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Israel Update 24.8.23

During these difficult times in Israel, a reminder that domestic politics are outside the scope of this Update. HRG

 

TERROR ATTACKS

 

Aviad Nir, 28, and his father Silas (Shai) Nigreker, 60, from Ashdod, were shot and killed at a car wash in the Palestinian town of Huwara on Saturday. According to Palestinian reports, the Palestinian who shot the two made sure they were Jewish and not Israeli-Arabs before opening fire. Read more here

 

 

Batsheva Nigri, a kindergarten teacher and mother of three was shot dead and Aryeh Leib Gottlieb was seriously wounded in a terror attack on the vehicle in which they were travelling, close to Hebron on Monday. Her daughter (12) who was also in the car escaped injury. On Tuesday Israeli security forces arrested two Palestinian suspects in Hebron and seized an M-16 assault rifle, suspected to have been used in the attack.Read more here and here

 

 

COUNTER TERRORISM

 

 

This month, IDF Combat Engineering forces entered a Palestinian weapons storage site and confiscated three pistols, a rifle, and various other weapon parts, printed on 3D printers. An IDF spokesman said that these were entirely functional weapons and that this was a phenomenon that they hadn’t previously encountered. Read more here

 

 

CO-OPERATION WITH FISH FARMERS IN THE P.A.

 

 

Israel is helping fish farmers in the Palestinian Authority increase the volume of the fish they breed, providing financing, equipment, fish food, water treatment filters, and training by Israel Ministry of Agriculture experts for two main projects in Tulkarm and Jenin. Further, Israel has been cooperating and transferring knowledge to the Palestinians in the fields of veterinary medicine, forestry, plant protection, marketing, and agricultural imports. Read more here

 

 

CO-OPERATION WITH EGYPT

 

 

An Egyptian intelligence delegation, including a top intelligence agency official and a North Sinai security chief, recently travelled to Israel to discuss security issues and economic cooperation. They discussed new measures agreed upon in the aftermath of the killing of three Israeli soldiers by an Egyptian conscript in March.
They also discussed energy cooperation and reconstruction in Gaza.Read more here

 

 

Israel on Wednesday said it will boost natural gas production from its offshore Tamar field by 60% and increase exports to Egypt by an additional 38.7 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas over 11 years. Read more here

 

MEDICAL CO-OPERATION

 

Ocular oncologists from Israel’s Sheba Medical Centre are working with colleagues in Kabul and Lahore to get children with deadly eye cancer out of Afghanistan for critical treatment in Pakistan. The project is currently supported financially and logistically by Sheba Global, the international division at Sheba Medical Centre, and by a British nonprofit. The fact that Israel does not have diplomatic relations with Afghanistan or Pakistan is not standing in the way. Read more here

 

MEDICAL INNOVATION

 

 

Curaspec based in Yehud-Monosson in Israel, claims that its unique device, Nephrospec, can postpone the dialysis treatment of stage three and four CKD (Chronic kidney disease) patients by up to 12 months. The treatment promotes new blood-vessel formation and restores damaged tissue function after six painless treatment sessions over a three-week period.  read more here

 

 

DEFENCE

 

 

Kibbutz Sasa in northern Israel, has a dairy and a chain of ice cream stores, and grows kiwi, apple, avocado and grapefruit. It’s also home to Plasan, world leader in armour protection technology for military vehicles. Plasan has signed contracts worth billions of dollars with the US Army, among others. Read more here

 

 

 

Elbit Systems will supply its multilayered ReDrone counter-drone system to the Netherlands in a deal worth $55 million. The system cuts off the drone’s communication with its operator and blocks its use of GPS. Read more here

 

 

In 2016, Israel became the first country to use the highly-computerized US produced F-35 aircraft operationally and soon became successful in solving most of the operational and maintenance glitches which had caused concern among prospective buyers. Scores of Israeli solutions to F-35 glitches have been shared with U.S manufacturer Lockheed-Martin and the U.S. Air Force. Read more here

 

 

RENEWABLE ENERGY

 

 

Enlight Renewable Energy has launched the largest solar-storage fusion project in Israel with its Sde Nitzan venture. From January 2024, the project will empower the sale of electricity to corporate clients. Enlight has recently struck agreements with Amdocs and SodaStream a subsidiary of PepsiCo, to supply green energy. The 15-year deal with SodaStream will power all of its production facilities in Israel with 100% renewable energy by the start of 2024. Read more here and here

 

 

 

INNOVATION

 

 

 

Wint, an Israeli startup that develops leakage detection technology using artificial intelligence to prevent water damage, has secured $35 million from investors which will be used for expanding its global footprint in key markets in the US, UK, Israel, and EU. Among current clients and users of Wint’s smart water meters are the Empire State Building, Suffolk Construction, Brasfield and Gorrie, Microsoft, HP, PepsiCo, Azrieli Group, and the Weizmann Institute. Read more here

 

 

RWANDA

 

 

A unique “coworking space” for farmers in drought-stricken Rwanda will soon offer local growers a sustainable way to produce crops. The unique site, including its purpose-built water source and an energy network, was designed by Israeli precision irrigation pioneer Netafim  and built in cooperation with Rwanda’s government. The Gabiro Agribusiness Hub is located in a region of Eastern Rwanda on land that was previously not suitable for farming. Read more here

 

 

 

ECONOMY

 

 

Israel’s economy sustained its solid growth in the second quarter, beating expectations with consumer spending bouncing back after a slow start to 2023, data from the Central Bureau of Statistics showed on Wednesday. “Israel’s economy is performing relatively well considering various headwinds and GDP continues to grow in line with its pre-pandemic trend,” said Liam Peach, senior emerging markets economist at Capital Economics.  Read more here

 

 

 

MINORITIES IN ISRAEL

Lina Ezberga, 23 has become the first woman in the Bedouin town Kuseife to qualify as an ambulance driver after arduous training in the MDA emergency medicine medics and ambulance drivers course. She started volunteering at MDA around six years ago. Read more here

 

 

 

The employment rate of Israeli-Arab men rose from 72.1% in the first half of 2022 to 76.4% in the first half of 2023, Israel’s Ministry for Social Equality reported Sunday. During the same period, the employment rate among Israeli-Arab women rose from 42.1% to 44.7%. The ministry attributed the increases to government programmes that promote occupational orientation and professional and technological training. Read more here

 

 

 

TEL AVIV

 

 

The Tel Aviv Light Rail began running on Friday. The 24-km. (15-mile) Red Line has 34 stations, including 10 underground stops, and runs from Bat Yam through Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Bnei Brak and Ramat Gan to Petach Tikvah. Half of the route goes through an underground tunnel. By the end of the day, some 100,000 passengers were reported to have used the line. Read more here   and here

 

 

 

SPORT

 

 

Israeli windsurfers Shahar Tibi, 25 and Katy Spychakov, 24 won the gold and silver medals respectively for the women’s iQFoil category at the Sailing World Championships in the Netherlands in a significant achievement for the Israeli national team.    Read more here

 

 

Israeli Lia Shalov won a gold medal at the Under-16 Jiu Jistu World Championships in Kazakhstan. Photo here

 

 

The AFI-American Football in Israel flag football team won a bronze medal at the recent European Championships. Photo here

 

 

Netanya is to host the World Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships 4-9 September 2023 at the Wingate Institute. Over 600 young swimmers from more than 100 national federations are expected to compete.Read more here

 

 

 

VIDEO GAMES

 

 

Three Israelis recently competed in an Gamers8 international video game tournament in Saudi Arabia, with two of them playing on one of the winning teams. They entered the country on Israeli passports and received visas from local authorities. Although Israel and Saudi Arabia don’t have official relations, Israeli journalists, businessmen and others have increasingly been allowed to visit the Islamic kingdom in recent years. Read more here

 

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

 

Gal Gadot’s spy thriller “Heart of Stone” released August 11th, is number one on Netflix in 93 countries, including in six Arab nations: Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman. Several of those countries have in the past banned the Israeli star’s films  including “Wonder Woman,” in which she played the lead role. Read more here

 

 

 

MUSIC

 

 

In the month of Elul, news of Amit Sofer, a talented trumpet player who has transformed the traditional Shofar into a versatile musical instrument. Embedded video in this article. View here and here

 

 

OPINION POLL

 

 

According to a poll conducted by the Washington Institute with the Palestine Centre for Public Opinion in July 2023, 50% of Gazans would support normalizing relations with Israel were Saudi Arabia to do so. However, 65% of West Bank residents reject this proposal.
47% of Gazans say the Abraham Accords have had at least a somewhat positive impact, versus 29% of West Bankers.
42% of Gazans agree that “I hope someday we can be friends with Israelis, since we are all human beings after all.”
In the West Bank, the corresponding figure is just 30%.
At the same time, 63% of Palestinians in eastern Jerusalem, whose residents have daily contact with Israelis, agree at least “somewhat” to possible friendship with Israelis someday. Read more here