Israel Active

Israel has allowed Gaza to import machinery to equip its first Coca Cola factory.  Israel allowed nine truckloads from Jordan to reach Gaza for an enterprise it hoped would provide jobs, by the end of 2015, for hundreds of people in the coastal territory.  Gaza already has a Pepsi plant.

IDF paratroopers' hearts went out to two Palestinian Arab children who approached their post asking for food.  After seeing the kids searching dumpsters, the paratroopers decided to give them bread, meatballs, fruit, vegetables, hummus and snacks that they had bought for their own lunch.

Shecodes, a network of around 4,000 female programmers in Israel has grown so fast in its first year it hasn’t even had time to finish its own website yet.  Its goal is that 50 percent of Israeli programmers will be female within a decade.  It has just held its inaugural 3-day hackathon.

The Israeli Navy has selected Captain Or Cohen to become the first woman appointed as an IDF Navy ship’s commander. Cohen will be first appointed as deputy commander of a navy vessel, and following that will go on to take the Navy’s advanced commander’s course.

“Tech for Good,” is an Israeli organization that promotes technology development to solve social problems. To actualize its goals, the group last week inaugurated The Rally, Israel’s first “social tech” accelerator that aims to solve social issues like obesity, cyber-bullying, teen pregnancy, and much more.

Israeli start-up app Dogiz is a social network for dog owners and it's building a marketplace where you can find a veterinary, dog walker, hair dresser and more.  It is described as a community app for people who love their dogs.

A new poll conducted by the Statnet Research Institute, headed by Israeli Arab statistician Yousef Makladeh, reports that 77 percent of Israeli Arabs preferred to live under Israeli rule than under the Palestinian Authority.  It confirms the results of a survey by Haifa University in late 2013.

Israel is the first country in the world to recognize the Arameans as a separate nationality.  There are 130,000 Aramean Christians in Israel – up from 60,000 in 1948.  The global estimate of Arameans is 1.65 million.

British Prime Minister David Cameron fired back at critics of Israel's "Jewish State Law" in parliament Wednesday, noting that Israel is one of the only countries in the Middle East which actually grants equal rights to all its citizens.  See the video at 17 min in response to an anti-Israel MP.

New ambassadors from Angola, Jamaica, the Philippines and South Sudan presented their diplomatic credentials to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem.  Many Israelis are involved in trade and/or humanitarian work in all four countries.