Israel Active

Beit Issie Shapira has won Microsoft Israel’s “Innovate for Good” competition for its “IssiePlay” app for computer tablets.  IssiePlay is an imaginative game with accessibility features for children with disabilities.  Beit Issie benefits 30,000 Israeli disabled children and adults.

(Thanks to 12Tribe Films) This is a beautiful video of Erez, an Israeli boy with special needs, who is introduced to a horse on a farm in Israel.  Erez is one of 150 Israelis with “Williams syndrome” – a disorder in which sufferers have problems connecting with others. ?

Israel’s Adi Altschuler has been named one of Time magazine’s six “Next Generation Leaders.”  27-year-old Adi has created “communities of kindness” through the establishment of Krembo Wings, a nationwide youth movement that runs after-school activities for children with disabilities.

(Thanks to Robyn) I almost missed this article by Charles Abelsohn – founder of “Truth be Told”.  I had assumed from the title that it was anti-Israel.  I couldn’t have been more wrong.      

On 27th Sept, three seriously wounded Syrian children were brought to the Ziv Medical Center in Safed. They were treated at the trauma unit and were expected to undergo surgery when their condition stabilizes.  Ziv has treated 376 Syrians.  On 28th Sept, a severely wounded 10-year-old and a wounded man in his twenties were brought to a Northern Israel hospital.  On 2nd Oct, Poriya Hospital in Tiberias received a 23-year-old Syrian man with shrapnel wounds – its 106th Syrian patient.

Israel has spent over 32 million shekels (about $9 million) treating 1200 wounded Syrians, despite a severe shortage in hospital funds. IDF and Health ministry officials state that the treatment of Syrian wounded is viewed as being of the highest humanitarian nature.

A group of trauma therapists and sufferers from Northern Ireland recently came to see the world-famous Trauma centers of Israel at work.  Northern Ireland Assembly member, Michael Copeland, said it was “one of the most moving experiences of my life”.

When Professor Richard Horton, editor of UK medical magazine “The Lancet” was criticized for publishing an anti-Israel article, he decided to visit an Israeli hospital himself.  Seeing Jews and Arabs treating and being treated at Haifa’s Rambam hospital may open his eyes and his mind.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was delighted to meet with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi in New York – the first meeting between leaders of the two countries in 10 years.  PM Netanyahu invited PM Modi to Israel, in what would be a first for an Indian Prime Minister.

The US Senate unanimously adopted the United States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act.  81 of the 100 Senators co-sponsored the legislation, which will lay the foundation for expanded US-Israel cooperation in defense, energy, agriculture, and a number of other key sectors.