Israel Active

Israel is at the top of the recycling league for recyclable bottles. 77% of glass bottles are returned, one of the highest rates in the world. In addition, 41% of larger plastic bottles, for which there is no deposit, were returned.

The level of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) has risen by two metres thanks to the winter rains and the contributions from Israel’s desalination plants at Ashkelon, Palmachim and Hadera. When the Ashdod and Soreq plants come on line at the end of 2013, Israel’s water crisis should be over.

Now there’s no need to wait for an undetermined amount of time for the Shabbat elevator to arrive. Shlomo Friedman has developed “BeeOnTime” tracking device that informs would-be elevator users in their rooms or apartments when it will reach their floor.

(thanks to Embrace Israel) A heart-warming true story about how teachers and staff at the Dolev School, together with her hosting family, helped Miriam undergo an amazing change. From being a seriously “at-risk” teenager, Miriam is now training to become a midwife.

Despite over 200 rockets from Gaza in less than a week threatening over one million Israeli civilians, couples in the South are still going ahead with the most important events of their lives. If the siren sounds, it’s up the isle and then down the shelter.

Whilst schools in the South of Israel were closed due to terrorist rockets from Gaza, the credit card company Isracard treated many children to a day at the Jerusalem Ice Festival.

Residents and visitors to Israel will have noticed the abundance of feral cats. The British brought them in during the mandate both as pets and to get rid of a rat problem. Now a new charity called “Meow Mitzvah Mission of Israel” is working to reduce the number of cats on the streets – humanely, of course.

According to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, Jews had no connection to Temple Mount. So why have a Greek inscription barring non-Jews from Temple Mount? And the ancient Hebrew inscription “Lebeit hatekiya” in the corner of the Mount, indicating the site where the shofar was blown?

Shifra Buchris has seven children and finds the time to take care of her family all while serving in Israel’s Border Police. “It is not uncommon that when I go out for nocturnal patrols, I get a phone call from my husband to come breast-feed the baby.”

They are one of the Jewish State’s seven biblical species so it was only right that Israel should host the first International Pomegranate Symposium. Speakers included Dr. Fathi Abd Elhadi, of Israel’s Pomeg-Tech and Ahsen Isik Ozguven, of Cukurova University in Adana, Turkey.