Israel Active

For the first time since the Syrian civil war began, Israel has formally opened its border for delivering humanitarian aid into Syria.  Moti Kahana, founder of Israeli NGO Amaliah, said that medicines, food and schoolbooks are transferred into a “Safe Zone” around Quneitra.

Israel's Wildlife Hospital has opened a blood bank for birds that arrive injured to the country during migration.  Hospital veterinarians realized that they could better treat the birds if they had a blood bank for them because, much like humans, birds have different blood types.

Rinat Avrahami Karniel is the first woman in Israel to become a power plant director. She has been appointed head of Ashkelon’s Rutenberg Power Station – one of the two largest in Israel.   Rinat has two master’s degrees and has worked for Israel Electric for 20 years.

Nechama Loebel, deaf since birth, has become the first deaf person to successfully become an Emergency Medical Technician in Israel.  She works for United Hatzalah and will be provided with alternate solutions to the audible stimuli that are necessary to properly treat injured and sick people at the scenes of medical emergencies.

Israeli international relief organization IsraAid has been helping West Virginia homeowners with the tremendous amount of damage caused by flash floods in June that killed 23 people and destroyed hundreds of houses.

Israel has renewed diplomatic relations with the Republic of Guinea that were severed in 1967 after Israel’s Six-day War with the Arabs.  The West African state has 10.5 million citizens, over 85% of whom are Muslim.

Paraguay’s President Horacio Cartes met with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Monday in Jerusalem during a three-day visit.  Paraguay is one of Israel’s best allies in international forums.

It has been reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently met with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of the African state of Somalia in the first high-level contact between the two countries.

Israel has launched a society that stresses mutual friendship between the Israeli Knesset and the parliament of Ghana. MK Avraham Nagosa will act as head of the society.  Inauguration guests included members of Ghana's parliament, Ghana’s ambassador to Israel and members of the Israel-Africa Chamber of Commerce.

The World Health Organization has expanded the use of the PrePex device made by Israel-based Circ MedTech, to all males over 13 years of age. Prepex allows medical workers in Africa to perform painless circumcisions to help stop the spread of AIDS.