· In the last 24 hours Palestinians have fired almost 100 rockets into southern Israel from Gaza . 25 rockets aimed at city centres were intercepted by the Iron Dome system. 8 people have been injured, one critically and there has been damage to property. Residents living within 40 kilometres of Gaza have been ordered to stay within easy reach of their designated safe rooms and away from windows. In some areas there is only 30 seconds between the sounding of the Red Alert signal and the arrival of the bomb. At the time of writing this, it had not been decided whether schools and businesses would be allowed to open tomorrow (Sunday)
· Israel’s new ambassador to Ethiopia, Belaynesh Zevadia, will be Israel’s first Ethiopian-born ambassador. She made aliyah aged 16 on a Jewish Agency scholarship to study at the Hebrew University. Zevadia, who has a B.A. in International Relations and an M.A. in Anthropology, joined the Foreign Ministry in 1993, she has served previously in the consulates in Houston and Chicago. Her appointment is a source of great pride to the Ethiopian community in Israel.
· A luxurious, royal garden has been discovered and recently reconstructed at an archeological site at Ramat Rachel in the south of Jerusalem. Using pollen that had been trapped in the wet plaster during renovations to the garden’s irrigation system, scientists have been able to reconstruct the garden to show what it would have looked like 2,500 years ago. Evidence of local trees and plants such as grape vines, fig and olive trees as well as imported species from distant lands were discovered, among them, Cedar of Lebanon, Persian walnut and imported citron and birch trees. Many of these trees need large amounts of water which was supplied by a sophisticated irrigation system which collected rainwater and distributed it, using pools, underground channels, tunnels and gutters. Researchers think that the ruling Persian authorities probably imported the exotic plants and trees from remote parts of the empire to flaunt their power.
· Some 1,000 Palestinians received hearing aids recently as part of a humanitarian project organized by American Friends of Sheba Medical Centre, the Starkey Hearing Foundation and the Physicians for Human Rights – Israel organization. A team of 20 doctors, medical students and a speech therapist set out on a three-day humanitarian mission to the West Bank city of Tulkarm where they conducted hearing tests and hearing aid fittings for those who needed them. The hearing aids, which were donated by the US- based Starkey Hearing Foundation and cost $1 million, were distributed later.
· A simple new blood test for detecting cancer has been developed by scientists at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and Soroka University Medical Centre in Beersheva. The simple new check shows a 90 percent detection rate in clinical tests for multiple types of cancers. The test can detect miniscule changes in the blood of a person with a cancerous growth somewhere in the body, even before the disease has spread. Early diagnosis of cancer could save thousands of lives and increase the chance of successful treatment.
· The world marked International Mother Tongue Day last month and a delegation from Lapland visited the Hebrew University to learn how to preserve and rehabilitate an ancient mother tongue that hasn’t been used for quite some time. The ancient Lapland language, Sami, has been dormant but now there is a demand to revitalise it. The delegation met with Hebrew University President, Prof. Menachem Ben-Sasson, who assured them that a century ago, no one believed that Hebrew could become a living language again. The delegation visited an ulpan (Hebrew language school for immigrants) to learn the most efficient ways to teach their people their own forgotten mother tongue.
(Thanks to The Huffington Post, The Jerusalem Post and Israel 21C for some of this information.)
