Israel Active

A new underground sewage pipeline now connects Nofim, Yakir, Etz Ephraim, Sha’arei Tikva and soon Ma’aleh Shomron, bringing all of their effluent to a treatment facility in Eliyahu. But for political reasons, the PA has refused to connect Palestinian Arab villages to the system.

Eli Beer founder of Israeli rescue service United Hatzalah has been speaking to global business leaders at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland – while al-Jazeera’s documentary about Hatzalah has been simultaneously wowing Arabs worldwide.

Oren Almog lost five members of his family as well his eyesight in the 2003 Maxim Restaurant suicide bombing in Haifa, where 21 people were killed and 51 were wounded. Nine years after the atrocity, Oren walked up to the ceremonial stage unassisted by either a walking cane or a seeing-eye dog, and swore an oath to the IDF to the applause and the tears of everyone in attendance.

Obvious really, but this latest report from the Bank of Israel really emphasises how the Palestinian Arab leadership failed its people by the violent outbreak in 2000.

The Civil Administration, part of the IDF, is working with the Palestinian Authority to launch environmental projects and raises awareness in Judea and Samaria.

KKL funded Arava Research and Development and Britain’s The Portland Trust are setting up a program, with the Ramallah and Gaza based firm Harvest Export, for Palestinian Arab agricultural students to learn from Israeli experts how to grow products in sandy and saline water conditions.

Corporal Daniella Stepanoe is an IDF weapons instructor, and travels from base to base training everyone from paratroopers to elite Special Forces units in the use of their weapons.

Miriam Yassin, 60, a resident of the Palestinian Arab village of Anin, was only 15 when she was injured in the six-day war. Hezi Erez, now 75, was an IDF junior commander and dropped everything to take the girl to the hospital. Miriam said, “I always tell my children about how I was injured, and about the Jewish man who saved me."

Famous Israeli chef Shaul Ben Aderet embarked on a 24-hour visit to Istanbul in order to cook live on Turkish TV. Aderet said, “Good food created a bridge between cultures and reconciliation to overcome anger.”

Little is heard about the Lappi minority of Northern Norway who are asserting their rights to their own language and culture. A delegation of the Lappi minority living in northern Norway will arrive in Israel next month for a first-of-its-kind visit in a bid to learn from the Israeli experience of reviving the Hebrew language and passing it on to the younger generation.