Israel Active

Israeli success at debating championships continues. Roy Schulman and Elaye Karstadt from Jerusalem ‘s Hebrew University won the 2019 World University Debating Championship in the English Second-Language category. The contest was hosted by the University of Cape Town.

Israel’s Shalva band reached the final group competing for the right to represent Israel in May’s Eurovision Song Contest. The group, consisting of two blind singers and other “special” band members won their semi-final but withdrew due to Eurovision demands to rehearse on the Jewish Sabbath.

University of Haifa Professor Fuad Fares is a biomedical scholar and entrepreneur from Hurfeish, a northern Galilee Druze village. He founded and directs the Department of Molecular Genetics at Haifa’s Carmel Medical Center and lectures at Israel’s Technion Institute.

Israeli UN ambassador Danny Danon hosted a delegation of 40 UN ambassadors in Israel. He showed them the City of David and the Jewish history of Jerusalem, the Hezbollah terror tunnels and how small Israel was and therefore the challenges it faces.

On 21st Jan (Martin Luther King Day) the United Nations elected Israel as Vice-Chair of the 19-nation Committee on NGOs, which oversees the work of human rights groups. Other committee members include Bahrain, China, Cuba, Pakistan, Russia, Sudan, Turkey and USA.

David Mataen of OurcrowdAfrica says Israel is the perfect “beta” country to test ideas, being small and secure. Israelis adopt new concepts early, with the most time spent on the Internet. Israel has the most cellphones and engineers per capita and a massive 4.5% of GDP is spent on research and development.

ELTA Systems (part of Israel Aerospace Industries) is to supply ELM-2311 compact multi-mission radar systems to the Finnish army. The radars will help locate and track incoming rockets, artillery shells and mortars, and alert the army’s counter-weapons systems.

The Israeli Embassy in Santiago, Chile initiated a four-day workshop on managing mass-casualty events. 100 members of the Chilean ambulance services, firefighters, army, police, local hospitals and City hall councilors participated in the simulation led by Magen David Adom.

The NGO TiME (This is My Earth) founded by Israel’s Uri Shanas, has purchased a marine area off the coasts of Belize containing corals with several endangered species. It is TiME’s third land purchase and first ocean site. The area will become a locally managed nature reserve.

Israel was the only country in the world to send a team to help search for survivors of the collapsed mining dam in Brumadinho, Brazil. The 130-member IDF search and rescue team recovered many bodies and tracked down a group of 15 people, believed dead but very much alive and well.