Israel Active

Israel’s President Reubin Rivlin held a soccer event at the presidential residence, inviting children and soccer stars from around the country to participate in an effort to raise awareness against violence and racism.

Newsletter readers already know the truth of that statement. Now it has been incorporated into the “Shalom Declaration” circulated by UK Christian organizations. The declaration is expected to be signed by more than 800 Christians at a gathering in London, UK later this month.

Palestinian Arab men over 55 and women over 50 no longer need a permit to enter Israel from Judea and Samaria to work. Married men over the age of 22 can also now apply (previously only married Palestinian Arab men over 24 who had children could work in Israel).

Two hundred Gazans travelled in buses to Israel via the Erez crossing, to Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. (as reported in the Arab press)

The goal of Israel’s B the Change Competition is to promote startups to improve quality of life for millions of marginalized people. So look out for these winners - ESCO (supports startups) KitchenBug, MobileODT (affordable healthcare), Tulip Winery and VoiceITT (for speech-impaired).

Israel has opened its first embassy in Lithuania. The embassy is in the capital Vilnius (Vilna) where Jews comprised a quarter of the population before WW2. Israel’s first ambassador to the Baltic nation is Amir Maimon. Lithuania’s embassy in Israel opened in 1992.

European representatives praised Israel's actions over the past few months to promote reconstruction in Gaza and ease the humanitarian crisis in the Strip. They complimented Israel's cooperation with the UN, Israel's doubling of the water supply to Gaza and the ease on export restrictions from the Gaza Strip to Israel, the West Bank and abroad.

Only in Israel could an Israeli-Arab be the Chairman of the Election Committee. (Video credit to Sharon Altshul - )

This article about Apple CEO Tim Cook’s visit to Israel focuses in on Israeli-Arab Johny Srouji, Apple’s vice president for hardware technology.

May, Chen and Shir maybe triplets, but Shir was born brain-damaged. 19 years later, May and Chen joined the IDF. Thanks to the JNF-supported Yad Layeled Hameyuchad's "Special in Uniform" program, which integrates young people with disabilities into the IDF, Shir wasn’t left out.