Israel Active

I reported previously about the secret operation to get a blood marrow donor for a Syrian girl being treated for cancer in Israel.  The six-year-old girl has now recovered and has been released from hospital.

A soccer camp for Israeli children (50 Jews and 50 Arabs) featured a tournament in which the kids were split up into six different teams, each representing a “world cup” country. The tournament was all the more unique for being held in the Israeli-Arab town of Baqa al-Gharbiyye.

From October, the IDF will award full academic scholarships to combat soldiers, immigrants, minorities and the underprivileged upon their discharge.  They will be funded from donations to the IDF. It is hoped to eventually extend the scholarships to all service personnel.

Aharon “Ronny” Leshno-Yaar presented his credentials as Israel’s first ambassador to the 28-member NATO military alliance. NATO announced upgraded ties with Israel in May, recognizing an official Israeli representative and granting Israel a permanent office at its Brussels headquarters.

The entrance to Jaffa was turned into a makeshift bus station as hundreds of Palestinian Arabs arrived in private buses to spend Eid al Adha in Jaffa and the adjacent beaches.

Nigeria’s Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Onu, went on a 4-day official visit to Israel, to stimulate the Technology Acquisition and Transfer initiative.  He was accompanied by the Heads of Nigeria’s Space R&D and Environmental Sciences and Technology.

A delegation of eleven Victorian Coalition MPs took part in AIJAC’s Rambam Israel Fellowship Program. They were especially impressed by Ben Gurion University’s social entrepreneurs, OurCrowd’s “Our Innovation Australia Fund” and Australia’s Landing Pad in Tel Aviv.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation poll of almost 900 social enterprise experts in the world's 45 biggest economies ranked Israel as the fifth best nation (after the US, Canada, Britain and Singapore) for social entrepreneurs – people who use businesses to tackle social problems.

A new mall for Jews and Palestinians Arabs has opened at the Gush Etzion junction in Judea and Samaria.  Muslim women wearing hijabs and traditional dress, shopped alongside religious Jewish women in skirts and scarves tied over their hair.

The ExcelHT program from Israeli NGO IT Works provides much needed manpower to Israeli hi-tech companies while providing employment opportunities for the Arab sector. ExcelHT provides career counseling, coaching, English language skills and much needed business contacts.