Israel Active

Israeli, UAE and Bahraini female diplomats held a "Women in Diplomacy Network" panel event to examine the role of women in diplomacy. It marked 20 years since UN Resolution 1325, which calls for the active inclusion and participation of women in promoting peace and security.

Israel is the best country for women entrepreneurs worldwide, according to the Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs (MIWE) for 2020. Israel tops the charts for the first time, advancing from fourth place in 2019. Israel plans to double the number of female entrepreneurs by 2022.

Israel’s Ben Gurion University, together with Indian firm Aban Offshore, is establishing an agricultural research institute in Chennai, India. It will allow Indian students to earn degrees in agriculture from BGU including hydrology and water quality, desert studies, and ecology and conservation.

Israel is home to the largest collection of animals in the Middle East. At Ramat Gan Safari, 1,600 animals no longer have any visitors; some enjoy the peace and quiet, but others really appreciate the extra attention from their keepers and conservationists.

The first Jewish-Arab-Jerusalem Hackathon took place in Margalit Startup City (reported previously), home to dozens of high-tech companies. 20 young entrepreneurs took part in a new initiative by Jewish and Arab entrepreneurs to build new projects for the benefit of Jerusalem.

I had not realized previously that Mansour Abbas, head of the Arab-Israeli Ra’am party, is deputy speaker of Israel’s Parliament – the Knesset.  And he seems much more moderate than the other parties in the Joint Arab List, as this latest news article shows.

On Dec 3, the city of Jerusalem and other Israeli cities will illuminate iconic buildings in purple in honor of the International Day of Disabled Persons. The Jerusalem buildings include the Chords Bridge, City Hall and Teddy Stadium.

When Yakov Pizenberg was 17 he began delivering left-over pastries from an Ashkelon bakery to elderly people and Holocaust survivors in the city. Now 21, he has founded “Youth for an Equal Society” which, mostly via the telephone and zoom, aids some 400 lonely, elderly people in Ashkelon.

Tel Aviv has been ranked as one of the seven most wheelchair-friendly cities in the world by London-based “Truly Belong” magazine. It reported that: “The eclectic city has made great strides in recent years to become fully accessible to people with disabilities.”

An Israeli-led resolution, “Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Development,” was passed by an overwhelming majority of 144 nations by the United Nations Second Committee. The resolution calls for efforts to incentivize environmentally and socially sustainable solutions.