Israel Active

A team of 20 Israeli volunteers from IsraAID is the first foreign NGO to arrive in quake-struck Italy. IsraAID is building temporary shelters for homeless families, distributing food and other items, and providing grief counseling. Israel has also offered to send search and rescue teams.

Israel’s Sodastream was subjected to major boycott campaign when it employed hundreds of Palestinian Arab workers at its Maale Adumim site.  Since that factory closed, it has moved to the Negev where it now employs hundreds of Bedouin Arabs.

For centuries, Kurdistan was once home to thousands of Kurdish Jews.  Nowadays, the Kurds tend to see Israel as a role model for an independent Kurdistan; a small nation surrounded by enemies and bolstered by a strategic partnership with the United States.

Everyone knows that Ben-Gurion International Airport is one of the most secure airports in the world and in the Middle East .  Now a recent poll of Travel+Leisure readers’ has ranked it as the world’s sixth best global air hub.

The Center for World University Rankings, based in Saudi Arabia, has ranked The Hebrew University of Jerusalem at number 26 of the 25,000+ degree-granting institutions in the world. The annual rankings also place the Hebrew University at number 1 in the Middle East.

Dulan abu-Saleh, the mayor of Majdal Shams, the largest Druze town in the Golan, told Makor Rishon that the UN Economic and Social Council’s recent statement on the area was “a total joke.” UNESCO had accused Israel of imposing economic and social hardships on his community.

A new Palestinian Media Watch report reveals the truth that Palestinian Arabs rather work for Israelis than the Palestinian Authority. Israelis pay twice the wages; Israeli law protects employees (no exploitation or middlemen) and Israeli working conditions are much better.

Whilst the global media misreports water issues in the Palestinian territories, the UK is funding two joint Israeli-PA water research programs.  “Stream” finds solutions to water problems.  “Growth” brings Palestinian Arabs to Israeli labs to study water technology.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Reuben Rivlin and ex-President Shimon Peres laid the cornerstone for the Israeli Innovation Center.  Thousands of interactive screens, will showcase the Start-up Nation and host an entrepreneurial hub for Israelis of all ethnic and social groupings.

Eighteen Ethiopian young men and women have received Lapan scholarships to fulfill their dream of becoming nurses.  The Hadassah program helps new immigrants, provides jobs, and strengthens health care in Jerusalem.