Israel Update 25.7.19

 

FOCUS ON WATER TECHNOLOGY

 

Israeli company Watergen has just launched a new partnership with the community of Flint, Michigan, providing what could be the first large scale solution for drinking water by placing a 350 unit in the community church. In 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency found dangerous levels of lead in the water at Flint residents’ homes. Watergen’s technology has already been implemented in over 25 countries, including South Africa, Vietnam, Mexico and Sierra Leone…Its products range from smaller home or office appliances to large-scale, industrial units capable of generating 5,000 litres of water each day.  Read more here

 

A few years ago, in the middle of its worst drought in 100 years, Israel’s water reserves in danger. Now it has a surplus. The country’s water revolution was accomplished through a combination of a national campaign to conserve and reuse dwindling water resources and a new wave of state-of-the art desalination plants…the national water authority built innovative water treatment systems that recapture 86 per cent of the water that goes down the drain for irrigation use.  Read more here

 

CHILD OBESITY

 

Between 2009 and 2017 child obesity increased across the UK but fell 6.4% in Leeds – England’s 3rd largest city. This was due to the HENRY [Health Exercise Nutrition for the Really Young] initiative, developed by Professor Mary Rudolf of Israel’s Bar-Ilan University.(TY Michael)  Read more here

 

ISIS

 

Sayyaf Sharif Daoud, a captured Israeli-Arab ISIS fighter, told BBC Arabic on July 16, 2019, that he had joined ISIS instead of the Palestinian resistance because his experience living in Israel taught him that “Israel has not done one percent of what Bashar Al-Assad has done.” “Israel is a democratic state. I have not seen injustice there. We Arabs live together in Israel with the Jews. There is no injustice. We are treated just like the Jews.” Daoud also said that his father had warned him against joining Hamas and Fatah, and he expressed regret at having joined ISIS. He said he hopes that Israel will take him back so that his life can return to normal.   Read more here

 

GAZA

 

A Palestinian journalist has described how Hamas operatives take children in buses to protest against Israel at the Gaza border. “They bring children…and then encourage them to do whatever they can to get close to the fence…They [Hamas] exploit this to claim that Israel is killing our children.”   Read more here

 

Video published 25.7.19: How Hamas Exploits Children During the Riots on the Gaza Border. Watch here

 

Meanwhile, another side of Gaza:

Following an investigative report from Palestine Today where it was revealed that many chalet owners are not properly chlorinating their water in the pools, the Department of Preventive Health in Gaza City has launched a campaign to test the swimming pools  in public and private chalets to ensure that they comply with health and safety standards.  Read more here

 

IRAN & HEZBOLLAH

 

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon told the Security Council on Tuesday that Iran’s Quds Force has been using the port of Beirut to smuggle in dual-use items to advance Hizbullah’s missile capabilities. He presented the council with a map of the Hizbullah transfer routes and said the weapons transfers violated UN Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War.  Read more here

 

COUNTER TERRORISM

 

A Hamas supporting resident of the Israeli Bedouin city of Rahat, has been indicted for planning a terrorist attack against an Ashdod hotel. He was arrested in June with five hand grenades and a Carlo sub-machine gun.           Read more here

 

Police officers shot and injured a 21-year-old Palestinian who tried to stab them overnight Monday-Tuesday in Hadera.  Read more here

 

A PALESTINIAN HERO

 

Three years ago, an Israeli family were ambushed in their car by Palestinian terrorists. The driver, a rabbi, was shot and killed and the car overturned injuring his wife and children. A Palestinian Authority civil servant rushed to help the family, while other Palestinian drivers threatened him for helping Jews. Subsequently, he lost his P.A. job, he was shot at, his home was firebombed and he received multiple death threats. After his case was publicised recently on Israeli TV, many Israelis donated cash clothes and toys for his child and now the family’s permanent residency (in Israel) process is underway. Read more here

 

JERUSALEM DEMOLITIONS

 

Israel on Monday began the demolition of ten mostly unfinished and uninhabited Palestinian apartment blocks in eastern Jerusalem that were illegally built too close to the security barrier…An Israeli had court ruled that the construction constituted “a severe security threat and can provide cover to suicide bombers and other terrorists hiding among the civilian population.” …The buildings are situated on the Jerusalem side of the security barrier in an area the Israeli military haddeclared a buffer zone and where building was prohibited. Israel’s High Court rejected an appeal against the demolition orders by residents in June, and on Sunday dismissed another petition asking for a postponement, paving the way for the demolitions. Israel’s minister of strategic affairs and public security, Gilad Erdan, said thatthe court “ruled unequivocally that those who built houses in the area of the security fence knew that building in that area was prohibited, and took the law into their own hands,” Read more here

 

ARAB JOURNALISTS VISIT ISRAEL

 

Six journalists from Iraq and Saudi Arabia arrived in Israel on Sunday for meetings with Knesset members, Foreign Ministry officials and academics, and to tour the country.  Read more here

 

One of the delegation, Mohammed Saud, a Saudi told Israel Army Radio, “Israeli people are similar to mine, they are like my family. I love Israel and it was always my dream to visit Jerusalem.”  Read more here

 

However, on Monday, Saud was heckled, cursed, spat on and attacked with chairs being hurled at him by Palestinians during a visit to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City.  Read more here

 

MEDICAL

 

Rafael Pharmaceuticals has launched a phase-3 clinical trial on for pancreatic cancer at eight sites throughout Israel using the drug CPI-613.  Read more here

 

MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY

 

The Relivion migraine system, an Israeli headband that transmits electrical signals and stops migraine pain, has been approved by the European Commission for pharmaceuticals.The device is geared toward helping individuals who suffer from a range of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders.  Read more here

 

FOOD TECHNOLOGY

 

While lab-grown hamburgers and chicken are already in development around the world, Israel’s Aleph Farms claims to be the first company to have developed steak in a laboratory and is in talks with some high-end restaurants in the United States, Europe and Asia to have it on the market in 2021.  Read more here

 

INNOVATION

 

McDonald’s has acquired Israeli startup Dynamic Yield for $300m .Dynamic Yield will play a critical role in McDonald’s digital transformation, allowing it to become even more focused on the customer by deploying their technology in outdoor digital Drive-Thru menu displays, as well as other digital customer experience touchpoints, such as self-order kiosks and the McDonald’s Global Mobile App. Read more here

 

The annual Global Innovation Index ranks 129 world economies on 80 parameters including research, technology and creativity.Israel was placed 10th in the latest rankings, published yesterday.   Read more here

 

ISRAELI AID TO PUERTO RICO

 

The Israeli humanitarian aid organisation IsraAID arrived in Puerto Rico a week after Hurricane Maria, (even before the USA sent aid) and set up freshwater systems and psychosocial support for teens. Clean water accessibility had been a serious challenge  and IsraAID created a water-filtration device using rocks and soil that does not require electricity to run. Read more here

 

COMMENT & OPINION

 

Khaled Abu Toameh: The main reason the Saudi blogger was assaulted and humiliated during his visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque was incitement. It came mainly from the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS), a group affiliated with Fatah, and that has been described by some in the West, and even in Israel, as “moderate” and “pragmatic.” Spitting in the face of a Saudi blogger and cursing him as an “animal” and “Zionist” is not behaviour conducive to luring cash from his state — or any other self-respecting entity — that refuses to be slapped in the face while providing handouts. Read more here

 

Alan Baker:  By trivializing the oft-repeated Iranian declared intention to “wipe Israel off the map,” and, as such, by giving license to a blatant call for genocide and destruction of a sovereign, member state of the international community, Spanish Foreign Minister and nominee for the post of EU Foreign Affairs Chief, JosepBorrell would appear to have crossed all accepted lines of basic decency. In light of his irresponsible statement, his candidacy to head the EU’s foreign affairs department should be reconsidered.  Read more here