Israel Active

Sixty-six post-doctoral scholars from India will travel to Israel in the coming months to pursue research at top universities. The government of Israel announced three-year scholarships grants for outstanding Indian scholars.

Top Greek officials have been visiting Israel and presenting opportunities to invest in and own Greek infrastructure. Israel’s Elbit won the tender to buy the old Athens airport. Israelis have purchased a number of Greek hotels, and an Israeli company is in talks to buy Greece’s national oil company.

This important fact was missing in most other media reports on the recent International TIMSS scores for Israeli school children. Israeli-Arabs have improved so much that their math, science and reading standards now exceed those of Arabs anywhere else in the Middle East.

The Nazareth Hospital has become the first non-Jewish hospital to receive the annual Chairman of the Knesset award for its service to the predominately Arab community in Northern Galilee region of Israel.

A two-year old Palestinian Arab boy underwent a bone marrow transplant at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv. The Israeli Government funded the procedure in order to save the boy’s life, after the Palestinian Authority declined the family’s request to pay for it.

Second Lieutenant Nira Lee is the IDF’s assistant foreign liaison officer to international organizations in Gaza. During the latest conflict, she helped get a Gaza female aid worker to safety when sirens went off and the woman froze. The experience changed the woman’s perception of the IDF.

Israel has issued 20,000 permits to allow Christians to visit sites in Judea and Samaria during the upcoming Christmas holiday. This includes 500 for Palestinian Christians from Gaza. The Tourism Ministry is also providing free transportation by shuttle bus between Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

Of the 1,248 new graduate lawyers, 664 (53%) were female. Israeli Minister of Justice, Yaakov Neeman said, “It is moving to have all of you prepared to practice law in our Jewish democratic state”.

Maikel Nabil Sanad, a blogger and human rights activist in Egypt's Tahrir Square Uprising visits Israel for the first time to speak at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was the first political prisoner of the post-revolutionary government and spent 302 days in an Egyptian jail.

Canada and Israel have agreed to work together on international development and aid projects. Canadian minister Julian Fantino said that greater co-operation between their aid agencies, “will help those most in need and contribute to “a more secure and prosperous world.”