Friday, May 18, 2012


NEWS ABOUT ISRAEL THAT YOU ARE UNLIKELY TO FIND IN THE MEDIA

·         A schoolroom desk that is light enough to be carried by two children but offers protection against earthquakes has been designed as a final project by students at Israel’s prestigious Bezalel  Academy of Arts and Design’s industrial design programme.  The desk is made of standard metals that are welded together in such a way that would enable the desks to be manufactured at a relatively low cost.  The design is competing for the 2012 Brit Insurance Designs of the Year award.
Bottom of
  Design duo Arthur Brutter and Ido Bruno
(De Zeen Magazine)
·         We have never thought Israel to be sufficiently ecologically aware when it comes to the recycling of waste products.  We are therefore delighted with recent developments in our Jerusalem suburb of Gilo.  For some years we did have in our road, a very ugly container for plastic bottles which are recycled into garden furniture.  This has now been replaced with a much more attractive one and a second placed at the other end of the road. We have also acquired containers for newspapers, at both ends of the road and now a huge one has appeared near to the ‘makolet’ (grocery shop) for the disposal of all kinds of cardboard cartons.  Things are looking up and we are pleased to see that our neighbours are making very good use of all of these which are full to overflowing by the time they are due to be emptied.  Glass bottles can be returned to the shops and one receives a very small cash reward for doing so but  Israelis still have to learn not to take so many plastic bags at supermarket checkouts but here again, there is an improvement with more and more people taking their own reusable cloth bags out shopping with them.   We now hopefully await containers for other waste products such as used batteries, leather goods etc. as we have seen on visits to the U.K.
·          For the third time in three days Israeli border police have caught Palestinians trying to sneak pipe bombs into Israel, on this occasion it was three bombs.  There have been four separate attempts by Palestinians to get bombs into Israel in the last month.  On May 4th two Palestinians were arrested trying to enter Israel with backpacks full of bombs and knives.  We are eternally thankful for our vigilant border police. (Taken from The Times of Israel)
·         Among the 120 soldiers honoured for excellence by president Shimon Peres on Israel’s Independence Day was an Arab living in East Jerusalem.  As far as he knows, up to now, he has been the only East Jerusalem Arab serving in the Israeli army.  Only a very few of his family members know about his army service and he never takes his uniform home with him.  “I wanted to serve, I wanted to defend the country, I wanted to serve in order to do something good and something good with my life,” he is quoted as saying. He serves in a Bedouin unit and has been certified as an army medic, it is a matter of great pride to him that now two of his brothers have chosen to follow in his footsteps and have also been drafted into the Israeli army. He hopes to continue his studies, possibly through the army’s higher education programme and one day, become a doctor. Before that, he is looking forward to serving as a role-model for his brothers and helping them through the difficulties of being a soldier in secret.  (The Jerusalem Post)


·         Millions of asthma sufferers can breathe a bit easier thanks to a number of research products coming out of Israel.  These include Or-Akiva’s  Deep Breeze which can be used in hospitals and at home for non-invasive treatment of asthma patients.  There is a portable Personal Wheezeometer from Karmel  Sonix Ltd. which can monitor and store breathing data to detect nocturnal and exercise induced asthma and a new, ‘green’ inhaler from Teva Pharmaceuticals.  Salt rooms can be of enormous help to asthma sufferers and Israel boasts a number of these and is the only country in the world where treatment can be received through national health insurance plans.  (Go to Israel 21C to read more about this subject and other Israeli medical innovations.)


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