Israel Active

Forbes is to hold its Under 30 Summit EMEA in Israel. 600 young entrepreneurs and game changers from across the world will take part in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv events 2-7 April 16. The game changers include 200 from Europe, 200 from the US and 200 from Israel.

New video of some of the thousands of refugees from Syria arriving daily by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos, hoping to find a new start in Europe. Waiting for them on the shore is a rescue team of doctors and nurses, both Arab and Jewish, from the Israeli humanitarian organization IsraAid.

Supermarket magnate Rami Levy is building a $50 million shopping mall in the Israeli-Arab town of Al-Ram near the Palestinian Arab city of Ramallah. Levy anticipates that Jews and Arabs will be attracted to shop at the mall and will travel from both Jerusalem and Ramallah.

In 2015, over 8,000 new participants visited the 20 employment centers set up for the Arab, Druze, and Circassian populations throughout Israel. 13,600 people found jobs through the centers and 24,000 have received assistance. 68% of visitors found work – far more than the government’s 56% target.

Forsan Hussein and Ami Dror are the Muslim and Jewish Israeli cofounders of Zaitoun Ventures. They build and invest in companies either cofounded by Jews and Arabs or with diverse employees, including Myndlift, Sidis Labs, Ninispeech, Comedy Break, Teramount, Galapromter and IceCure. Zaitoun is poised to invest about $100 million in 2016.

The Israeli government is to spend NIS 55 million ($14 million) on programs to improve the job prospects of at least 3,600 Ethiopian immigrants. It will focus on job training, academic programs, and grants to employers for hiring Israeli workers of Ethiopian descent.

Israel’s first ever basketball league for people with special needs has been launched in Jerusalem. There are many special needs basketball teams throughout Jerusalem and Israel, but until now there had been no official or organized framework for such teams.

Israel will spend around 13 billion shekels ($3.3 billion) over the next five years to improve the standard of living of its Arab minority. Investment will be boosted in education, infrastructure, culture, sports and transportation in Arab areas.

Israel21C has produced a map showing all the top locations where Israel offers aid to people in need around the world.

iPhone and iPad users will know about Siri - Apple’s speech-recognition robot. Now Siri (Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface) will be available in Hebrew in March.