Israel Active

It has as much chance as anything the PA leadership is doing. Watermelon and Israeli cheeses brought together Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem’s Musrara neighbourhood as part of the first annual “Between Green and Red” festival. It revives the atmosphere in 1967 when the city was re-united.

The sister of Gaza’s Hamas PM, Ismail Haniyeh, accompanied her husband for one week’s treatment in Beilinson Hospital four months ago. The sister’s husband chose Israel rather than Egypt, following a serious heart condition. (Are we crazy?)

Beit Issie Shapiro, Israel's leading special needs organization and global innovator of new therapies, has been awarded Special Consultative Status by the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Beit Issie Shapiro will provide Israeli expertise on disability rights and innovations.

Israeli President Shimon Peres received Angolan Minister of Foreign Affairs, George Chicoti and both agreed to strengthen the science and technology links between the two countries.

Four Indian navy warships arrived on a goodwill visit to Haifa to "strengthen service-to-service linkages", as the two countries celebrate 20 years of diplomatic ties this year. The Indian sailors will also be paying their respects at the memorial of Indian soldiers buried in Haifa. Haifa schools’ history textbooks include how Indian soldiers fought to liberate the city from the Ottoman Turks in 1918.

The IDF and the Civil Administration have facilitated the crossing of thousands of Palestinian Arabs to pray and hold family visits in Israel. Israeli medics are present at checkpoints and soldiers have been requested to refrain from smoking, eating and drinking in public – especially at crossing points.

B.’s partial paralysis in all four limbs made him exempt from the Israeli Defence Forces. But B. volunteered and was assigned to a highly classified Intelligence unit. Now B. has graduated from the IDF officers training course, receiving the Brigade Commander Decoration.

In the first part of this week’s “Walter’s World” with Walter Bingham on Israel National Radio, Walter visits the YVEL design centre of Orna and Isaac Levy. It has awarded scholarships to 21 young Ethiopian immigrants to train in jewellery manufacture and helps them find jobs in Israel.

70 US educators are visiting Israel as part of a leadership development program. They are participating in the REALITY Israel program in partnership with Teach For America. In Israel, they will meet with their counterparts in Teach First Israel, which has 143 teachers working in 33 schools across Israel.

This is a very interesting article by Richard Marceau, about a group of Quebec nationalists (not usually pro-Israeli) visiting the Jewish State. They came to learn from the country that has had arguably the biggest success in nation building in the modern world. Their impression? “Inspiring”.