Israel Active

Israel is one of the few countries outside of the European Union whose “green passports” have been recognized by the EU and UK. It means that Britain now accepts Israeli visitors without requiring them to have negative Covid-19 tests before arrival in the United Kingdom.

Here is the story to accompany last issue’s photo of the check-in desk at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport. Gulf Air flight GF972 was the inaugural flight for the new Tel Aviv-Manama route that will include two weekly return flights between Israel and the Kingdom of Bahrain.

On the beach in the village of Shavei Zion in the Western Galilee, three Arab and three Jewish lifeguards have been working together from sunrise to sunset, every day, since March 15.

Bedouin Arabs from the Jahalin tribe in Judea and Samaria turned one of their tents in Khan al-Ahmar into a sukkah (tabernacle) and invited Jews to enjoy Bedouin hospitality during the Sukkot holiday.

Daniel Putterman co-founded Environmental Fitness, combining exercise and beach trash removal. He has personally adopted the 5,000-acre Nitzanim Sand Dune Nature Reserve, running up to three times a week, while hauling a sand sled to collect the trash.

Israel’s Shalva Band of musicians with disabilities performed “A Million Dreams” for the World Health Organization (WHO). They helped promote its Regional Committee for Europe online Conference on the highest attainable standard of health for persons with disabilities.

Despite recent forest fires, the 2021 Global Tree Assessment reports that 45 of Israel’s 65 wild tree species are in the “Least Concern” category. 30% of the rest of the world’s 58,497 known tree species are threatened with extinction but only one Israeli tree - the Negev tamarisk is categorized as “endangered”.

The Israeli Embassy in Vietnam has distributed 500 packages of food and basic hygiene products to some of the weakest families on the outskirts of Hanoi, Vietnam. The coronavirus pandemic has caused destitution and each of the packages contains enough to sustain a family for one week.

Israel has risen from 8th place to 4th in the annual Digital Quality of Life Index 2021 (see for 2020 ranking). 110 countries were ranked on digital wellbeing based on factors such as internet affordability (Israel 2nd), quality (11th), and e-government services (29th).

Israeli-French-American Holocaust survivor and historian Saul Friedlander was one of the recipients of this year’s Balzan Prizes, for scholarly and scientific achievements. The prize, and 750,000 Swiss francs, was for his work broadening the perspective on the history of the Holocaust.