Israel Active

Germany’s public transportation company put Star of David stickers and “Shalom” on a Cologne tram, in blue and white, to mark 1,700 years of Jewish life in Germany next year.

MobileEye CEO Prof. Amnon Shashua and his wife Anat have launched the WE-19 foundation. It aims to grant NIS 100 million to small businesses and entrepreneurs who have suffered from the Covid-19 pandemic. NIS 50,000 will go to 2,000 startups, to give them a new lifeline.

The Israeli government is extending by 12 months Plan 922 - a multibillion-dollar program that aims to close economic gaps between Jews and Arabs in the country. $3 billion (a third of the budget) was unused. In addition, a further $1.7 billion will be added to the program.

The Israeli charity Value Sports has set up a new fund to support 100 sports clubs. It will provide financial grants for the clubs and scholarships for children whose families cannot afford participation payments. Sponsors include the Israeli Government and Sylvan Adams’ foundation.

Israel’s Accessibe (reported previously) is in the news again. Its CEO, Shir Ekerling, says that Israel was one of the first countries to legislate regulations for web accessibility. Accessibe helps make websites comply with International guidelines for the 1.5 billion people with disabilities.

The Software Report’s Top 25 Women Leaders in Cybersecurity of 2020 includes 7 Israelis. Yael Ben Arie , Sagit Manor , Ola Sergatchov , Yuval Lazar , Nadia Malinoff-Kan , Dr. Dorit Dor and Sigalit Shavit .

US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that Sudan will normalize ties with Israel, becoming the third Arab country to do so in recent months, after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. The news was confirmed in a subsequent joint statement issued by the three countries.

Saleh Abdullah was the flight captain of the first commercial passenger flight from the UAE to Israel. He said. "If someone asked me a few months ago if I would be here making a speech in Tel Aviv, I would have said this is impossible". The agreements include 28 flights a week plus chartered, cargo etc.

In the Bahrain capital, Israeli and Bahrain officials signed a joint communique on the new “diplomatic, peaceful and friendly” relations between Jerusalem and Manama. Ministers also signed Memorandum of Understandings on finance, investment, trade, tourism, communications, tech and agriculture.

The Abraham Accords and (ironically) the Covid-19 pandemic have opened new avenues of investment for Israeli and Palestinian Arab entrepreneurs in Judea and Samaria.