Israel Active

Palestinian Arab engineers working for Israeli chip designer Mellanox Technologies are poised to share in a $3.5 million payout when the company’s takeover by U.S. chip supplier Nvidia Corp is completed. They will cash in stock options worth up to $40,000 per person.

Israeli startup Sindyanna of Galilee produces fair trade olive oil. But its aim as a non-profit is to communicate the messages of hope and peace from Arab and Jewish women working together.

Israel’s Council for Higher Education has approved a $40 million plan to encourage academic excellence and leadership among Ethiopian-Israeli students. The initiative aims to increase the number of Ethiopian-Israeli bachelor’s degree students by some 40 percent in five years.

Over 800 people from 22 countries participated in Access Israel’s 7th International Conference. A key focus was accessible technology and included sessions at Tel Aviv’s accessible beaches, the Wingate (sports) Institute near Netanya and Jerusalem’s Old City.

Professor Maoz Fine of Israel’s Bar-Ilan University has set up the Red Sea Transnational Research Center to help try to save global coral reefs. The center brings together experts from Israel and seven Muslim countries - Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Eritrea, Sudan, Yemen, and Djibouti.

After Hurricane Maria, IsraAID distributed food and water filters to remote Puerto Rican communities. They operated mobile health clinics, treated trauma victims and trained medical staff. But it is two long-term projects (water and resiliency) that have transformed Puerto Rican lives.

A great summary of the work of Israeli NGO Innovation: Africa which has brought clean water and electricity to over a million villagers in rural Africa.

This video produced for World Environment Day on 5th Jun, highlights Israel’s progress with renewable energy, wastewater recycling, desalination. Israel promotes the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and works with many countries in their efforts to achieve them.

Israel again demonstrated its work to save rare species.  Two rare golden lion tamarin monkeys were born at Jerusalem’s Biblical zoo. Thanks to efforts like that of Israel, the population of these monkeys has risen from 80 in 1980 to around 3,200 today.  Also five Griffon vultures were hatched.

In the first meeting of its kind, the US national security adviser, and his Russian and Israeli counterparts will meet in Jerusalem to discuss regional security issues and Syria in particular.