Israel Active

Druze Professor for Hebrew Literature Naim Araidi is Israel's new ambassador to New Zealand. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said after the appointment, "Araidi represents the beautiful face of Israel, in which a talented person, irrespective of religion or sector – can reach the highest places on merit, and be an inspiration for all Israelis".

From an initial 120,000 students, eighteen completed Israel Education Ministry's unique high school project for "super gifted children". They included Israeli-Arab Arij Hatib, from the town of Majdal Krum.

(Thanks to Israel21c) 30-year old Pnina Gaday Agenyahu is the first Ethiopian-born member of Israel's Council for Higher Education. She is also Hillel director at Tel Aviv University. She arrived in Israel aged three, following her family’s trek across Sudan.

Mehmet Burhan Gül was matched with a bone marrow donor from Israel. “Everybody should learn a lesson from this donation, which was made without any discrimination of religion, language or race,” said Gül (same surname as the Turkish President).

Israel is to support USAID’s “Feed the Future” initiative in Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Rwanda. MASHAV, Israel's Agency for International Development Cooperation will supply the agricultural expertise in agriculture production, research, irrigation and water technologies.

In 1970, only 10% of Arab women had jobs in Israel. Today it is around 20%. However, whilst the Jewish State has given opportunities to Arab women, cultural difficulties in their families prevent job numbers reaching the levels common in Jewish families. An interesting Bank of Israel study and highlights the further improvements (and expenditure) that the Israeli government is making.

Please read these articles in the Malaysian Insider - by Abdul Haleem Abdul Rahiman and Farish A. Noor. I cannot comment further, as my last praise for the Malaysian opposition party leader got him into trouble (Search on Google for “Michael Ordman Malaysia”)

Israel was chosen by top European police officials to host the annual International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) conference in May, marking a historical first for the country. The three-day conference will take place in Tel Aviv and will include 200 representatives from 50 countries.

Some 20 foreign diplomats to Israel joined KKL-JNF on Wednesday for a tour of several different Negev research sites. They were very keen to get hold of some of the drought-resistant seeds being developed by the organisation.

Over the last 12 months, China has changed its official approach to the Jewish State. The Arab “spring” caught the Chinese government off-guard politically. Also, the country wants to change industrially from “factory” to “innovator”. Israel has become important to solving both issues.