world for agriculture technology in a global survey - the only Middle East country in the top 35. Tel Aviv was also ranked as the seventh best global tech ecosystem.

Israel hosted 400 young leaders from 34 countries at the 2022 Forbes Under 30 Summit EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa). One of the four days had Israeli Arabs, Jews, and Palestinian Arabs, working together, and with Israeli startups, on 10 projects to address challenges facing the Middle East.

Israel's Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, has been  elected Vice President of the UN General Assembly.  As part of this role, Ambassador Erdan will chair General Assembly meetings and take part in setting the agenda for General Assembly deliberations.

The Paris Conference “Israel Back in Africa? Challenges and Opportunities,” hosted diplomats from Senegal, Egypt, Morocco, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, and Somaliland. There were entrepreneurs from Nigeria and Cameroon and Nigeria’s Releaf signed an agreement with Israeli NGO VIP (see ).

70 Israeli and 70 British disabled veterans competed against each other in the fourth annual Veteran Games in Tel Aviv. As part of the program, the participants also went on tours of Israel, including Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and the Dead Sea.

I don’t often include blogs in my newsletter, but the positive messages in this interview by Jonny Gould with Mohammad Tawhidi are well worth reading.

Artists 4 Israel (see previously) sponsored an event in a National Day of Action against hate and anti-Semitism, inspired by the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. Artists all over the world spread messages of tolerance and love using just chalk and stencils.

On World Oceans Day, the European Union delegation to the State of Israel, the French Embassy, the Municipality of Bat Yam, and hundreds of Israeli volunteers performed an official clean-up of Bat Yam beach, south of Tel Aviv, as part of the annual #EUBeachCleanup campaign.