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Israel Update 1.1.20

INNOVATION

Celebrating a decade of life-changing Israeli inventions from Waze to cancer-busting nano-ghost cells and 3-D printed hearts, a look at some of the most amazing Israeli technologies and inventions of the past 10 years – those that are already impacting the way we live and those that have the potential to change our lives and health .Read more here

DEFENCE

Israel’s new Light Blade laser system is intended to shoot down incendiary balloons, kites and drones before they enter Israeli territory from Gaza. The laser can engage targets day or night with an effective range of 2 km, can be installed on a small trailer or truck, and will also be deployed along the northern border with Lebanon. Read more here

 

GAZA

 

After a Gazan rocket, intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome system, was fired at Ashkelon where P.M. Netanyahu was holding an election event, on Wednesday night last week, IDF jets and helicopters attacked several Hamas targets in Gaza on Thursday in response. Read more here

 

Some 1,800 Gazans took part in a demonstration along the Gaza Strip border last Friday, with dozens rioting and clashing with Israeli soldiers, in the last of the planned mass protests until March. Several threw rocks and explosives at the soldiers who responded with riot dispersal means. Read more here

 

The organizers of the Gazan demonstrations near the border with Israel have suspended the protests until the end of March 2020.  A Gazan activist said “fatigue” was also behind the decision. Read more here

 

PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY  &  ORGANISATIONS CONTINUE TO REWARD TERRORISTS

 

Israel’s Security Cabinet approved withholding an additional $43 million from the funds it collects on the PA’s behalf over the payment of salaries to attackers and their families during 2018. Israel says the “Martyrs’ Fund” rewards and encourages violence. Read more here

 

More than 130 Palestinian organizations have refused to sign an EU grant request that stipulates that recipients must refuse to transfer any EU assistance to terrorist groups, claiming such Palestinian groups are merely “political parties.”  This gives credence to a report by Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs that EU institutions had awarded millions of euros in financial aid to Palestinian civil society organizations that have ties to terrorist entities.  Read more here

 

EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS FUND ANTI-ISRAEL ACTIVITIES

 

Several European governments donated funds to organizations specifically for fighting Israel in international legal forums, including the International Criminal Court (ICC). Among these governments are Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, France and the EU. Meanwhile, some Israeli NGOs said they made attempts to present Israel’s case before the ICC but were ignored. Read more here

 

CO-EXISTENCE

 

In Israel’s mixed Jewish-Arab cities in the last municipal elections, Arabs running on national party lists or as independent candidates were elected to city councils, and they all, without exception, joined the municipal coalition governments. In every mixed-population city, one finds close cooperation between Jews and Arabs at every level of municipal activity. A study found that 81% of Jewish residents of mixed cities described relations with Arab residents as good, and 89% of the Arab residents described relations with Jewish residents as good. Read more here

 

Israel’s Southern district is often under fire from Gaza terrorists, but is also flourishing and developing. Thousands of Gazans work there daily. Israel is investing huge sums of money and resources in opening doorsand closing gaps for its Bedouin residents, including, but not limited to – funding education, health care, affirmative actions and ease of entry to higher education. As a result, an ever-increasing number of Bedouin students are attending Israeli colleges and Ben Gurion University. Read more here

 

ISRAELI AIR FORCE  (IAF)

 

Lt. Tav was the only woman to graduate this year from the IAF pilot’s school.Growing up in Jerusalem,  Tav said that although many religious women chose other forms of national service, she never questioned whether she’d enlist in the military.    Read more here

 

ECONOMY

 

Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics  reported that the Israeli economy grew 3.3% in 2019. Read more here

 

MOOVIT

 

Israeli-founded urban mobility company Moovit now has over half a billion users of its popular public transportation application in 3,000 cities, 94 countries and 45 languages. It helps transits and commutes thanks to partnerships. Read more here

 

TESLA

 

US-based electric carmaker Tesla is entering the Israeli vehicle market  this month, opening a pop-up store in the Ramat Aviv mall.    Read more here

 

ELECTRIC SCOOTERS

 

The Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality has issued a series of unprecedented new safety regulations for electric scooter companies. These regulations, reportedly, the first of their kind in the world, include equipping electric scooters with helmets, installing licence plates, recycling used batteries, lowering the speed of the scooters in certain areas, and preventing the usage of scooters in restricted areas.  Read more here

 

COMMENT & OPINION

 

FOCUS ON THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

 

On December 20, 2019, Fatou Bensouda, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, announced: “I am satisfied that war crimes have been or are being committed in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.”

 

Col. Richard Kemp: The ICC prosecutor accuses Israel, during the 2014 Gaza war, of using disproportionate force, willfully killing and injuring civilians, and intentionally attacking protected individuals and locations. She also alleges that the IDF committed war crimes against Gazans violently attempting to breach the border into Israel in 2018 and 2019. I was present during these conflicts, witnessed, and was extensively briefed on IDF operations. I was a member of an investigation into the 2014 Gaza war by the High Level Military Group, an independent body of retired generals from Western armed forces and human rights experts. The group unanimously concluded that: “The IDF not only met its obligations under the Law of Armed Conflict, but often exceeded these on the battlefield.”  Gen. Martin Dempsey, at the time Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, commented: “Israel went to extraordinary lengths to limit collateral damage and civilian casualties.” Read more here

 

Omri Ohayon, an Israeli soldier who was fighting in Gaza during the 2014 war, said, “You cannot compare the only democracy in the Middle East with a terror organization like Hamas.” “I can testify that in many cases shelling of civilian buildings was called off simply because we found out that there were civilians inside. At times we were too cautious, and it would cost us our soldiers’ lives,” he said, recalling an incident when a Hamas militant attacked his squad while hiding behind civilians…., we did everything in our power to save human lives and avoid unnecessary casualties.” Read more here

 

J.Post Editorial: ICC Chief Prosecutor Bensouda barely paid lip service to Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups’ modus operandi of attacking civilians, laundering their crimes by calling them “armed groups.” Moreover, she put Israel, which never targets civilians, on equal footing with the murderous terrorists.The Palestinian Authority petition to the International Criminal Court was funded by European countries that funnelled money to organizations that claim to be human rights groups but which, in reality, exist purely to trash Israel…These countries need to decide: Do they want a negotiated settlement or punitive unilateral Palestinian action? Read more here

 

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL – RESEARCH BY DAVID COLLIER

 

Amnesty International has an institutional hostility towards Israel that borders on obsession, visibly attacking Israel more frequently and with far more energy than it does any other nation. It is as if Amnesty has declared war on Israel.In research commissioned by Jewish Human Rights Watch, I found that an Amnesty media manager advised Palestinian terror groups like Hamas not to publicly identify their martyrs if they were lost in an action, but rather have the West believe the fallen were innocent civilians…Amnesty… employs people with a history of anti-Israel activism, then sends them in as “unbiased human rights workers” to report on what is happening.Read more here

 Read the full report here