Israel Active

150 soldiers and officers of the IDF Paratroopers brigade have excavated a 2,700-year-old watchtower near Ashkelon, that was standing when the Jewish King Hezekiah ruled Judea. Archaeologists believe the tower was used to transmit messages via beacons.

At the Genesis Prize award ceremony in Jerusalem, New England Patriots owner, businessman and philanthropist Robert Kraft pledged $20 million, including his Genesis Prize money, towards combating online anti-Semitism, specifically among 18-35-year-olds.

Details of Honest Reporting’s 2019 Israel mission (Dec 18 - 26) to give non-Israelis the opportunity to discover the Israel that the media doesn’t report. 

I reported previously on Israel’s WaterGen and its technology to produce water from the moisture in the air. Visitors to Jerusalem’s Kotel (Western Wall) can now access a WaterGen machine at the Kotel plaza to produce pure cold drinking water.

The Academy of the Hebrew Language has published a list of 1,400 new words and phrases it recently approved. One unusual example, requested by environmentalists, is the waste product from extracting oil from olives. The new word is “mohal” and has its origins in Talmudic texts.

Marine archaeologists have found a 2,200-year-old maritime fortress off the coast at Tel Dor, south of Haifa. The site, mentioned in biblical texts, was built by a Hellenistic ruler during the period of the Hasmoneans. The fortress in underwater due to the sea level rising over the centuries.

Tens of thousands of flag-waving Israelis marched through Jerusalem to mark the unification of Jerusalem’s eastern and western sectors in the 1967 Six Day War. See Jacob Richman’s photos – click on the first link and then on the arrows. And worth watching the Six-Day-War video.

40,000 participated in the annual Celebrate Israel Parade in Manhattan. A delegation of diplomats from around the world took part, including UN ambassadors from Australia, Germany, Ukraine, Norway, Nigeria and several other countries. The theme of the event was “Rak B’Yisrael – Only in Israel”

A delegation of governors and congress members from Brazil were visiting the archaeological dig in Shiloh where the Jewish tabernacle was sited over 3,000 years ago. During the visit, a coin was discovered dating from the time of the Hasmoneans, some 2,000 years ago.

The city of Achziz in Northern Israel dates to the Israelite tribe of Asher in the Bible. It is also mentioned in the Book of Judges. Its beach has some breathtaking scenery.