2016 / 2017

THE ANGLO-ISRAEL ASSOCIATION

1 WHO WE ARE

FOUNDER COUNCIL The Late Brigadier General Lady Sainsbury (Chairman) Sir Wyndham Deedes, CMG, DSO Lady Anderson Sir Andrew Burns, KCMG HON PRESIDENT The Earl of Balfour CONTENTS HE The Ambassador of Israel Mrs E Corob Dame Vivien Duffield, DBE Chairman’s Message 5 HON VICE-PRESIDENTS Mr JM Greenwood Mr M Green Mrs M Park Shimon Peres: A Great Statesman, a Tragic Politician 6 Mrs L Hochhauser The Marquess of Reading Mr J Marshall Mr D Sumberg New Beginnings, stronger ties by HE David Quarrey, HM Ambassador to Israel 10 Mr GR Pinto The Lord Weidenfeld Lady Sainsbury The Rt Hon The Lord Woolf, PC Jews and the Temple Mount 12 Mr A Yablon EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE (TRUSTEES) Doves and Hawks in the Israeli Political Debate 18 The Lord Bew (Chairman) DINNER COMMITTEE Mrs J Atkin Lady Baker (Co Chairman) Palestinians: The Power Struggle between Young Guard and Old Guard 20 Lady Baker Mr A Reeve (Co Chairman) Mr R Bolchover (Co-Deputy Chairman) Ms L Diamond Ethnic Harmony in an Israeli City you never heard of 23 Miss B Dingle Mr B Streather Professor D Hochhauser (Co-Deputy Chairman) Mrs E Tarling UN has Lost Credibility, Integrity Due to Unfair Treatment of Israel by Yair Lapid 24 Mr D Kessler Mr H Lewis FCA (Hon Treasurer) EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Palestinian terrorism and Muslim hypocrisy: An open letter from a Muslim woman 25 Ms O Polizzi Mrs Ruth Saunders Mr A Reeve In the News 26 Mr B Streather Mrs E Tarling Israel’s First Master of Wine 29 Mr T Vince Brits on tour to the Start-up- Nation 30

Innovations from Israel 32 FOLLOW THE ANGLO-ISRAEL ASSOCIATION ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER AT: ‘Catch the Jew’ 48

‘A Reflection’ 50 facebook.com/AngloIsraelAssoc/ @AngloIsraelAssn The Eleventh Anglo-Israel Colloquium 52

Debating Matters Israel 56

7th Ambassadors’ Round table 58 ANGLO-ISRAEL ASSOCIATION Informal Fallacies and Israel Discussion 60 PO Box 47819, London NW11 7WD

T: 020 8458 1284 F. 020 8458 3484 E: [email protected] Florentin 64 www.angloisraelassociation.com

Registered Charity No. 313523 ‘Why do Foxes, Jackals and Hyenas cross Israel’s Highway1? 68

The articles in this magazine reflect the views of the authors and not necessarily those of the Anglo- The Improbable Happiness of Israelis 70 Israel Association. If you have a comment on any of the articles or on the magazine in general, we would be pleased to hear from you. Letters or emails should be addressed to the Editor and sent to email: [email protected] or The AIA, PO Box 47819, London NW11 7WD

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2 3 HAIRMAN’S

MESSAGEC Alas, I have to begin with the state of the Labour Party in the wake of the Chakrabati report. To say the least, controversy concerning anti-Semitism in the party is still alive. The respected journalist Dan Hodges wrote in mid-August ‘casual anti-Semitism amongst Corbyn supporters is now ASSISTING BY DONATING so widespread it is no longer possible to argue it is a small TO WELLBEING AND minority’. This is the real problem. The exotic use of small change historic factoids in order to obscure the significance PREVENTATIVE MEDICINE CAUSES of deeper and more profound realities is only a symptom. To those of us familiar with the traditions of the British Left this is a profoundly shocking development and, it can only be hoped, a temporary one. In his new memoir Benedict Anderson notes that four major WISH THIS FUNCTION Jewish scholars of nationalism – Kedourie, Smith, Gellner and Hobsbawm, despite widely differing places on the left right spectrum, loved the United Kingdom as a tolerant SUCCESS multinational state with no time for fascist and anti-Semitic extremism. It is an ideal worthy of preservation. FOR NOW AND IN THE FUTURE As for Israel itself, the tough neighbourhood remains as tough as ever. That said, the opportunities for diplomacy are far from extinguished. Despite the boycott activists, trade with the UK continues to grow. We can only insist, not that reasoned criticism of Israel ceases but that it ceases to be based on double standards. The work of the AIA is more important than ever. It is vital to combat confusions and historical distortions. I appeal again to our friends to help us in this effort.

Lord Bew Chairman of the Executive Committee

4 5 SHIMON PERES: A Great Statesman, a Tragic Politician

Shimon Peres, who died at the age of ninety-three, was to choose sides, Ben-Gurion decided to abandon Israel’s a one-of-a-kind biological and historical phenomenon. neutrality and to place the two-year-old country square- After all, other than Peres, can we name a single person ly in the American-led camp. The decision was costly—it who played a major role in the creation of a new state and earned Israel decades-long hostility from both the Soviet who some sixty-five years later held what is formally the Union and Communist China. highest office of the state he helped create—the state’s The second decisive move took place when, by 1954, it presidency? Indeed, while rarely if ever are there clearly became clear that due to its broader regional and global right or wrong answers in the realms of history and poli- interests, the United States was not yet prepared to be- tics, one college exam question about Israel’s history that come Israel’s primary arms supplier. Assessing that Israel has only one correct answer is: name two individuals who and France shared the same security threat—Egypt’s new contributed more than anybody else to Israel’s existence. president Gamal Abdel Nasser inspired Arab masses with The correct answer: David Ben-Gurion and Shimon Peres. pan-Arab rhetoric centered on hostility to Israel, and with Publically, Peres liked to refer to David Ben-Gurion as anti-colonial rhetoric that centered on hostility to Brit- the grand master and to call himself the student. But in ain and France—Israel shifted its pursuit of an external reality, while Ben-Gurion was the grand strategist, Peres big-power ally from Washington to Paris. was the one who executed: he made it all happen. During The decision to bet on France was Ben-Gurion’s, but the Israel’s formative years—the late 1940s, and through the execution was left entirely to Shimon Peres. Within less 1950s—Peres built at least three pillars of the grand strat- than two years, and still in his early thirties, Peres planted egy that Ben-Gurion had designed. He was also in charge all the seeds of a full-fledged military alliance that result- of managing the inbuilt tensions between these pillars. ed in the launching of a major war: the 1956 Suez-Sinai The first of these pillars was self-help: the Jewish state War. The alliance lasted more than twelve years, and was would not rely on others’ good will for its security and sur- only gradually replaced by significant U.S. military assis- vival. And so, as a very young director general of Israel’s tance after 1970. Ministry of Defense, and later as its deputy minister, Peres A less remembered chapter in Peres’s contribution to Isra- set out to create the country’s armament industry, first the el’s security and survival was his critical role in an equal- Israel Military Industry (IMI) and later its Israel Aircraft In- ly important relationship established by Israel during the dustry (IAI). 1950s: that with West Germany. Barely a decade after the The second pillar of Ben-Gurion’s grand strategy was the Holocaust, in an effort to avoid becoming an economically pursuit of an alliance with a major power. The first deci- failed state, Israel sought reparations from West Germany. sive move he made in that direction was to side with the This met with huge resistance in Israel—from the far left West. Although Israel’s creation was supported by to the far right—by Holocaust survivors and many others both Truman’s America and Stalin’s Rus- who argued that it was immoral and unethical to accept sia, when in 1950 the War in financial compensation from people who perpetrated the Korea forced Israel greatest horror ever inflicted on the Jewish people.

6 7 For Ben-Gurion, however, the Holo- with Israel should include the supply of the West Bank—first by supporting insufficiently patriotic. Consequent- caust imposed a different moral im- of a twenty-six-megawatt nuclear re- the construction of Ofra, not far from ly, time after time he was defeated in perative: to prevent such a catastro- search reactor in Dimona, close to a Jerusalem, and later with his visit to the polls by his right-wing opponents, phe from ever happening again. And small development town. Thus, the Sebastia, then an illegal settlement who accused him of being prepared to the only insurance policy Ben-Gurion eight-year-old ministate launched a close to Nablus. Until then, Israeli “divide Jerusalem.” saw as effective against the recur- nuclear project that until then no one settlements in the West Bank were Thus, Peres’s political life story pre- rence of such a catastrophe was the other than the great powers would confined to sparsely populated areas sents the most glaring example of a existence of a robust Jewish state. And dare to attempt. that were deemed a security impera- phenomenon we see all too often in if the latter goal required the accept- tive by the post-1967 so-called “Allon To do this, Peres had to overcome the Western democracies these days: ance of German financial support, the Plan.” strong opposition of two of Israel’s the inverted relationship between the imperative was well worth surrender- most formidable power centers—the In the mid-1980s, Peres’s attempt to essential properties of a great lead- ing a measure of ethical purity. Ministry of Finance and the IDF—as prevent the need for coming to terms er and what it takes to get elected Together with Ben-Gurion, Peres well as the skepticism of the young with the Palestinian Liberation Organ- to a position of leadership. His de- launched a major campaign in Israel, country’s small scientific community. ization by reaching a deal with King parture leaves Israel mourning for a arguing that in the aftermath of the The former argued that it was folly for Hussein of Jordan—the 1986 London great statesman and grieving that he Second World War, a “new Germa- a nearly bankrupt embryonic state to Accords—was crushed by his failure failed what he hoped for most in the ny” has emerged with which Israel launch a costly project that no other to overcome the resistance of Likud’s last three decades of his life: to bring must establish close relations. And country of Israel’s size would dare. leader Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. peace and tranquility to the Holy Land. while Ben-Gurion forged a unique The IDF, then led by senior officers Almost a decade later, after replacing understanding with the new Germa- like Yigal Allon and Yitzhak Rabin, the assassinated Rabin in late 1995, ny’s leader, Chancellor Konrad Ade- who were proponents of conventional Peres made a crucial mistake in fail- nauer, it was Peres who built Israel’s offense-defense, argued that in the ing to pursue an important follow-up relationship with the country’s young primitive environment of the Middle to the Oslo Accords: the Beilin–Abu guard and particularly with its most East it was fanciful and irresponsible Mazen agreement reached between conservative elements: the Bavarian to gamble Israel’s security and surviv- then minister of justice Beilin and the section of the Christian Democratic al on as elusive a concept as deter- Palestinian Authority’s current presi- Party led by Franz Josef Strauss. Thus rence. Indeed, even Israel’s very small dent, Mahmoud Abbas. Instead, Peres the basis was laid for Germany’s mas- community of nuclear physicists was pivoted to the Syrian track but later sive financial support of Israel in the initially skeptical about the possibility froze these talks over the Syrians’ form of individual and collective rep- that a tiny state like Israel could un- refusal to disavow acts of Palestinian arations, of its supply to Israel of gas dertake such an ambitious project. terror. He then launched a massive masks on the eve of the 1967 War— How Peres managed to overcome attack on southern Lebanon—Oper- when Israel feared Egypt’s possible such formidable opposition remains ation Grapes of Wrath—which was use of chemical weapons—and of its a mystery; it will probably be decades aborted when Israeli artillery mistak- provision to Israel of Dolphin-type before all the relevant archives will be enly hit a UN compound near the vil- submarines in the aftermath of the open to allow even a proximate an- lage of Qana, resulting in over a hun- 1991 Gulf War. It is these submarines swer to this question. dred deaths. that in the eyes of many now comprise While no one besides Ben-Gurion can Peres’s failures in peacemaking were an important dimension of Israel’s match Peres’s contribution to Israel’s also associated with his electoral fail- strategic deterrence, to which Peres security, the track record of his later ures. Because, from the early days of gave birth three decades earlier in Di- pursuit of peace is nothing short of the state, Peres belonged to the civil- mona. tragic. Peres’s peacemaking efforts ian side of its defense community and And this brings us to the third pillar of succeeded only once, and that was not to its military, he was never per- Ben-Gurion’s grand strategy that Pe- when he had the full support of an in- ceived as “Mr. Security,” as were for- res was assigned to implement: de- dividual that Israelis trusted with their mer IDF generals like Moshe Dayan, terrence. Very early, Ben-Gurion un- security: Yitzhak Rabin. The Oslo Ac- Yitzhak Rabin and Ariel Sharon. Thus, derstood that the numerically inferior cords were manufactured in the Peres although his decades-long contribu- Israel could not fight wars indefinitely. warehouse—by his loyal and imagina- tion to Israel’s defense was far great- War avoidance thus became an im- tive deputy, Yossi Beilin, and his two er and far more enduring than that of perative, and Israel’s founding father academic associates. But the Accords any of his military counterparts, the was impressed, years before Ber- could not win public approval without Israeli public seemed never to trust nard Brody, Thomas Schelling, Henry Rabin. him with the country’s defense. Kissinger and others wrote their im- Tragically, all of Peres’s other peace- Moreover, not having been born in Is- portant books on nuclear deterrence, making efforts—before and after rael (with his mother, Peres emigrated that the atom could provide “the few” Oslo—failed miserably. Indeed, in the from Poland to Palestine when he was facing “the many” with a “great equal- First Published in The National Interest mid-1970s, when he served as de- a young teen) and having not served in izer” that could deter war. fense minister in Rabin’s first govern- the IDF (then as now the most impor- The idea was imaginative, but the ment (1974–77), Peres contributed to tant socializing institution in Israel), Shai Feldman is the Director of execution was just as brilliant and creating the most significant obstacle Peres was always defensive about his Brandeis University’s Crown Center much more demanding—and entire- to Israel’s future peacemaking ef- security credentials. Incredibly, none for Middle East Studies and is a ly the purview of Shimon Peres. Still forts: he supported ending the taboo of his fantastic achievements for Isra- member of the board of Harvard in his early thirties, Peres managed against building Israeli settlements el’s security and survival were enough University’s Belfer Center for Science to convince France that the alliance in heavily populated Palestinian areas to defeat the allegations that he was and International Affairs.

8 9 NEW BEGINNINGS, STRONGER Nimrod Capital LLP 3 St Helen’s Place London EC3A 6AB TIES Switchboard: 020 7382 4565 www.nimrodcapital.com By David Quarrey, HM Ambassador to Israel

n many respects, Britain’s relationship I welcome the fact that the Anglo-Israel As- with Israel is stronger than it has ever sociation has also been working to further been. We have record levels of bilateral such partnerships. Next February, the Asso- Icooperation in trade, investment, science ciation will join forces with the Royal Society With best wishes from and technology. Our trade has never been for the 8th Ambassadors Roundtable - this higher; new joint scientific research pro- time with a focus on cyber security. grammes bring the brightest of both coun- The field of cyber security is rightly receiving tries together to address the world’s tough- huge attention from the public and private est health challenges; and we are, exploring sectors in both countries. When Prime Min- new breakthroughs in agri-science and com- ister Netanyahu visited London last year, the bating global water shortages. two governments (both founding members Our cultural exchanges are thriving, includ- of D5, a forum of digitally-advanced govern- ing numerous events in Israel to mark the ments) agreed to strengthen cooperation in 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, cyber security. We are both global leaders including the first ever visit by the Globe in this field, and we have much to gain from theatre and Dame Helen Mirren’s launch of deepening our cooperation. the British Council’s Mix the Play at my resi- Nimrod Capital LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority The AIA roundtable will bring together ex- dence in June. pertise from the UK and Israel to discuss Our cooperation in tech continues to deep- themes ranging from cyber-crime and ter- en. Dozens of Israeli entrepreneurs and rorism, to resilience and innovation. I think start-ups are discovering avenues for growth this is a great initiative, and I congratulate by partnering with British companies, who the AIA for organising it and the Royal Socie- in turn are eager to maintain a competitive ty for hosting. edge by using Israeli technology. Both our As private and public sectors look for the cyber security and economies benefit hugely best ways to protect infrastructure and as- as a result of these growing ties. sets from cyber attack, it is important that This autumn we mark five years since the es- innovators in this field are helped to grow. tablishment of the UK Israel Tech Hub at the The UK is proud to have one of the friendliest British Embassy, fostering tech partnerships regulatory regimes in Europe. We will contin- between our countries. The Hub has already ue to create the conditions that stimulate the facilitated dozens of successful collabora- growth of cyber innovation in the future. tions. I look forward to 2017 as another year of deepening the partnership between the UK and Israel, and to a successful Ambassadors Conference.

10 Archaeology : Jews and the Temple Mount Model of the Second Temple at By Zachi Dvira the Israel Museum

12 13 he United Nations Educational Scientific and sources that witnessed them, including Pagan historians rifice: “Dekhar” (ram), “Aleph” (first day of the week) and First Temple Period assemblage found in Waqf electrical Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recently ad- who were not influenced by the Jewish or Christian tra- “Yehoyariv” (one of the twenty-four priestly families who wire trench – During the Waqf’s excavation of a trench in opted a biased and political resolution that dition, such as Berossus (3rd Century BCE), Menander of worked shifts in the Temple). 2007 supervised by the Israel Antiquities Authority, a rich disregards Judaism’s historic connection to Ephesus (2nd Century BCE), Hecataeus of Abdera (c. 300 First Temple period assemblage was High Priest Golden Bell – the Temple Mount, casts doubts regarding the BCE), Mmaseas of Patara (c. 200 BCE), Diodorus of Sicily found just southeast of the raised In the same excavation at Jewish connection to the Western Wall, and (1st century BCE), Strabo (1st century BCE), Tacitus (1st Cen- platform of the Temple Mount. It in- the drainage tunnel by Eli Tprotests against the Israel Antiquities Authority’s attempts tury CE) and many others. cluded pottery, bones and fragments Shukrun, a golden bell was to supervise construction work on and around the Temple of figurines dating to the th6 century Although it is not possible in today’s political climate to found dating to the Second Mount in order to preserve the antiquities and other ar- BCE, the later days of the First Tem- conduct a proper archaeological excavation on the Temple Temple period. There is no chaeological data. ple period. Mount, there are many archaeological finds that support precedent for this artifact This is a purely political resolution that was formulated by the almost universally accepted fact: it is the site of the from any excavation in Israel. Our only knowledge of such A Water cistern at the southeast Palestinian officials and that was accepted by UNESCO as Jewish Temples. Many of the artifacts come from the Tem- an object is from the biblical description of the bells sewn corner of the Raised Platform is. It seeks only to preserve the heritage of Islam, and while ple Mount Sifting Project, and many others can either still to the garment worn by the high priest (Ex. 28:33-34). – A large underground water this is important, UNESCO must not do this at the expense be observed at the Temple Mount, were found accidentally cistern documented by the re- Miqvaot – Numerous Miqvaot of Jewish and Christian heritage and culture. This resolu- during renovations, or were found in archaeological exca- searchers of the 19th century was (Jewish ritual immersing pu- tion does not recognize the daily reality of Jerusalem or vations at surrounding sites. recently dated by archaeologist rification baths) were found the Temple Mount, and its political agenda is in opposition Tzvika Tzuk to the First Temple FOLLOWING IS A SAMPLING OF ARTIFACTS FROM AMONG in the areas surrounding the to UNESCO’s own charter and mission to protect and pro- period according to similarly MANY OTHERS Temple Mount. There are also mote science, culture, education and heritage. shaped water cisterns recovered in other sites. documented underground Temple Warning Inscription – In The events in the past decades prove that Muslim authori- cavities upon the Temple ARTIFACTS FROM THE SOIL DISCARDED FROM THE TEM- 1871, French archaeologist Cler- ties on the Temple Mount, who are officially under Jordani- Mount that were surveyed by PLE MOUNT mont-Ganneau found a Greek in- an auspices but in practice are controlled by the Palestin- explorers in the 19th century. scription warning gentiles not to The following were all found by the Temple Mount Sifting ian Authority and Hamas, have no concern for preserving One less known cistern which enter further into the temple com- Project even their own archaeological heritage, or advancing edu- is located directly under the Al-Aqsa mosque was found by pound. These kind of inscriptions cation, science, and culture at the site. the British Mandate Antiquities Department in the 1940’s, Imer Seal Impression were also witnessed by the 1st cen- but was never published. We found the documentation of – The most direct ev- In 1999, the Muslim authorities excavated a gigantic pit in tury CE historian, Josephus Flavius (War 5, v, 2; War 6, ii, this Miqveh in the British Antiquities Department archives idence ever found of the south-eastern area of the Temple Mount using bull- 4; Antiquities 15, xi, 5). and published it in 2008. the First Temple comes dozers and removing 400 truckloads of dirt. This was The Beit Hatekia In- from a tiny seal impres- done without any archaeological control or supervision, Herodian Architecture – Several loca- scription – Archaeol- sion made of clay that and, consequently, we established the Temple Mount Sift- tions upon the Temple Mount, especial- ogist Prof. Benjamin was originally attached ing Project in order to save, preserve, and study the vast ly the Double Gate entry halls under the Mazar in 1972 found to a fabric sack, pos- amount of archaeological artifacts that were buried in this Al-Aqsa mosque, preserve until today one this Hebrew inscription sibly containing silver soil and discarded. We retrieved hundreds of thousands of of the finest examples of Herodian art en- which had fallen from or gold. The seal bears the inscription: “(Belonging to) artifacts from this soil dating to the First and Second Jew- graved on stone. Several gates of today’s the south-western cor- […]lyahu (son of) Immer”. The Immer family was a well- ish Temple periods and onwards, including Christian and Temple Mount still preserve remnants of ner of the Temple Mount known priestly family at the end of the First Temple peri- Muslim era artifacts that were discarded. gates from the Late Second Temple Pe- and was found in the rubble being excavated by archaeol- od, around the 7th – 6thCenturies BCE. Pashhur son of Imer riod. A very interesting Muslim artifact dating to the 18th centu- ogists excavating nearby. The stone carries the inscription is mentioned in the Bible as “Chief officer in the house of ry that was found is a seal of the prominent Muslim Qadi “lebeit hatekia lehakhriz” which means “to the house of Eastern Wall’s section from the God” (Jer. 20:1). It may be assumed that this object sealed (Judge), who also served as the Jerusalem deputy Mufti. the blowing of the trumpet to announce.” Jewish historians First Temple Period –The lower some precious goods that were kept in the Temple trea- His name was Sheik ‘Abd al-Fattah al-Tamimi. The current and rabbinical sources described the custom of blowing courses north and south of the sury which was managed by the priests. This sealing is Waqf administrator, Sheik Mohammed Azzam al-khatib the trumpets from the Temple Mount in order to announce Golden Gate in the eastern wall the first ever evidence of ancient Hebrew writing from the al-Tamimi, the current director of the Jerusalem Islamic the time of the sabbath and sacred holy days (Sukka 5: 5; are dated by Temple Mount schol- Temple Mount and of the administrative activity which took Waqf, is from the same family, and may be one of his de- Babylonian Talmud Shabat 35: 2; Tosefta Sukka 4; Wars IV, ars to the First Temple Period (see place in the First Temple. scendants. It is ironic that Jewish archaeologists are the X, 12). Leen Riymeyer, The Quest 2006). Artifacts from the time of King Solomon – ones who preserve the Islamic Waqf heritage that was ne- The drafting of these stones resembles masonry stones DKA LYH seal – In 2011, Ar- glected and discarded by the Waqf itself. from walls in other sites dated to the First Temple period. chaeologist Eli Shukrun found a tiny fired clay object stamped First Temple Period re- with an inscription consisting fuse pit at the eastern slopes of the Temple היל אכד of the Hebrew letters (“DKA LYH” or ”Deka Leyah”) in a Mount – In 2009, we un- drainage tunnel at the foot of the covered an ancient re- southern end of the Western Wall. fuse pit on the slopes of Some of the artifacts found by the Sifting Project date to Talmudic scholar, Prof. Shlo- the Temple Mount, which the 10th-9th centuries BCE, the time of King Solomon, build- mo Naeh, convincingly showed yielded rich archaeologi- er of the First Temple, and his successors. These artifacts that this is a unique object that cal material dating from the 10thcentury BCE (the time of are rare in Jerusalem and they have brought forth critical was used as a token / voucher King Solomon) to the 7th century BCE. The finds included a evidence in the heated debate about the size of Jerusa- that enabled the Temple admin- unique seal impression with an inscription that describes lem in this period. Some scholars in the past doubted that istrator priests to keep track of a tax that was given to the King from the city of Gibeo’n. the Temple Mount was annexed to Jerusalem during the 18th Century seal of Sheick ‘Abd al-Fattah al-Tamimi commerce related to sacrificial offerings. This practice According to the biblical descriptions, the house of the 10th century BCE. They suggest that Jerusalem was not a is documented in the Mishna, the first written redaction king was also situated on the Temple Mount. capital city but rather a small village. These artifacts con- The existence of the Jewish Temples is beyond any doubt. of Jewish Oral Law dating to around 200 CE (Shekalim 5: tradict this minimalist assertion and confirm the biblical There is substantial evidence in the numerous historical 3-5). The inscription upon the seal marks the type of sac- account regarding Jerusalem during this period. The finds

14 15 include pottery sherds, a rare stone seal that is conical in the Second Temple’s destruction in year 70 CE indicate shape, and a rare arrowhead. that the site was the focus of Jewish prayers and thoughts. In addition, several Jewish graffiti inscriptions were found Half-Shekel Silver Coin – From the Second Temple period within the Temple Mount done by Jewish pilgrims during the Sifting Project has recovered over 800 Jewish coins. the medieval periods. This is in spite of the difficulties and Many of the coins from the bans put upon Jews dwelling and visiting in Jerusalem. late Second Temple period These inscriptions indicate a continuous linkage of the seem to be burnt, probably Jewish people to their holiest site. as a result of the fire that led to the destruction of the Documents that were found in the Cairo Geniza tell us Best wishes from Temple. A particularly excit- about the Jewish residents of Jerusalem, during the Early ing find is a rare silver coin Islamic period, who had a custom to encircle the Temple minted during the first year of the Great Jewish Revolt Mount and pray in front of the Temple Mount gate. One of against Rome (66/67 C.E.). The coin features a branch with the most prominent Jewish rabbis in the Medieval Era, the three pomegranates and an inscription in ancient Hebrew Rambam, wrote that he entered the Temple Mount and set .The reverse upon himself a private annual feast day for that occasion .(השדק מלשורי) ”script reading “holy Jerusalem side of the coin features temple vessels and is inscribed As mentioned above, due to the comprehensive historical .(לקשה יצח) ”half shekel“ sources and Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions about These half-shekel coins were used to pay the Temple tax the Temple Mount, there is no need for archaeological ev- during the Great Revolt, replacing the Tyrian shekel used idence to prove the existence of the Jewish Temple upon previously. It appears that these half-shekel coins were the Temple Mount. Unfortunately, the Temple Denial agen- minted by the Temple authorities on the Temple Mount da that was created 20 years ago and promoted by Pales- itself. This half-shekel tax for the sanctuary, mentioned tinian politicians and religious leaders managed to expand in the Book of Exodus (30:13–15), required every male to some Arab scholars and apparently has also now been to pay half a shekel to the Holy Temple once a year. Our adopted by UNESCO. Since they claim that no archaeolog- half-shekel coin is well preserved but bears scars of the ical artefact proving the existence of the Jewish Temples conflagration that destroyed the Second Temple in 70 C.E. upon the Temple Mount was ever found, it is important to bring this proof and research regarding these very real ar- Menorah Potsherd — A potsherd bearing a symbol re- tefacts to the general public. sembling the Temple’s menorah was found in the sifting. Based on its clay type and texture, the potsherd dates —Zachi Dvira (Zweig) is an archaeologist and co-di- to the period of Byzantine rule over rects the Temple Mount Sifting Project with Gabriel Manchester House Jerusalem , from 324 to 640 CE or Barkay. Dvira is also active in the struggle to prevent 86 Princess Street the beginning of Early Islamic Period antiquities destruction on the Temple Mount. Manchester M1 6NG, England (7th-8th Century CE) showing that even then, there was a connection to the Jewish Temple that had been destroyed. Telephone 0161 236 2317 Fax 0161 228 1326 Herodian Temple Courts Lavish Paving – Hundreds ofopus Email [email protected] sectile stone Website www.broomwell.com tiles were found in the sifting. Opus sectile(La- tin: “cut work”) is a technique of paving floors in lavish geomet- ric patterns us- ing meticulously cut and polished polychrome tiles. Many of the tiles have been dated to the Late Second Temple period based on parallels found in Herodian palac- es. Their dimensions are based on fractions of the Roman foot (c. 29.6 cm). Flavius Josephus, writing about the open courts surrounding the Temple, says, “Those entire courts that were exposed to the sky were laid with stones of all sorts” (Jewish War 5:2) Lately we have managed to recon- struct some of the patterns of these special floors using geometrical principles and through similarities found in floor designs used by Herod at other sites. Jewish Linkage to the Temple Mount after the Temple Destruction The Jewish rabbinical sources during all centuries after

16 17

AIA MAG 6 2015.indd 44 11/19/15 10:09 be entitled to the same right – i.e. to a state But alongside this ideological position there is another line of their own. A second argument maintains of arguments supporting the “hawkish” point of view – the that continued Israeli control over the security argument which maintains that the establishment West Bank would turn Israel from a Jew- of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza poses ish nation-state to a bi-national country, serious security dangers to Israel. In this argument, the as the Jews would not anymore constitute settlements are not to be viewed as expressing a Jewish a majority. Supporters of this position also entitlement – be it divine or historical – to the territories, argue that it is for these two reasons that but are basically security outposts, aimed at defending the the Zionist movement accepted the 1947 core of Israel against both military onslaughts as well as UN partition plans which called for the es- terrorist attacks. tablishment of two states, a Jewish and an Both the ideological and the security positions are some- Arab one, in the historical territory of Man- times combined, and their combination makes an obvious- datory Palestine. ly strong argument. Sometimes, even those who believe To supporters of this position, the two in the ideological argument prefer to present their point state solution is the only way to maintain of view in security terms which they think may be more both the Jewish and the democratic nature acceptable to public opinion, both in Israel and abroad. of Israel and thus achieve the Zionism aim Yet there is a basic difference between the two sets of ar- of the Jewish state. In political terms, this guments: the ideological argument is basically non-ne- is the position of the center-left Labor Par- gotiable, certainly if it is based on a divine promise: how ty and the left-wing Meretz Party. All this could human beings decide on a territorial compromise would still call for complex negotiations if it is mandated by Providence – hence some rabbinical with the Palestinians on security matters statements that it is divinely forbidden to give up one inch and the future of the Jewish settlements of the Promised Land. But even secular nationalist, who on the West Bank, involving possible land base their position on historical rights and entitlements swaps. But the basic “dovish” position tend to view this as a fundamentalist position which can- is that the reality of the existence of two not be given up. national movements in the historic Eretz Israel/Palestine calls for a historical com- The security argument, on the other hand, is basically promise between the two movements en- pragmatic and can be negotiated, as was evident when Ari- capsulated in a two-state solution: even’ it el Sharon changed his views and initiated the Israeli with- is argued, if the current situation makes drawal from the Gaza Strip and the evacuation of nearly it difficult to achieve it, this should be the 9.000 Israeli settlers from the Gaza settlements. Sharon horizon towards which Israel should strive. has been for years Israel’s “Super Hawk” and was consid- ered the father of the settlement activities, which he always The opposing position, which unites the justified in security terms. But when he became convinced various political parties comprising the that the few Jewish settlements in the Gaza strip were not current coalition government under Prime conducive to Israel’s security but have become a burden Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, derives on it, both militarily and politically – he changed his mind from two sets of arguments which while and initiated the withdrawal from Gaza and the evacuation leading to similar political consequences, of the settlements and their destruction: this caused one should however be differentiated. The one of the major shifts in Israeli politics’ when the ideological argument is based on ideological princi- hawks in the Likud opposed Sharon: he left the Likud, fol- ples, the other on security considerations. lowed by others like Ehud Olmert ad Tzipi Livni and formed The ideological argument is simple: all the centrist Kadima Party. In the debates about the Gaza DOVES AND HAWKS IN historical Eretz Israel is the homeland of disengagement the divide was not just between hawks and the Jewish people, regardless of the 1949 doves: it was a fundamental divide between the ideological Armistice Line and Israel should maintain hawks on one hand and those who based their position on its control of all of what is called Eretz Is- security considerations. Had Sharon continued leading the THE ISRAELI POLITICAL- rael ha-shleima (“The Complete Land of government it is conceivable – and he gave indications to Israel”). Hence Jews have the right to set- it – that further withdrawals might have been possible. tle anywhere and everywhere in Judea and SHLOMO AVINERI For those who base their position on ideology, it is difficult Samaria and should do so. The basis of DEBATE to change their views. For those whose main concerns are this arguments may be in the religious be- linked to security consideration, pragmatism, flexibility lief of the Divine Promise (politically now and realism are possible. articulated most radically by the Jewish Since the 1967 Six Days War the political debate in of the two opposing positions: but it oversimplifies Home Party of Naftali Bennet) or in the secular national- The test of the Israeli right-wing – and the current govern- Israel has been focused on the future of the territories the complexities of the arguments proposed by both ism of Netanyahu’s Likud party, which follows the precepts ment and especially Netanyahu -will be whether ideology captured in the war – even how they should be called – sides, especially when it comes to the “hawkish” posi- of Jabotinsky’s Revisionist Movement – the political upshot or security will ultimately inform their decisions. “West Bank” or “Judea and Samaria”. In popular par- tion. Some differentiation and elucidation is in place. implies opposing a two state solution, supporting Jewish lance this debate has been sometimes called a debate ======On the dovish side, two kinds of arguments are raised. settlements activity in Judea and Samaria and trying ev- between “doves” and “hawks” – between those who The author is professor of political science at the Hebrew The first is that since the basis of Zionism is the right erything possible not to give up Israeli control of what is would be willing, in return for peace, to give them up University and member of the Israel Academy of Sciences of Jewish self-determination, its very universal foun- considered the Jewish entitlement to all of the land west and those who would like to maintain Israeli control. and Humanities. He served as Director-General of Israel’s dation calls for accepting that the Palestinians should of the Jordan River. In a schematic way, this is a good overall description Foreign Ministry under Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

18 19 turn to Dahlan, who is not inclined to buy loyalty among Palestinians, es- in touch with Dahlan.” disappoint those who seek his help. pecially disgruntled young Fatah ac- Dahlan founded and headed the Pal- tivists in the West Bank who feel that Who is supplying Dahlan with mon- estinian Preventive Security Force Abbas and the PA leadership have ey? The United Arab Emirates. It is in the Gaza Strip shortly after the turned their backs on them. their cash that has enabled Pales- signing of the Oslo Accords. After tinians in refugee camps in the West But while the influential Gulf coun- the death of Yasser Arafat in 2004, Bank and Gaza Strip to purchase try provides Dahlan with shelter he became one of Abbas’s closest weapons and buy loyalty for Dahlan and funds, two other Arab countries confidants, later appointed by Ab- in preparation for the post-Abbas — Egypt and Jordan — grant him a bas as National Security Advisor to era. certain degree of legitimacy and a the Palestinian Authority leadership. platform for his public activities, in- In 2006, he was elected as a Fatah Unsurprisingly, Abbas and the PA cluding those directed against Ab- member of the Palestinian Legisla- leadership are less than enthusias- bas and some of his top advisors and tive Council for the Khan Yunis dis- tic about this turn of events. Since aides in Ramallah. Dahlan maintains trict in the southern Gaza Strip. 2011, they have taken a series of a close friendship with Egyptian measures to stop Dahlan, but to no How Abbas and Dahlan came to be President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, with avail. at one another’s throats is food for whom he has met a number of times speculation. Some Palestinians be- First, Abbas ordered his security in Cairo over the past two years. Re- lieve that the ill-will between the two forces to raid Dahlan’s home in Ra- cently, Dahlan visited Amman and is purely personal, and began when mallah and confiscate documents met with several Jordanians and Dahlan was overheard belittling Ab- and equipment. Second, the Fatah Palestinians, much to the dismay of bas’s two sons, Yasser and Tareq. Central Committee, a body dominat- Abbas and the Palestinian Authority Others say that Abbas decided to get ed by Abbas loyalists, voted in favor leadership. rid of Dahlan because he suspected of expelling Dahlan from its ranks. Dahlan’s close ties with the Egyp- that Dahlan was plotting to stage a Third, the PA, at the behest of Abbas, tians and Jordanians are the force coup against him. filed charges in absentia against driving the tensions that have erupt- Dahlan, accusing him of financial Then again, 81-year-old Abbas is ed between Abbas and both Sisi and corruption and embezzlement. highly suspicious of Palestinians Jordan’s King Abdullah. such as Dahlan who have too much As part of a smear campaign, Abbas According to Palestinian sources in ambition and charisma. Abbas is and the PA have claimed that Dahlan Ramallah, Abbas has expressed out- also very overprotective of his fam- is a murderer who has Palestinian rage over the way the Egyptians and ily, particularly his two sons. Other blood on his hands. They have also Jordanians have openly embraced Palestinian officials, such as Salam Khaled Abu Toameh been saying that Dahlan stole hun- and endorsed the man he considers Fayyad and Yasser Abed Rabbo, dreds of millions of dollars and is in PALESTINIANS: his greatest threat. Upon learning of who have dared to challenge Abbas collusion with the Palestinians’ en- Dahlan’s visit to Jordan, Abbas re- in various ways have found them- emies. frained from meeting with govern- selves stripped of power and money. THE POWER STRUGGLE BETWEEN Still, Dahlan appears to be far from ment officials in Amman (where he Abbas’s campaign against his crit- vanishing from the Palestinian po- has a private house) on his way to ics has been notably successful so litical scene. In fact, the campaign visit other countries. (Abbas routine- far, with the exception, of course, YOUNG GUARD AND OLD GUARD against him seems to have in- ly travels around the world through of Dahlan. Those officials who con- creased Dahlan’s resolve to continue Jordan). Abbas was particularly en- tinue to live in the West Bank now and even step up his efforts to bring raged when he learned that King keep their mouths shut. Dahlan, of down Abbas and his veteran loyalists Abdullah had given Dahlan and his course, does not. ho is supplying Mohamed Dah- Palestinian Authority (PA) President Dahlan’s continued efforts to estab- in the Palestinian Authority. family members Jordanian citizen- lan with money? The United Arab Mahmoud Abbas faces a real threat; lish bases of power in both the West Based in Abu Dhabi, Dahlan is be- W ship. Emirates (UAE). It is their cash that its name is Mohamed Dahlan. Bank and Gaza Strip belie his claims. So what is fueling Dahlan’s success? yond Abbas’s long arm. Dahlan’s has enabled Palestinians in refugee Abbas and some of his top aides Dahlan’s visit to Jordan last April is close ties with the leaders of the Abbas has become obsessed with camps in the West Bank and Gaza Palestinian Authority President Mah- point a finger at the United Arab believed to be in the context of his United Arab Emirates, Egypt and, Dahlan, according to insiders. The PA Strip to purchase weapons and buy moud Abbas (left) and Mohamed Dah- Emirates (UAE), the wealthy Gulf effort to establish bases of pow- to some degree, Jordan, has given president, they report, spends hours loyalty for Dahlan in preparation for lan (right), a former Fatah security country that has been harboring er among Palestinians living in the him immunity against Abbas, who each day discussing ways to deal with the post-Abbas era — especially dis- commander, have, for the past five and funding Dahlan for the past five kingdom. According to some re- is keen to pacify these three import- the man and his supporters. And, it is gruntled young Fatah activists in the years, been at each other’s throats. years. Dahlan’s ties with the ruling ports, Dahlan has already succeed- ant Arab countries. Besides, Abbas rumored, Abbas’s nights are not much West Bank who feel that Abbas and The two were once close allies and family in the UAE are so strong that ed in rallying dozens of Palestinians is well aware that he is surrounded better. the PA leadership have turned their had worked together to undermine the he has been appointed as a “special from refugee camps in Jordan be- by too many wolves, and that open- backs on them. Backed by at least three Arab coun- former PA president, Yasser Arafat. advisor” to Sheikh Mohamed bin hind him. ing a new front with Dahlan and his tries, Dahlan, a former Palestinian (Image sources: U.S. State Dept., M. Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince friends/patrons in the Arab coun- This power struggle will not end with “Dahlan is President Abbas’s worst security commander from the Gaza Dahlan Office) of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme tries could put him over the edge. the departure of Mahmoud Abbas. nightmare,” remarked a senior Pal- Strip, seems to have unofficially joined Commander of the UAE Forces. Pal- The next Palestinian president will Abbas’s top aides talk about the cash estinian official in Ramallah who has Buoyed by impressive political and the battle for succession in the PA. estinian Authority officials in Ramal- surely be one of Abbas’s current loy- that Dahlan has lavished on many Pal- been closely following the compli- financial aid, Dahlan pulls no punch- lah call Dahlan the “spoiled lad” of alists. This in itself will drive Dahlan The 54-year-old Dahlan, young estinians, thereby winning their sup- cated ties between the two men over es when it comes to Abbas. Sheikh Al Nahyan. and his ilk to continue railing against enough to be Abbas’s son, continues port. Any Palestinian activist whose the past two decades. “You can be Last year, Dahlan chose a Jorda- the old guard. to deny any ambition to succeed Mah- request for financial aid is turned United Arab Emirates money has fired or punished in various ways if nian online newspaper to launch a moud Abbas as president of the PA. Yet down by Abbas’s office can always helped Dahlan and his supporters the president suspects that you are

20 21 scathing attack on his former boss. Authority and the Palestine Liberation In the eyes of some Palestinian polit- Organization (PLO). ical analysts, Dahlan’s platform was This is a power struggle that has far from random. They argue that been raging for the past three de- the online newspaper could not have cades. Dahlan is a representative of published Dahlan’s statements had the young guard, whose members it not received permission from the ETHNIC HARMONY IN are strongly opposed to the continued highest echelons in the royal palace hegemony and monopoly of the old in Amman. Some Jordanian writ- guard over the decision-making pro- AN ISRAELI CITY YOU ers and journalists have in the past cess. Dahlan and the young guard are been imprisoned for insulting some mostly from the West Bank and Gaza Arab leaders or countries. Not in this NEVER HEARD OF Strip, grassroots leaders who have case, where Dahlan made the charges long been complaining that they have against Abbas. been marginalized by the veteran So what did Dahlan share in the inter- leaders of the Palestinians who came view with the Ammon News website, from Lebanon and Tunisia after the which described him as a charismatic signing of the Oslo Accords and who , home of Ben-Gurion We are like brothers,” says Amer, a young teenager who leader and the number one enemy of continue to block the emergence of International Airport, wants enjoys playing soccer with Arab and Jewish buddies on his Abbas? new and younger leaders. to show the world its peaceful block. Dahlan accused Abbas of “hiding” This power struggle will not end with LOD mosaic of cultures living side by Amit and his friends are members of Young Ambassadors, $600 million following the death of Abbas’s departure. The next Pales- side with history and high-tech. a government-sponsored program that grooms teenagers Yasser Arafat. According to Dahlan, tinian president will surely be one of to travel the world speaking to groups of students and former Prime Minister Salam Fayyad Abbas’s current loyalists. This in itself Can Jews, Muslims and Christians live side by side communal leaders about real life in Israel. gave Abbas a total of $1.4 billion, but will drive Dahlan and his ilk to contin- peacefully in Israel? It’s a question many people ask when Abbas was asked about the sum ue railing against the old guard. Dah- themselves. DOING BUSINESS TOGETHER he claimed he had only received $800 lan’s ghost will continue to haunt not million. He accused Abbas’s sons of only any future Palestinian president, But they can, and they do, in cities such as Haifa and in less One new initiative is a monthly Night Market organized corruption, claiming their fortune was but also Abbas in his grave. well-known Lod, whose slogan is “A mosaic of cultures.” by Jewish, Muslim and Christian women in Lod. With an estimated at over $300 million. He Who, then, one might ask, will step up emphasis on the cuisine and music of each culture, the also reminded that Abbas was no lon- The municipality is working hard to raise the profile of and lead the Palestinians away from coexistence project provides a sensory opportunity to ger a legitimate president because his this mostly working-class city of 77,500. It recently invited the edge of their own abyss? For now, experience the diversity of Lod. term in office had expired in January a group of journalists and diplomats to help spread the it does not seem that there is a Pal- 2009. message that coexistence is alive and well in Israel — even estinian leader who has the power or On a more high-tech note, the Bank Leumi Computer in the climate of heightened fear and mistrust engendered “What kind of a president is this who credentials to stop the deterioration. Centre opened in Lod several years ago and includes a fin- by stabbing and shooting attacks by Arabs in various parts lives in Amman and rules in Ramal- tech start up accelerator. of the country lately. lah?” Dahlan asked in the interview. Corporate CTO Ilan Buganim, a Lod native, explained “Abbas’s problem is that when he sits that when the centre was established, the bank’s Tel Aviv Khaled Abu Toameh, an “In the past few months, as a Jew I have not felt any with me he doesn’t feel he’s a presi- employees did not like having their jobs moved to Lod. award-winning journalist, tension here, and most of the people I speak with agree dent. No one respects him, not in Pal- based in Jerusalem. that regardless of whether they are Jews, Christians or estine and not abroad.” “And now that we opened our first digital bank initiative in Muslims, people here feel very, very safe,” said Deputy Tel Aviv, surprisingly it was very difficult for us to convince Abbas’s aides have dismissed the Mayor Aviv Wasserman, a graduate of the London School people working here that they need to move temporarily to charges as “lies and fabrications,” of Economics and a major force in the turnaround of Lod Tel Aviv. This is because Lod is a great location, very close saying they are in the context of Dah- from hardscrabble to hopeful in the past seven years. to the airport, and it’s not crowded,” said Buganim. lan’s ongoing effort to undermine the “I don’t think this has to do with me or any other politicians,” Palestinian Authority leadership and Wasserman added. “I think it comes from the people, who Indeed, Ben-Gurion International Airport is adjacent to “serve the agenda of regional powers have been together here for so long and have forged social Lod, though it is officially listed as being in Tel Aviv, the and foreign parties.” and economic ties. Lod can really serve as a model, a much more famous city about 15 minutes north of the Sources close to Abbas have also symbol of sanity in Israel today.” airport. claimed that the Jordanian news web- site that gave Dahlan a platform for Nobody claimed that Lod is entirely free of friction, just In this city that has enjoyed continuous habitation for the his attacks on the PA was on the pay- that interracial strife is the exception rather than the rule. past 8,000 years; the future is looking as bright as the roll of Dahlan’s patrons in the United stones in a colourful mosaic. Arab Emirates. They also claim that Muslim and Orthodox Christian Arabs, including Bedouins, Dahlan has similarly used UAE funds comprise more than a quarter of Lod’s population. Nearly to purchase a popular Egyptian online half the Jews in Lod are immigrants from the former newspaper. Soviet Union, many are from Ethiopia, and the rest are a hodgepodge of religious and secular Ashkenazim and The rivalry between Abbas and Dah- Sephardim. lan is emblematic of the power strug- gle between the old guard and young What everyone shares is equal status as Israeli citizens, guard in Fatah, the largest Palestinian and a growing sense of pride in their shared city. faction that dominates the Palestinian

22 23 features a permanent exhibition about Palestinian YAIR LAPID: refugees that ignores historical context of the 1948 war that led to the refugee problem: the Palestinian rejection of a partitioned state and the Arab declaration of war UN HAS LOST against the new state of Israel. Lapid pointed out that the UN’s policies towards Palestinian refugees were “bizarre”: CREDIBILITY, Since 1948 not a single Palestinian has been expelled from PALESTINIAN TERRORISM Israel. In 1950 UNRWA – the United Nations organization in INTEGRITY DUE TO charge of helping the Palestinian refugees, was founded. AND MUSLIM HYPOCRISY: At that time, it listed seven hundred and fifty thousand UNFAIR TREATMENT Palestinians. That number is most likely inflated but let’s use it for the sake of discussion. The absurdity comes An open letter next: As of 2014, UNRWA lists no less than five million OF ISRAEL Palestinian refugees. In other words, without the expulsion of a single Palestinian, from a Muslim woman By Nadiya Al-Noor the UN has listed four million new Palestinian refugees. The United Nations’ bias against Israel has meant that How did that happen? the international organization “has lost credibility, lost hile millions of children got out of bed on the morning of June 30, 2016, Of course we must condemn instances The answer is that the Palestinians are the only nation in common sense, and more than anything lost its most excited for their summer vacation, one child did not. where injustices are committed by important asset – its integrity,” former Israeli finance the world—the only one!—where the status of refugee can W A young Israeli girl, 13-year-old Hallel Yaffe Ariel, was brutally murdered in the Israeli government or any other minister Yair Lapid said in a recent speech. be passed down the generations. her own bed by a 17-year-old Palestinian terrorist. He broke into her house government or authority of any sort. Of This does not apply to Jewish refugees; Lapid cited the fact Lapid, the leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party, the Knesset’s and stabbed her to death. Another life lost to senseless violence. Another course we must affirm the right to life that his family was expelled from Serbia by the Nazis, but fourth-largest faction, noted that the United Nations poor soul taken too early from this world. But few Muslims in this world will of Palestinians, but one life is not worth he is not considered a refugee. Human Rights Council has issued 67 condemnations of be mourning her death, because Hallel was an Israeli Jew. more than another. An Israeli life lost is Israel in the last decade, compared to 61 for the rest of At the same time that Palestinians became refugees, over equal to that of a Palestinian. Tragedy is I am a Muslim, and I know that when it comes to Palestinian terrorism, too the world combined. These condemnations are based on a million Jews were expelled from Arab lands, but because not a competition. We must mourn for many Muslims are hypocrites. I have seen firsthand the casual, destructive unfounded allegations by Palestinians, including “allies they were absorbed by Israel, they receive no compensation both, and fight to prevent the loss of both. anti-Semitism that plagues the Muslim community. I have heard it from the or members of the various terror organizations that are or any other special consideration. UNRWA is solely We must decry all terrorism committed. mouths of our religious leaders, from our politicians, and even from our sworn to destroy Israel.” devoted to solving the Palestinian refugee population, but We must not bend over backwards otherwise peaceful, liberal Muslim activists. I have witnessed in horror the instead perpetuates it. UNRWA, Lapid said, has created a to try to justify it. We must not blame When Lapid and a group of victims of terror went to Geneva desperate attempts to justify Palestinian terrorism from people who I once “new and cynical industry, they manufacture refugees.” innocent people for being slaughtered, in March to speak to the council, he recounted, they were respected. Why? Why do we decry all other types of terrorism, but bend over or justify the actions of the terrorists met with “a cold reception. While they bore witness to the Lapid called on the world’s democracies to take a stand. backwards to legitimize violence against Israeli Jews? loss of their loved ones, the delegates ate, intentionally He noted that the United States, France, Germany, United who slaughter them. If we justify acts of We blame it on “Zionism.” We blame it on “occupation.” We blame it on spoke loudly, and walked in and out.” Kingdom, Japan, and Italy together contribute 65 percent terrorism, it is an indication that we do “apartheid.” We lap up the tired, anti-Semitic lies fed to us by Al-Jazeera: of the UN’s funds. “All that is needed is for those countries no really believe in peace. No one said a word about Israel defending women’s rights “Israelis cut off the water supply!” “Israelis are going to destroy the Al-Aqsa to raise their voice and say—loud and clear—they are When you make excuses for terrorists, and gay rights. No one said a word about Israel’s Arab mosque!” We’re not even willing to admit that Israel is a country. We call it unwilling to allow this to continue,” Lapid said. “The wild you support terrorism. Period. Until citizens, sitting in its parliament and on its Supreme Court. “Palestine.” We refuse to call violence against Israelis “terrorism,” and we and fabricated attacks on Israel need to stop. … Attacks on we stand against terrorism in all its In short, no one said a word about Israel being a thriving hypocritically scream, “Resistance is not a crime!” democracy embodying as its way of life everything the UN a democratic country, committed to human rights, in the forms, against terrorists from every Let me tell you something. Stabbing pregnant women in the stomach is exists to promote. service of murderous terror organizations, is not in the UN background, we Muslims are hypocrites. mandate. There is no reason the United States and other not “resistance.” Shooting people at a cafe is not “resistance.” Driving your Allah does not love hypocrites. Israel’s enemies, on the other hand, hang gay people from car into pedestrians is not “resistance.” Bombing a bus is not “resistance.” democracies should agree to fund it.” The world lost a beautiful little girl on telephone poles, believe women are the property of their Breaking into a woman’s home and murdering her in front of her children Thursday. We must not let Hallel’s death husbands and obviously don’t believe in is not “resistance.” And stabbing a little girl to death in the one place where be ignored. We must fight anti-Semitism institutions like the United Nations. she was supposed to be safe is certainly not “resistance.” Terrorism is not in all its forms, and that includes fighting A few months later, the annual meeting resistance. Terrorism is an unjustifiable crime. against Palestinian terrorism. This was of the World Health Organization (WHO), Muslims around the world are constantly decrying ISIS and most terrorism which normally addresses issues like a terrible tragedy, and we must work to in the name of Islam. I know Muslims who are interfaith activists, peace prevent it from happening to someone disease prevention and vaccination, also advocates, doctors, gay rights activists, and more. We sincerely hate ISIS and included a single condemnation of a else’s child. In the words of my friend terrorism with a passion. We’ll stand up against the persecution of Christians, Afshine Emrani, an Iranian-American, specific country, chastising Israel for its atheists, Hindus, Shias, Ahmadis, and anyone else who is persecuted. We will “occupation of the Golan Heights.” Aside “Dear God. Help us. We are not supposed sob to the heavens if a Palestinian is killed, but when it comes to Palestinian to say Kaddish for a bat mitzvah girl.” from this having nothing to do with health, terrorism against Jews, we either turn a blind eye to it, or we twist the story as Lapid pointed out, the WHO was silent to make the terrorists into the victims. This is unacceptable. about the hundreds of thousands dying in Nadiya Al-Noor is a young Muslim Former British Prime Minister David Cameron, said, “If you say… ‘Violence Syria in that country’s civil war just across interfaith activist with a focus on in London isn’t justified, but suicide bombs in Israel are a different matter’ – Golan border. Even worse, Lapid argued, Jewish and Muslim communities, and then you too are part of the problem.” He is absolutely right. Terror is terror, it ignored the fact that Israeli medical she actively supports peace between even when it’s against Israelis. Do not try to justify or make excuses for the centres in the Golan were being used to Israel and the Palestinians. terrorism that happens much too often in Israel. Innocent people are being treat victims of the war. killed. Their lives are just as important as those killed in Paris, Brussels, Lapid also focused on the UN General Nigeria, Turkey, Pakistan, Jordan, Indonesia, Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq, or Syria. Assembly’s New York building, which Their deaths are no more deserved.

24 25 ISRAELI AID RELIEF TEAM HELPS At the launch, Ambassador David FLOOD VICTIMS IN UK Quarrey paid tribute to Dame Mirren’s IsraAID Israeli aid volunteers were welcomed with open contribution. He arms upon arrival in the UK to assist flood victims, said: “Dame Helen according to an IsraAID statement. is one of the world’s greatest actresses, Heavy rain and high winds battered England, Ireland with an extraordinary career in theatre, film and television, and Scotland, causing devastating damage to many including many Shakespeare roles. She is also a long- communities, especially in areas where there were no standing friend of Israel.” flood defences.

“The first team were greeted by locals with open arms. ISRAEL CO-OPERATION ROUND THE Their first job was to map the workloads which would WORLD include distribution of goods and gutting houses to help people repair their homes,” said Shachar Zahavi, founding • NASA Hopes to Reach Mars in 2030s with Israel’s director of IsraAid. Help, Space Agency’s Administrator Says - Menachem Rephun IN THE NEWS A team of four IsraAID volunteers arrived in Leeds to survey the damage there and help residents with home NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, in Israel to receive an repairs. The Israeli relief team also distributed food and honorary doctorate from Bar-Ilan University on Tuesday, warm blankets to those in need. said Monday that NASA hopes to reach Mars in the 2030s IsraAID has extensive expertise at gutting flood-damaged and looks forward to working with Israel, whose “incredibly homes and helping to rebuild them. In July 2015, an Israeli innovative people on the cutting edge of technology” can volunteer team helped gut and fix some of the 375 homes help with the mission. “We are excited about on-going in need of repair in Illinois in the wake of an EF3 tornado relations with the Israel Space Agency and what we can do that ripped through the state. together on the International Space Station,” said Bolden, who himself made four trips into space as an astronaut. The Israel-based humanitarian relief agency has also helped US disaster relief following floods in Denver, • U.S. Army Selects Israeli System to Protect APCs - Wimberley (Texas), and Detroit, hurricanes in Oklahoma, Yaakov Lappin New York and New Orleans, and wild fires in Washington, The U.S. Army has chosen Israel Military Industries’ among other sites. Iron Fist as an active protection system for its armoured personnel carriers (APC). The system to be installed on APC rooftops will use a combination of a radar and an electro-optical sensor to detect and intercept a range of incoming missiles and rocket-propelled grenades, IMI corporate vice president of marketing Avinoam Zafir said. The system can jam threats from missiles that have advanced guidance systems and cause them to fall harmlessly to the ground. “Dumb” weapons, such as RPGs, are destroyed using interceptors, small warheads that explode near the incoming threat, destroying it with a shock wave at a safe distance from the defended APC.

• Israel Teams with Canada on Long-Range Radar HELEN MIRREN CELEBRATES Israel Aerospace Industries’ ELTA Systems and Canada’s SHAKESPEARE AND TOURS Rheinmetall have teamed to provide the state-of-the-art, operationally proven MF-STAR radar to the Canadian Navy JERUSALEM ON ISRAEL TRIP for long-range air and surface surveillance and tracking. The MF-STAR radar is based on the same radar technology The film star received an award from Jerusalem’s mayor, as the MRR radar used in Israel’s “Iron Dome” anti-missile before visiting the ancient site of the City of David defence system. (Globes)

NEWSThe pair helped launch ‘Mix the Play’, which is part of a global project to mark the 400th anniversary of • Hundreds of top British and Israeli scientists meet at Shakespeare’s death. Oxford Some 350 leading British and Israeli medical researchers The brainchild of the British Council in Israel, the initiative met in Oxford in April for the third annual BIRAX Conference allows people to direct a scene from Shakespeare’s organized by the UK-Israel Science Council. The large Midsummer Night’s Dream, before sharing it online. It has event took place as bilateral science cooperation thrives. so far been viewed by 750,000 people in 190 countries. BIRAX, a joint UK-Israel research initiative tackling some

26 27 IN THE NEWS of the world’s most debilitating diseases, has invested The visual data creates a touch-free interface that over £7 million in bilateral research since it was founded understands and responds to hand, arm, and head motions in 2011. The 15 joint research projects funded by BIRAX as well as facial expressions. so far include the use of heart cells to restore damaged heart muscle; and the use of breath tests for the diagnosis of Parkinson ’s disease. BIRAX was initiated by the British ‘SAND STORM’ WINS THE WORLD Council and the British Embassy in Israel, the Pears CINEMA GRAND JURY PRIZE: Foundation and UJIA. The conferencel showcased the latest developments in DRAMATIC AT THE SUNDANCE FILM regenerative medicine, including joint research by UK and FESTIVAL Israeli researchers to fight diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, heart conditions, and other global health challenges. Sand Storm, a movie by Israeli director Elite Zexer (pictured), won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at the Sundance Film Festival held in Park City, Utah, in THE ISRAELI TECH IN LADY GAGA’S February. The movie, which ZIGGY STARDUST MAKEUP is Zexer’s feature-film debut, tells the story of a At the Grammys, Intel Israel shows what the RealSense 3D Bedouin woman (Ruba Blal- camera is capable of Asfour) forced to welcome By David Shamah her husband’s second wife and how she copes with her own rebellious, educated At the Grammy daughter (Lamis Ammar). Awards last February , Lady Haitham Omari, a former cameraman who became a star Gaga gave the when he made his acting debut as the militia leader in performance Yuval Adler’s Bethlehem, plays the father. of a lifetime – Zexer said, when accepting her prize, “Oh my god, I‘m so not necessarily nervous I’m shaking. I feel it’s been such a week of talking hers, but that and talking and now that I have to say something, I’m of recently speechless. I’m so happy it premiered here. I’m sorry my deceased rock crew had to go home and not experience this with me. icon David Bowie, whom The movie received positive reviews from Variety, the Gaga feted in a seven-minute stage extravaganza that used Hollywood Reporter and other publications. It will be robotics, advanced processors, audio and video technology distributed by Beta Films and will have its European – all courtesy of Intel – to virtually change her clothes, premiere at the Berlin Film Festival. create a holograph of Bowie, and instantly turn her into The Sundance Film Festival was founded in 1985 by actor/ ISRAEL’S a female version of the singer’s Ziggy Stardust character. director Robert Redford to showcase independent cinema. That latter trick was pulled off thanks to Israeli technology. Using Intel’s RealSense 3D camera technology, digital FIRST MASTER artists created a 3D image of Gaga’s head and used it JEAN-CLAUDE VAN DAMME PLACES to project the makeup seen on the singer’s face at the NOTE IN WESTERN WALL beginning of her performance. OF WINE “The ‘makeup’ was all digital,” the spokesperson said. “You Belgian actor on five-day private tour of the Holy Land that Eran Pick has become Israel’s first Master of can actually see this at the beginning of the video – there is included stops in Jerusalem, Tiberias. Wine. It is an exciting announcement for Israeli a second or two where she moves her face too quickly for By Viva Sarah Press wine. Only 343 people in the world are entitled to the projection to keep up. That projection was done using use the prestigious letters MW after their name. a RealSense 3D camera, which, based on the 3D model Belgian actor Jean-Claude Van Damme visited Jerusalem Consider all the wine buyers, winemakers, wine which captured the contours of her face, ensured that the in March 2016. He visited Israel on a private holiday and educators and wine critics the world over. Without projectionists were able to precisely follow her moves and excited fans were thrilled to see him at the country’s doubt they are very worthy and knowledgeable, keep the ‘makeup’ where it belonged on her face.” landmarks. but out of all these wine lovers and connoisseurs, The man, known as The only those comparatively few, with MW after their In the performance, Gaga starts out with Bowie’s classic Muscles from Brussels, took name, have truly reached the pinnacle of their “Space Oddity,” with a digital spread of red paint pouring time to reflect at the Western trade. down on her face to form Ziggy’s iconic lightning bolt face Wall in Jerusalem and even tattoo. A spider emerges from her eye and crawls across left a note, as is customary to Eran Pick was born in KfarSaba and today lives in her face before dissolving into nothingness. do, in the wall’s crevices. Tel Aviv. He is the winemaker of Tzora Vineyards, RealSense technology, developed in Haifa and now a part of The kickboxing actor filmed which is situated in the Judean Hills on the way Intel’s newest generation of 3D cameras, sees the distance The Order in Jerusalem’s Old to Jerusalem. This is one of the finest boutique between objects, separating objects from the background City in 2000. wineries in Israel, awarded three stars in Hugh layers behind them. This gives much better object, facial Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book 2016. and gesture recognition than a traditional camera.

28 29 homes and eventually come to rely slightly unsettling BRITS ON TOUR upon. In order to keep ahead of their to the traditional competition, British companies have British reserve. TO THE START- to be leading the integration of these The innate British new technologies into mainstream politeness was at society. Multinationals have come to breaking point, UP NATION realise that Israeli technology may however by the Highlights from the Economic & hold the key to give them that vital end of the three Trade Mission for 2016 edge. days more often by Kush Boparai than not the Israeli The UK delegates were exposed to persistence and Israeli companies at the forefront of enthusiasm paid technologies, such as Virtual Reality Last November while on a visit to dividends. The (VR), IOT (Internet of things), which Israel, the then Mayor and now Foreign British delegates will connect everything from your Secretary, Boris Johnson advocated told us that they car to your kettle to the internet that London was ‘a natural place for appreciated the and companies revolutionising how Israeli companies to grow’. He made hunger, quality we can utilise Augmented Reality this point on the back of a record and straight- (AR), which has since become more breaking year for Israeli companies talking nature and familiar to us through the Pokémon in 2014 when they topped the bill for most importantly GO phenomenon over the summer. the most foreign IPOs on the London made plans to Stock Exchange with nine companies The WPP tour visited pioneering collaborate with listing that year. institutions that spawned the tech many new Israeli industry in Israel in the 1970s, such The Israeli and UK economy continue ventures. as the HP Indigo factory in Kiryat Gat, to enjoy strong bilateral trade After an intense which led the world in digital printing relations with Israeli Exports to the but fruitful three and was subsequently acquired by HP UK coming in at just below $4bn and days we finished in 2001 for the best part of a Billion UK exports to Israel accounting for with an afternoon dollars. $2.27bn (figures exclude diamonds - excursion and 2015). Globally Israel attracted $2.8bn After visiting such a well-known tasting at the in investment in the first half of 2016, global business, we then made a stop picturesque Tzora which is 35% more than the first half in a seemingly random field in the Vineyard and were of last year. middle of the Israeli countryside on hosted by their a scorching summer’s day. Slightly- As trade links continue to strengthen expert winemaker, perturbed, the group sought some between our nations, we at Israel’s Eran Pick, who solace from the sun under a tree next Economic & Trade Mission in the UK is also Israel’s to an old truck and we were soon endeavour to foster greater links first Master of greeted by the founders of a drone the gas fields off the coast of Israel, We at the Trade & Economic mission Overall Israeli economy is performing between UK businesses and the Israeli Wine. After a technology company called Colugo which we hosted in a top Central are busy working on our schedule for well with record amounts of business environment. It is our great couple of hours of sumptuous wine (www.colugo-sys.com) with a very London hotel. 2017 and are confident we will have investment in high technology, pleasure to give world leading Israeli complemented by locally- produced welcome crate of ice-cold beers. Even an even more fruitful year. “We have pharmaceuticals and now the energy technology and industry greater cheese, we continued our journey before the effects of the beer kicked Director General Amit Lang particularly enjoyed collaborating with sector among other areas. We can exposure within the UK market. to start a tour to the Old City of in, the whole group were impressed Jerusalem. AIA on several occasions over the last be confident about the future and The ideal and most effective way by the innovative drone display, which few years and did so again this year even Post-Brexit we can be sure that For most of the group it was their to introduce and educate British combined the convenient landing at the AIA Water Summit in February, the partnership between the UK and first time in Israel and the experience business in the infectious Israeli capabilities of a helicopter with the which was attended by notable British Israel will continue to prosper. in and around the frenetic Tel Aviv business environment is to convince speed of an aeroplane and could be business and political personalities start-up scene coupled with ambling them to visit the country. Yet this ideal delivering packages all across the UK as well as senior level attendees from through the atmospheric ancient often meets with hurdles, due to some skies in the near future. the Ministry of Economy and Industry Kush Boparai obvious misconceptions about Israel. streets of Jerusalem and watching the in Israel. We look forward to working Both trips gave the UK delegates a Trade & Investment Officer, However, I am pleased to report sunset by the Western Wall ensured with AIA on such events in the future” three-day crash-course in Israeli Economic & Trade Mission that earlier this year we curated and that this would be an unforgettable (Head of Economic & Trade Mission to business, hopping from one-to- Embassy of Israel, London hosted visits by Sky TV, which included trip and create a life-long business the UK – Mr Nathan Tsror). one meetings with enthusiastic and @IsraelTradeUK the Chief Technology Officer of Sky and personal relationship with Israel. innovative young start-ups working out Europe in March. This was followed by In addition to the various successful of their parent’s basement to meeting a high profile delegation led by us with “Start-up nation” tours to Israel we billionaire Israeli venture capitalists The event was well received and high level executives from WPP and hosted landmark events during the with 30 years of experience in one we enjoyed a large turnout from the some of its biggest clients, including summer, which included a marque of Tel Aviv’s shiny new skyscrapers. global energy companies based in VW and Deutche Bahn. event with Israel’s Minister for Energy, For the mostly British group the London. Israel’s energy industry Dr Yuval Steinitz and the Director These UK tours to the “Start-up combination of the Israeli casual attire received positive feedback from the General of the Ministry of Trade & Nation” acted as a window into the coupled with an insatiable appetite international press and Minister Economy, Mr Amit Lang. The visit to technology of the future that we in to prove the worth of their business Steinitz is aiming for multiple bids London marked the beginning of the Britain will soon experience in our idea to anyone within earshot was and licenses to be issued by the end tender process for upstream rights to of the year. Above Dr Steinitz

30 31 INNOVATIONS from israel.

32 33 where tech entrepreneurs design projects for people with at an exercise machine all day. Co-founders Tomer Yannay disabilities, had three events in Israel in 2014 and 2015. and Ohad Doron are also creating a sensor that can be “We very much think one of the missing approaches in attached to any workout machine to transform the exercise israeli INNOVATIONS the world of disability is the entrepreneurial approach,” into a game. Eventually, Yannay says, the games could said Shira Ruderman, director of the Ruderman Family even appear in health clubs. Foundation, which supports A3I. “We wanted to work with ‘WAZE’ FOR WALKERS Founded by Jenny Drezin, Miron Perel and Eli Baram in organizations that are not disability oriented.” Easy Stroll Tel Aviv, Sidekix launched in 2015 and raised $1 million in By Abigail klein Leichman investments. Here are five Israeli companies helped by A3I that Adira was eight months pregnant and about to become a Sidekix, an Israeli urban navigation app built for Its team now includes a fulltime staff of eight, as well as are making the world more accessible to people with single mother, but she had a problem: She couldn’t take pedestrians, and customized to their interests, already freelancers and interns. disabilities. her baby for a walk. works in more than 60 cities worldwide. Paratrek Adira is in a wheelchair and can’t push a stroller. So she MEET 5 ISRAELI START-UPS DRIVING contacted Dana Yichye-Shwachman, a designer with DISABILITY TECHNOLOGY Zur and his co-founder, Ziv Demeter, saw no reason why Jonathan Bar-Or Industrial Design. Yichye-Shwachman people in wheelchairs should not enjoy a hike. So they responded with Easy Stroll, , an aluminum attachment to From wheelchairs for hiking to glasses for helping the outfitted a chair with oversize wheels, mountain bike-style the wheelchair’s footboard that latches on to a stroller. blind feel their way, a look at Israeli innovations that help tires and a wide rod in back for easier pushing. A U-shaped Yichye-Shwachman posted a video of the product online improve lives harness attached to the front allows it to be pulled like a and received 30 emails for new orders. She is now creating BY BEN SALES rickshaw. Zur and Demeter also act as hiking consultants a prototype that will fit a variety of wheelchairs and for would-be hikers. Understanding their clients’ physical strollers. limits and where they want to hike, the company can set After a missile strike during the 1973 Yom Kippur War left up a trek and even join in to make sure all goes smoothly. Siman Shenagish Omer Zur’s father paralyzed from the chest down, his dad vowed to continue life as normal. But there was one Israeli The pair have set up hikes across Israel, as well as in pastime he couldn’t enjoy: hiking. France and, later this year, in Switzerland. They’re also looking into using rescue equipment to help people with The Israeli app Waze took the world by storm, making it “He’d say, ‘I’ll go in the car and meet you on the other disabilities climb mountainsides. easier for drivers across the world to bypass traffic and side,’” said Zur, a certified Israeli tour guide. “I said, ‘Why reach their destination quickly. can’t he do this with us?’” IC Touch Now there’s Sidekix, an Israeli navigation app geared to people walking in cities. The iOS app shows walkers the A pair of glasses normally would be useless to a blind best on-foot routes, even orienting the map as you move person. But Zeev Zalevsky’s glasses don’t help you see so you always know which way is forward. what’s in front of you — they help you feel it. Zalevsky’s But it doesn’t necessarily show you the straightest line from startup, IC Touch, makes glasses that take and process a Point A to Point B. The free app customizes your routes picture before sending a signal to a set of tiny mirrors that based on preprogrammed interests in the categories of are millimeters from the wearer’s eyes. The mirrors then art, culture, shopping, nightlife and food. send a set of vibrations to the cornea that make the cornea “feel” objects in the space around it. If you’ve indicated an interest in, say, museums, Sidekix will include nearby ones on the way to your destination, Instead of guiding themselves with a stick or a dog, relying on recommendations from social media, lifestyle Zalevsky says, blind people can feel their surroundings Few children have to accompany their parents to the bank websites and local bloggers. If you don’t have a specific with the glasses, even identifying objects up to a half-mile and explain to them that their account is in overdraft. But destination, it will create a walking route for you in a city away. for Tal Bousidan, days like that were routine. based on your interests alone. “It’s like if you close your eyes and feel your surroundings In 2008, Zur decided that he and his wheelchair-user father with your fingertips, you can imagine what’s in front of Bousidan was born to two deaf parents. With sign-language Maybe you need to get cash at an ATM. Sidekix will steer would complete a 300-mile trek in southern Turkey. With you,” said Zalevsky, an engineering professor at Bar-Ilan interpreters in short supply in Israel, he would fill the role you there, too. the help of dozens of friends who joined them on segments University. “Instead of reaching out in front of you, the for his parents; explaining to them what bank tellers and of the hike, Zur and his father were able to complete the “Shopping spree, pub crawl, gallery hop? Sidekix chooses picture comes to your head.” shop clerks were unable to communicate on their own. routes by what you want to see and do along the way. Get trail, sleep in tents and cook meals over an open fire. there with the only navigation app that offers walking Gemon Now a professional sign-language interpreter, Bousidan The hike sparked Paratrek, a startup Zur founded in routes based on interest, not just distance,” the website has created a startup that provides instantaneous Hebrew 2014 that aims to make hiking accessible to people with explains. The screen looks a little like the classic 1980s arcade game sign-language translation via tablet computers. paraplegia by outfitting wheelchairs with accessories that Want to meet up with friends as you walk? The app allows Frogger, in which an amphibian tries to cross a busy street. enable them to travel over rough terrain. you to share your route with your contacts. If you’re walking In this version, a red car has to maneuver through blue The startup, Simon Shenagish — Hebrew for “accessible solo in unknown territory or at night, you can ask a friend cars to reach an open lane — but instead of using buttons sign” — has a pilot running at a health clinic in the The company is one of several start-ups focused on to monitor your progress remotely via the app so you can and a joystick, players move the car by raising a pole from southern city of Ashkelon. Deaf patients tap on the iPad, improving the lives of the nearly 1 million Israelis with feel safer. one notch to the next. Sensors in each notch capture the and a full-time translator appears on the screen ready to disabilities. motion and project the car’s progress on an iPad. translate for the doctor. The startup has plans to expand Currently available in more than 60 cities in the US, UK, to Tel Aviv, and Bousidan hopes to provide translation in A3I, a startup accelerator housed at Beit Issie Shapiro, an Europe and Israel, Sidekix plans to expand into additional The game, the initial offering from the startup Gemon, other languages in the future. Israeli advocacy organization for people with disabilities, major cities around the globe. Four or five additional cities helps strengthen the upper back of people with disabilities has helped launch 22 disability projects in the past two are rolled out each month. A future Android version is or those recovering from an injury. The company aims to years. Tikkun Olam Makers, a three-day competition planned. “game-ify” rehabilitation to relieve the tedium of staring

34 35 ISRAELI RESEARCHERS DEVELOP METHOD “Our work demonstrates that the tissue origins of Alzheimer’s disease. the Google Play store) to help them find parking, find their circulating DNA can be measured in humans. This vehicles and even “find” their kids. TO DIAGNOSE DIABETES, MULTIPLE The marker, called activity-dependent neuro-protective represents a new method for sensitive detection of cell protein (ADNP), is essential for brain formation and Anagog’s system uses location technology, mapping SCLEROSIS, PANCREATIC CANCER, death in specific tissues, and an exciting approach for cognitive function. information and big data to help out with parking. Users diagnostic medicine,” said Dr. Ruth Shemer of the Hebrew PANCREATITIS AND BRAIN DAMAGE FROM run the app, with their GPS chip beaming their location. University, a DNA methylation expert and one of the lead “This study has provided the basis to detect this biomarker ONE BLOOD TEST. If its location changes every few seconds, a vehicle is authors of the study. in routine, non-invasive blood tests, and it is known that obviously not parked; if stationary, it may be parked on a early intervention is invaluable to Alzheimer’s patients,” The approach could offer a minimally invasive window for city street, a parking lot, or a driveway. An Israeli-led international team of researchers has proof said Prof. Illana Gozes, lead researcher. monitoring and diagnosing a broad spectrum of human of concept for a single blood test that can detect multiple Matching up the last known location of a vehicle, along with pathologies, as well as providing a better understanding of “We are now planning to take these preliminary findings conditions, including diabetes, cancer, traumatic injury maps (which indicate if the driver is at home or not), data normal tissue dynamics. forward into clinical trials — to create a pre-Alzheimer’s and neurodegeneration, in a highly sensitive and specific about traffic, information on parking regulations, etc., the test that will help to tailor potential preventative manner. “In the long run, we envision a new type of blood test aimed technology can figure out where there are open parking treatments.” at the sensitive detection of tissue damage, even without spaces at any given time, generating a map of those The novel method, tested on 320 patients and control [prior] suspicion of disease in a specific organ. We believe locations – or even directing drivers to an empty space. groups, zeroes in on patterns of circulating DNA that is that such a tool will have broad utility in diagnostic medicine released by dying cells and traces it to specific types of Besides showing real-time data on currently available and in the study of human biology,” said Prof. Benjamin tissue. spaces, the app can also provide predictions on when a Glaser, head of endocrinology at Hadassah Medical Center space will be available, based on a driver’s habits, local The study was reported in a paper published recently in and another lead author of the study along with Prof. Yuval regulations and location. For example, if a driver parks at the journal Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences Dor, a developmental biologist at the Hebrew University of a certain spot on Sunday morning for a half hour at around USA. Jerusalem. 9 a.m, the app will keep an eye on the clock, alerting others Cell death can signify the early stages of pathology (such “Noninvasive measurement of cell death is a super in the area that a spot is likely to open up soon – and that if as a developing tumor or the beginning of an autoimmune exciting area with endless applications,” Dor told Science they are interested in parking there, they should navigate or neurodegenerative disease), mark disease progression, magazine. to the spot in order to “get into position.” reflect the success of therapy (such as anti-cancer drugs), The experiments were performed by Hebrew University The system even knows enough to refer only a limited identify unintended toxic effects of treatment and more. students Roni Lehmann-Werman, Daniel Neiman, Hai number of drivers to the same vacating space – with the However, until now it was not possible to measure cell Zemmour, Joshua Moss and Judith Magenheim, aided by Gozes holds Tel Aviv University’s Lily and Avraham Gildor algorithm performing a gentle balancing act between death in specific human tissues noninvasively. clinicians and scientists from Hadassah Medical Center Chair for the Investigation of Growth Factors and formerly drivers who are closest, and those who have been seeking and Sheba Medical Center in Israel. directed the Adams Super Center for Brain Studies at a space in an area the longest when it decides who is TAU’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine. She has investigated “space worthy.” Collaborators at institutions in Germany, Sweden, the treatment approaches to Alzheimer’s disease and United Kingdom, the United States and Canada provided schizophrenia, as well as a possible link between autism patient blood samples. and Alzheimer’s. Further studies need to be done before such a blood test could be developed commercially. ANAGOG ‘PARKS’ ITSELF ATOP COMPETITION TO WIN INNOVATION AWARD ALZHEIMER’S COULD BE DIAGNOSED WITH COMMON BLOOD TEST Parking blues are a thing of the past with Israeli app that directs drivers to where the empty spaces are Researchers find neuro-protective blood protein that is By David Shamah a biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease and also correlates The new blood test does this by combining two known with IQ. Getting to a destination is one thing, but finding parking biological principles: first, that dying cells release is something else entirely, as anyone who has looked for By Abigail Klein Leichman fragmented DNA into the circulatory system; and second, a spot in any crowded city knows. Compared to finding a That technology can also be used for other things. For that the DNA of each cell type carries a unique chemical The progressive dementia of Alzheimer’s disease affects free space in midtown New York – or anywhere in Tel Aviv, example, Anagog has an app that automatically detects modification called methylation. some 35 million people worldwide and is expected to for that matter – finding an alternate route to save a few where drivers have parked and remembers the location. affect 115 million by 2050, yet currently it is not possible The researchers identified multiple DNA sequences that minutes on a commute is child’s play. To return to the vehicle, drivers just run the app, and it will to detect the disease before it has caused loss of memory give step by step directions to the car’s location. are methylated in a tissue-specific manner and can serve So thought the judges at the Mobile World Congress in and function. Even then, the tests available are invasive as biomarkers. Barcelona, who presented Israeli start-up Anagog with the The company also produces a life-saving app – BabyMinder, and/or expensive. They then developed a method to detect these methylated ‘Best Mobile Innovation in Automotive’ Award for its crowd which automatically detects when a driver parks their car The quest to develop a simple blood test for Alzheimer’s patterns in DNA circulating in blood, and demonstrated sourced parking solution. and walks away from the vehicle. As they move away, the is therefore top priority. An Israeli company NeuroQuest app sounds an alarm and a reminder to check the back that this method can pinpoint the type of cells from which “We are really excited to receive this award,” said Anagog’s is working with the University of California-San Diego seat. The user can set the app to remind them at a certain the circulating DNA originated. CEO Ofer Tziperman. “The fast adoption of our mobility on clinical validation trials of its blood test for very early times of the day or at the end of every trip, thus ensuring status technology by so many app developers from all over ‘An exciting approach for diagnostic medicine’ diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, based on award-winning that there is a backup reminder in case they miss the first the world, gave us the opportunity to provide an exciting research led by Prof. Michal Schwartz of the Weizmann one. The test was able to detect pancreatic beta-cell death fast growing crowd sourced parking service.” Institute of Science in Rehovot. in the blood of patients with new-onset type 1 diabetes, The app was released in July 2013, after a spate of incidents What Waze is to traffic, Anagog hopes to be for parking. oligodendrocyte death in patients with relapsing multiple Now, researchers from three Israeli institutions –Tel Aviv in Israel in which drivers forgot their sleeping infants and Anagog provides access to what the company calls the sclerosis, brain-cell death in patients after traumatic or University, Technion and Rambam Medical Center in Haifa toddlers in the back seat of a vehicle – returning hours “the largest parking network in the world,” with hundreds ischemic brain damage, and exocrine pancreas cell death — and from Harvard University have published a study in later to find them dead of heat stroke. of millions of parking events. Users install apps which in patients with pancreatic cancer or pancreatitis. the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease that proposes testing include Anagog’s technology (there are over a dozen in a novel biomarker in the blood for cognitive aging and

36 37 ARGUS, CHECK POINT TEAM UP TO PREVENT with Check Point’s Capsule secure connectivity solution. scenario of rapid loss of cabin pressure en route. Beth-El Group, which employs about 1,200 employees. The The Argus solution analyses communication packets (the company makes products ranging from stretchers and CAR HACKING Working with the Israeli Health Ministry’s emergency segments of data) that come into and go out of the vehicle, personal filters to air-conditioning systems for armoured preparedness team, Beth-El also customized an As Wi-Fi-connected vehicles become more common, two determining if the packets are associated with the kind of vehicles and air-filtered shelters for residential and public Ebola containment tent for patients who must be kept Israeli cyber-security firms join forces to ensure the behaviour expected (ie, signals from specific IP addresses, buildings. quarantined for long periods. driver stays in control commands that make sense given the current activity of the vehicle, etc.). Capsule, meanwhile, creates a secure This bigger tent with a shower, sink and toilet is kept in By David Shamah environment, checking all the devices that the vehicle the underground emergency hospital at Rambam Medical TERRORIST OR CRIMINAL? NEW SOFTWARE Argus Cyber Security, one of the first – and still one of the connects with to ensure that they are safe – whether the Center in Haifa in order to keep highly contagious patients USES FACE ANALYSIS TO FIND OUT few –companies in the world to provide solutions for car vehicle is using a cell phone or on-board Wi-Fi to allow away from the main building. The Israeli company Faception says its facial-analysis security, is teaming up with cyber-security giant Check devices, monitors, and sensors to communicate with the The Ebola containment tent is “unique in the world as far technology will be used by ‘a leading homeland security Point to provide security systems for cars. Internet. as I know,” says Guy Zymann, Beth-El Industries’ regional agency.’ “Internet-connected telematics and infotainment systems sales and marketing manager for Southeast Asia. “What Pulling a poker face means betraying no visible emotion, have developed into new areas for cyber attackers,” said made me proud as a citizen is that the head of emergency so that opponents can’t tell what you’re really thinking. Alon Kantor, Vice President of Business Development supplies for the Ministry of Health came to Rambam last at Check Point. “Together with Argus, Check Point is spring and initiated a surprise drill in which he acted as But a Tel Aviv startup’s face-profiling technology recently extending its industry-leading technology into automotive an Ebola patient to examine firsthand how well the unit proved fairly accurate at predicting which four players cyber security, creating a holistic, cloud-based approach works. He even showered in the tent.” were most likely to beat out 46 other contenders in an to staying ahead of threats in these new business models amateur poker tournament. Two of those four were among created by the Internet of Things.” Portable and easy to assemble the event’s three finalists. In the world market, Beth-El Industries is a key supplier to And now, the company reports that it has signed a contract EBOLA CAN’T ESCAPE ISRAELI MOBILE many NATO and other armies and NGOs. with an unnamed “leading homeland security agency” to help identify terrorists through its technology, which In Italy, the International Red Cross asked Beth-El to devise ISOLATION UNITS analyzes faces shown in photos and videos and classifies an IsoArk isolation ambulance for transporting groups of Many countries use Beth-El Industries products to protect them according to 15 parameters predictive of personality Argus Cybersecurity founders from right to left: Zohar migrants suspected of having contagious diseases. against deadly viruses as well as chemical, biological, traits and types. Zisapel, Chairman; Oron Lavi, VP R&D; Ofer Ben Noon, radiological and nuclear threats. The German army deploys IsoArk tents when soldiers Purportedly it can detect with high accuracy if you are, say, CEO; Yaron Galula, CTO (Photo credit: Courtesy) contract an infectious disease overseas, so they can be By Abigail Klein Leichman a genius, an extrovert or a criminal. treated on site while safely quarantined. “Argus’s mission is to promote car connectivity without “We understand the human much better than other humans compromising on safety, security and privacy,” said Yoni The Israeli NGO Eye From Zion, which provides free cataract understand each other,” Faception CEO Shai Gilboa told Heilbronn, Vice President of Marketing at Argus Cyber surgeries in countries such as Nepal, Vietnam, Myanmar, The Washington Post. “Our personality is determined by Security. “Partnering with the world’s leading cyber Kenya and Ethiopia, worked with Beth-El to customize an our DNA and reflected in our face. It’s a kind of signal.” security vendor emphasizes Argus’s commitment to IsoArk tent as a Mobile Operating Room (MOR). achieving that goal. By bringing together Argus’s innovative Gilboa said Faception evaluate faces with 80 percent in-vehicle intrusion detection and prevention capabilities Protecting the inside and outside accuracy for certain traits. “Utilizing advanced machine- learning techniques, we developed and continue to evolve and Check Point’s unmatched expertise in providing secure Zymann says Beth-El’s mobile isolation units, which he an array of classifiers. These classifiers represent a certain connectivity solutions we can now provide a joint offering describes as easy to assemble and disassemble without persona, with a unique personality type, a collection of that answers current and future cyber security needs of tools, provide high flexibility for different scenarios and personality traits or behaviors. Our algorithms can score the automotive industry.” can be deployed directly in the problem area. “Yet their cost an individual according to their fit to these classifiers. Nearly all models offered today by companies like GM, is still significantly lower than that of stationary isolation Mercedes-Benz and Toyota offer connection options, units,” he says. “Ultimately, we can score facial images on a set of classifiers and provide our clients with a better understanding of their and come equipped with Wi-Fi (using 3G and 4G data In addition to isolation units designed to keep airborne customers, the people in front of them or in front of their connections), allowing drivers and passengers to use the At Kaplan Medical Center, a patient is isolated inside the viruses and bacteria inside, Beth-El Industries makes cameras.” Internet in their vehicles to get directions, tune into cloud- IsoArk tent, protecting everyone in the intensive care unit collective protection systems designed to keep out CBRN based music services, and much more. But connected from infectious disease. Photo courtesy of Kaplan Medical threats. Both types of products rely on sophisticated Faception is offering the software as one tool among many cars aren’t just convenient for drivers: Many cyber-experts Center, Rehovot filtration systems. that governments can use in the global war on terror. believe they will be the Next Big Thing in hacking, providing When an infectious pandemic hits – SARS, swine flu, hackers with challenges that will give them a whole new “When protecting against a CBRN threat, you isolate the Unlike face-recognition technology, which relies on MERS or Ebola, for instance – health officials in dozens of venue to conquer. inside environment by filtering the incoming air. At the matching faces to those already in a database, facial countries turn to the Israeli company Beth-El Industries same time, overpressure is created in the protected area to profiling relies on scientific studies suggesting that A good example of how this works was highlighted last for its IsoArk biological isolation units. ensure that even if the enclosure isn’t hermetically sealed, personality is determined by DNA and reflected in the face. July, when white-hat hackers Charlie Miller and Chris The line was first developed in response to a request from the air escaping the chamber prevents contamination from Therefore, it can pinpoint potentially problematic people Valasek took control of a Chrysler Jeep vehicle being the Israeli Ministry of Health in 2002, as part of Israel’s flowing in,” explains Zymann. not previously known to authorities. driven at top speed by Wired journalist Andy Greenberg. national preparedness plan during the SARS pandemic. Miller and Valasek turned the radio on full-blast, ran the “For biological isolation, it’s the other way around. The Only three of the 11 terrorists behind the November When the Ebola virus pandemic erupted in 2014, Beth-El’s air-conditioner, and even took control of the accelerator outside environment is protected from contamination or 2015 terror attacks in Paris had criminal records, Gilboa isolation systems were ready to be deployed in hospitals, – scaring Greenberg to the point where he was forced to contagious agents inside the chamber by filtering the air points out in a video about Faception. “Our technology airports and field hospitals in Africa and around the globe. “drop any semblance of bravery, grab my iPhone with a flowing out and creating negative pressure inside.” classified nine of them as potential terrorists with no prior knowledge.” clammy fist, and beg the hackers to make it stop.” Among the many countries that used IsoArk products Owned by a cooperative community of the same name in during that crisis was Spain. The Spanish air force used To fend off such attacks, Argus and Check Point will be northwest Israel, Beth-El Industries was founded 40 years Despite, or perhaps because of, the ethical controversy raised a stretcher-based IsoArk unit to airlift a Spanish priest offering Argus’s Intrusion Detection and Prevention ago as an income source for the community and to help by its proprietary computer-vision and machine-learning infected with Ebola virus disease to Madrid from Liberia. System (IDPS) for in-vehicle cyber security, integrated protect Israel’s population. It’s one of six companies in the technology, Faception has been getting a lot of press. The product was specially designed to withstand a possible

38 39 The company, founded in 2014, was a finalist in the LDV natural pesticides, which have been developed from plants the greenhouse to prevent insect attraction, which makes completed a 180-km cycling marathon. He remains very Vision Summit 2016 in New York City. An alumnus of the and herbs. the insects go elsewhere. active today, says CartiHeal CEO Nir Altschuler. 500 Startups accelerator in San Francisco, Faception is “Our clinical results to date confirm rapid cartilage and now a member of Sosa innovators’ community in South In the study, greenhouses in Italy where tomatoes are The GateKeeper system, widely marketed in Israel, bone formation, as clearly visible on MRIs and X-rays,” Tel Aviv. grown using EdenShield’s GateKeeper prevented close was installed in tomato, basil, and medical-marijuana says Altschuler, who founded the company in 2009. “Most to 100% penetration of pests and led to a reduction of greenhouses in beta sites in Israel and Spain, parallel to Banks and marketers are among other professionals who of the patients are reporting significant improvement in over 80% in the use of pesticides. Control greenhouses the independent study in Italy. All sites reported a reduction might find Faception’s methodology valuable. Gilboa said pain level and return to normal function, including sports.” demonstrated pest penetration of over 500%. of over 80% in the use of conventional pesticides and in the he and his team believe their technology represents a incidence of plant viruses. CartiHeal is now expanding clinical trials due to a recent multibillion-dollar opportunity. EdenShield, a portfolio company of Trendlines Agtech, $15 million funding round led by Johnson & Johnson Faception’s website describes the team as including develops insect-control solutions derived from natural “We are delighted with GateKeeper’s results at various Innovation and its development corporation, JJDC, along “world-class experts in the areas of computer vision, face plant extracts. The products are nontoxic, so they pose no installations in Israel, Italy, and Spain,” said Kidron. “We with all previous investors. analysis, machine learning, psychology, technology and danger to growers or consumers. And they can be used are especially pleased that leading growers acquired the So far, nearly 200 patients marketing.” throughout the growing period, especially during the systems for a large number of greenhouses after observing have received the implant in critical pre-harvest period. the system’s efficiency in substantially reducing viruses “Our mission is to revolutionize how companies, 12 centres throughout Europe, while significantly reducing the use and heavy expense of organizations and even robots understand people to says Altschuler. The on-going According to D. Todd Dollinger of the Trendlines Agtech pesticides.” dramatically improve public safety, communications, studies will determine if the accelerator, EdenShield’s products “have the capacity to decision-making, and experiences.” novel implant could also be make a major impact on our food chain, making production used in other joints such as more efficient and consumption healthier.” the ankle and the big toe. KEEPING BAD BUGS AT BAY, NO POISON CARTILAGE REGENERATION ON THE WAY NEEDED Yaniv Kitron, CEO and inventor of the EdenShield system, FOR KNEES, OSTEOARTHRITIS “Today, patients with has worked in chemical engineering and herb extraction osteoarthritis have two potential treatments: a conservative CartiHeal, developer of a novel joint-repair solution, raises for nearly two decades. Several years ago, he noticed approach, such as HA injections and physiotherapy on $15m investment to advance clinical trials ahead of 2017 EdenShield’s GateKeeper kept almost 100% of crop- something: Pests tended to avoid certain bushes and one end, and knee replacement on the other end,” says European launch. destroying pests out of greenhouses — without plants, even if they were untreated by pesticide. Upon Altschuler. pesticides. further research, he realized that what was keeping the Agili-C, a revolutionary cartilage regenerating technology “There is nothing really in between, so if the condition of By David Shamah bugs away wasn’t chemicals, but the natural aversion of from Israeli start up CartiHeal that could revolutionize the joint is not severe enough to justify replacement and the pests themselves to secretions emitted by the plant. treatment for cartilage damage and osteoarthritis, is the patient is not responding to conservative treatment, preparing for a 2017 launch in the European market. doctors have nothing else to offer. We will try to bridge this The pests that are deflected by the secretions in the desert gap with the Agili-C.” plants researched by Kitron — including thrips, whiteflies, red spider mites, and Tuta absoluta (leaf miners) — are the In addition, CartiHeal is planning to scale up the same ones that make life hell for farmers, who are forced manufacturing facility at its headquarters in Kfar Saba and to spray ever-larger amounts of pesticides to keep the is preparing for preliminary discussions with the US Food bugs out of their tomatoes, lettuce, greenhouse flowers, and Drug Administration. and other crops. Why not extract the secretions and use Agili-C could potentially be the first product on the market them to defend those plants? to regenerate hyaline cartilage, as opposed to “hyaline- like” cartilage that is actually a non-lasting fibrous tissue, Thus was born the idea for EdenShield, said Kitron. “The Altschuler explains. herbs that we use are endemic to the Israeli desert. And our team has discovered that the specific types of pests we Farmers face a major crisis today — a “Damned if you do, are battling don’t like their odor. So, by turning the herb into an essence that can be sprayed or otherwise applied damned if you don’t” crisis. Farmers need to keep their In addition to its original indication for patients with knee A NEW NON-INVASIVE MONITORING TEST to nets, the pests don’t even come near, preferring to find fields free of insects that eat crops and destroy their cartilage damaged by traumatic injury, the biological plants that don’t feature a scent they cannot tolerate.” FOR BLADDER CANCER livelihood. scaffold is now being tested for effectiveness in certain cases of osteoarthritis. This would widen its potential By Abigail Klein Leichman It’s even better than pesticide, Kitron claimed, because However, the pesticides that are effective against those market significantly. The Israeli company Nucleix has developed a simple, insects are causing major environmental damage, killing the bugs won’t build up a resistance to the odor, as they Cartilage, the flexible soft tissue that cushions joints – inexpensive urine test to monitor bladder cancer, which off not only pests, but helpful insects such as bees. would to bug spray. “Their dislike of these substances is hardwired into their DNA, so they won’t even come close especially in the knee – cannot self-heal once damaged, has the highest lifetime treatment cost per patient of all because it lacks blood vessels. types of cancer. Studies have linked the disappearance of bees around the enough to try to ‘learn’ to like them. Instead, they’ll just fly world, known as Colony Collapse Disorder, to the overuse off elsewhere.” The Agili-C surgical implant is a biological scaffold onto Bladder EpiCheck is expected to be available in Europe in of pesticides. Because bees are the effective pollinators of which the body’s own stem cells grow and regenerate the the third quarter of 2016, says Nucleix President and Chief fruit trees — scientists believe that as much as one-third The GateKeeper includes a sprinkler system that is damaged bone and cartilage naturally. Gradually, over six Operating Officer Opher Shapira. Right now, the product of human nutrition is due to bee pollination — fewer bees installed at the entrance of the greenhouse. The sprinkler to 12 months, the scaffold is replaced with a top layer of is undergoing advanced clinical trials in the Netherlands, means less food. But without pesticides, bug infestations is designed to spray the EdenShield Net natural pesticide hyaline cartilage and a bottom layer of bone identical to Germany, Spain and Israel. would rise significantly, causing just as many crop losses. product intermittently throughout the day around the the body’s own tissues in a normal joint. entrance and on the greenhouse netting — not on the “We expect to earn the CE mark this summer, and probably The first patient treated with Agili-C was a 47-year- next year we will start clinical trials in the US and then Fortunately, an Israeli start-up has developed a middle plants themselves. old Slovenian former athlete whose knee cartilage was apply for FDA approval,” Shapira explains. way — a system that enables farmers to protect their damaged due to a volleyball injury. crops, while avoiding the use of environment-destroying The aromatic components of EdenShield Net, when Shapiro explains that because bladder cancer has a high pesticides. And a new study conducted by that start-up, sprayed on the greenhouse vents and netting, mask the Only six months after his operation in June 2011, he was rate of recurrence, patients must be monitored invasively EdenShield, showed just how effective are the company’s odor of the plants, enhancing the protective capabilities of back on the ski slopes, and during the following year even every few months after initial treatment. Nucleix therefore

40 41 saw a market need for a noninvasive “liquid biopsy” assay and Adam Wasserstrom (VP development) – with a focus on SOFTWHEEL REVEALS PLAN TO VANQUISH using body fluids rather than body tissues. forensic medicine, but they later shifted to bioinformatics. FLAT TIRES FOREVER Nucleix President and COO OpherShapira. Photo: courtesy Their novel technology to detect areas of DNA changes The revolutionary wheel technology from Israel, already in cancerous tissue led to the development of proprietary “A urine test is very improving lives of wheelchair-users, is putting a new markers and an assay to identify them. simple and painless, spin on bikes and cars. and if there is a The test “reads” changes in the methylation pattern of By Abigail Klein Leichman tumor there are many DNA against a large background of normal signals coming markers present from healthy cells. Methylation, a process that activates or in the urine,” says deactivates specific genes, is a powerful tool to distinguish Shapira. “We had between cell types. Cancer cells are always characterized wonderful results in by changes in methylation pattern. our own tests on 200 “We are developing two other applications based on the patients, and to get intervention has been very challenging. core technology, for lung and colorectal cancer,” says regulatory clearance Shapiro. These will use blood samples. we have to replicate During research on direct protein function, the team those results on hundreds of patients.” “As far as we know, ours is the best technology available discovered that there were other factors that seemed to for detecting changes in liquid biopsies,” he says. “Some prevent gene expression via physical concealment — that The urine test has been shown to have 90 percent companies have colorectal cancer tests using stool or is, through a protein that prevents the interaction between sensitivity, 83% specificity and 97% negative predictive blood, but we believe ours is superior.” the gene and the factor attempting to activate it. value. “Negative predictive value is especially good for monitoring; if we say there is no cancer, you can trust it,” Dan J. Gelvan, managing director for life sciences at “The concealing protein can be thought of as a tall man says Shapira. Aurum Ventures MKI, said, “We are excited to join this sitting in front of you in the cinema,” said Amit. “Another great company and are hopeful that this not only will turn The company, based in Rehovot, saw a high level of interest analogy is that of a solar eclipse. In fact, this can be SoftWheel, the Israeli company that literally reinvented the into a great financial success, but also make a sustainable from urologists following its presentation to the American described as a kind of ‘genetic eclipse’ where some wheel by replacing the traditional spoke-and-rim hub with and significant contribution to mankind.” Urology association in San Diego last May. proteins settle on a DNA segment at a point on the gene an innovative automatic suspension system, is entering which conceals the factor that is supposed to activate it, the automotive sector, announced CEO Daniel Barel at the That was followed by a $3 million fundraising round led effectively suppressing the gene.” AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington, DC. by Aurum Ventures MKI, the tech investments arm of A NEW WAY TO KEEP GENES ‘DOWN’ COULD Morris Kahn, and existing shareholder Zohar Zisapel, LEAD TO CANCER CURE If this is so, this physical mechanism of gene suppression The company’s Enduro car wheel will bring the same a well-known Israeli entrepreneur and private investor. radical improvements to automobiles that SoftWheel has By David Shamah should be predictable since, unlike with their function, Its previous round in 2014 raised $5.5 million mainly the physical contours of genes are similar. To test out the already brought to wheelchairs and bicycles. from OrbiMed, Zisapel and other private investors. Since There’s more than one way to suppress a gene – and theory, the team conducted an experiment: computing One of those improvements is making flat tires a thing of Nucleix was founded in 2008, the company has raised a a new discovery by Technion scientists could lead to a the probability that a protein-bound DNA molecule will the past. That is because the SoftWheel system uses a total of about $13 million. revolutionary new method of regulating genetic activity. “loop” (a process that sets off DNA transcription, the first rigid tire that is not filled with air. The fresh capital will be used toward clinical trials, as well step of gene expression), and using synthetic enhancers “The best way to revolutionize the world is to revolutionize as to expand the workforce from its current 16 employees In a study published in the scientific journal Nature (mutations to induce change in a gene) to test the model’s transportation,” Barel said. “No more flat tires, 20% more and initiate marketing of Bladder EpiCheck, the company’s Communications, assistant professor Roee Amit, a predictions in bacteria. After checking hundreds of such energy efficiency, better maneuverability, higher safety, first product. faculty member at Technion’s Faculty of Biotechnology enhancers, they applied them to native genomes using a lighter — better in every way.” and Food Engineering, along with colleagues, described computer program that examined how the mechanism a mechanism in which a protein can intervene physically affected specific genes. In addition to its original location in Tel Aviv, SoftWheel between a gene and a factor attempting to activate it. opened a factory in Charlotte, North Carolina and has As this method of gene suppression is new, much more another coming soon in the Czech Republic. Previously unknown, this mechanism could enable research is needed – but the initial research was good On the AIPAC stage, SoftWheel’s product specialist scientists to develop methods to suppress diseases like enough to qualify the team for a €4 million grant from Dror Cohen demonstrated how the company’s Acrobat cystic fibrosis and sickle-cell anaemia, as well as more the Future and Emerging Technologies Open program of wheelchair wheels enable descending stairs smoothly, common diseases that are caused by gene activity or the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 program. The with the shocks absorbed by the wheel hub rather than mutations, such as many forms of cancer. team will expand to five research groups working together the chair. to decipher the principle regulatory codes of bacteria, “We verified this model through experimentations yeast, mammalian cells and flies, in an effort to further Cohen, an Israel Air Force veteran, has been wheelchair- Bladder cancer is the fifth most common cancer in the conducted on 300 synthetic regulatory sequences in understand physical gene suppression – and how it can be bound for the past 24 years following a car crash. world and the fourth most common cancer among men, bacteria, and it led us to establish this new concept,” said applied in humans to prevent disease. with more than 200,000 new patients diagnosed annually. “In SoftWheel we are all veterans, and veterans are dear Amit. “We now believe that this mechanism evolved as an In the United States, 800,000 bladder cancer patients are to us,” said Barel. “For the past six months we were able effective mechanism for genetic silencing.” “The regulatory code is a type of programming language subjected to a lifelong cycle of testing and monitoring. to bring [our] wheelchairs to over 100 veterans in the through which the genome is able to control gene US alone” through the nonprofit Indy Fund and the US “This additional round will further strengthen our ability to expression in terms of location, timing and intensity,” said Genetic suppression is a biological term that refers to the Veterans Administration. execute our plan of becoming a world leader in epigenetics repression of genetic activity by the cell. Through direct Amit. “The study will make use of innovative DNA printing in general and in cancer diagnosis and monitoring protein function, living cells know how to activate genes technologies in order to rewrite the code and examine the SoftWheel’s Fluent wheel for bicycles, introduced late specifically,” commented Nucleix chairman and CEO Elon through a process known as gene regulation, and to “turn output of synthetic applications in living cells.” in 2015, “is our clearest vision for the future of urban Ganor. them off” or suppress them, through a process known as transportation,” added Barel. “Because the cushioning is The researchers hope to decipher the genomic syntax inside the wheel and there is no air in the tire, that means Finding changes in pattern inside cells repression. Researchers have been experimenting with ways to activate or deactivate genes in order to control of living cells by writing tens of thousands of synthetic no more flat tires on your bike.” Ganor founded Nucleix together with two Weizmann control sequences. diseases, but as each gene is activated in its own way, Incorporated in 2011 with support from Rad-BioMed Institute of Science PhDs — Danny Frumkin (VP research) devising an overall method to regulate genes via that Technology Accelerator and the Office of the Chief

42 43 bakery,” she said. cancer indications could be granted within the coming binding memorandum of understanding with Siemens as year, says Vortman. well. The first patient to get an Exablate Neuro treatment at the Haifa hospital is still without tremor two years later, said Last October, Insightec signed distribution agreements for “The realization of the vision to build a next-generation, Rambam neurologist Ilana Schlesinger. Exablate in India, Australia, New Zealand and Turkey. non-invasive outpatient operating room is well on its way,” says Vortman. “I think it is the most gratifying and amazing treatment The Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety recently that exists,” Schlesinger said. “Pre-treatment, all of our approved Exablate Neuro to treat movement, pain and “In the next two to five years we’ll see more and more patients suffer from a severe tremor and they all come out behavioural disorders. And Japan is now considering indications joining the approvals we have for body of the Exablate Neuro treatment without it. I call it magic.” approval of the Exablate Neuro platform for various applications and neurosurgery. I visualize a time when neurosurgical disorders. surgeons will think of MRgFUS as the first treatment alternative. This is really where we want to be.” “In the brain, our strategy was to start with addressing Scientist of the Israeli Ministry of Economy, SoftWheel has diseases of the central nervous system such as essential tremor, tremor-dominant Parkinson’s disease and distributor agreements with Living Spinal of California, Da REVOLUTIONARY ISRAELI TECHNOLOGY Vinci Mobility of the UK, and Red One Medical Devices in neuropathic pain,” says Vortman. Georgia; and a partnership with Crawford Composites of TURNS OFF THE PAIN OF PERIODS North Carolina. “We intend to add to this advanced Parkinson’s and hopefully epilepsy. The second part will be brain tumours. The launch of Livia is eagerly awaited by women across “We’ve seen tremendous demand beyond our wildest We hope to start significant clinical research in this the globe looking for non-narcotic relief from menstrual dreams,” said Barel. application by the end of this year.” cramps.

THE SURGERY-FREE OPERATING ROOM OF By Abigail Klein Leichman TOMORROW IS HERE Exablate Neuro enables MRI-guided brain operations without surgery. Photo courtesy of Insightec Exablate MRI-guided ultrasound platform from Israel can fix conditions from fibroids to tremors without Neurology, oncology, gynaecology anesthesia or incisions. Kobi Vortman, formerly president of Elbit Medical Imaging, In March, 200 participants in the 16th International founded Insightec as an Elbit subsidiary in 1999 to develop Symposium on Therapeutic Ultrasound in Tel Aviv saw and commercialize MR-guided focused ultrasound a live streamed medical procedure to cure a woman’s (MRgFUS) technology. essential tremor without incisions or anesthesia. Since 2011, when Exablate won a spot on TIME magazine’s 2011 list of 50 best inventions, the Israeli-made Exablate Exablate is used in an MRI facility rather than an operating (for body treatments) and Exablate Neuro (for brain room. Photo courtesy of Insightec treatments) have been used in several countries to treat The pain-blocking wearable device comes in an assortment more than 14,000 neurosurgery, oncology and gynaecology Worldwide, 29 clinical studies of Exablate have been of colors. Photo courtesy of Livia outpatients noninvasively. completed, including the first-ever clinical study that successfully opened the blood-brain barrier (BBB) When female reporters from publications including Vortman, who has a PhD in electro-optics from the temporarily in order to deliver chemotherapy to a Canadian Cosmopolitan, Seventeen and HuffPost opened packages Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, envisioned patient’s malignant brain tumour. containing a wearable device to relieve menstrual pain, MRgFUS as the centrepiece of the scalpel-free operating they probably didn’t realize it was invented by an Israeli room of the future. “This is a very important step in the development of father and son. MR-guided focused ultrasound technology,” said Eyal “We started with benign uterine fibroids, which afflict a Zadicario, Insightec’s vice president for R&D. But that odd fact didn’t really matter. The device, called quarter of all women sometime in their lives and usually Livia, has created a buzz worldwide and has garnered Neurology and radiology experts at Rambam Health are treated with a hysterectomy,” explains Vortman. Dr. Maurice R. Ferré, CEO and chairman of Insightec, said more than $300,000 so far from supporters.. Care Campus in Haifa used the Exablate Neuro system “We expanded into oncology, beginning with metastatic the company “will continue to invest in the development iPulse Medical, the company behind Livia, was founded in developed in Israel by Insightec. Guided by magnetic bone tumours. Our next steps will take us into significant of its technology for a wider range of clinical indications.” April 2015 and is headed by Chen Nachum, a 36-year-old resonance (MR) imaging, they focused multiple ultrasonic unmet needs in liver and pancreas cancer,” he says. bachelor. beams of acoustic energy to heat and destroy target cells “Exablate is becoming a mainstream treatment alternative Though the global company Philips established an in the patient’s thalamus. in oncology and benign applications.” MRgFUS division in 2006 for body indications, “We are “The technology is my father’s,” Nachum explains doing everything humanly possible to keep Insightec as the Zvi Nachum, a medical patents developer, was Looking on in amazement from Tel Aviv, the conference In the United States, Exablate is approved for alleviating world leader in this field,” says Vortman. experimenting with pain solutions for a different project and attendees saw the 65-year-old baker – who had suffered pain from cancerous bone tumours and for removing discovered how to fine-tune the frequency and wave shape tremors for a decade despite medication – walk out of the uterine fibroids. Exablate Neuro is under FDA review for The 168-employee company completed a $22 million of an existing technology called TENS (transcutaneous three-hour procedure, sit down and slice a celebratory treatment of essential tremor. Series D funding round in December last year. Insightec electrical nerve stimulation) to block specific types of pain. cake to share with the neurology team. is based in Tirat Carmel, Israel, with offices in the United “But that wasn’t his original project, so he put it aside and In Europe, Exablate is CE approved for treating essential States, China and Japan. I took over,” says Nachum. “I wanted to cry, because I could not remember when I tremor, tremor-dominant Parkinson’s disease, was able to drink a glass of water, and for the first time in neuropathic pain, bone metastasis, primary bone tumours, While Exablate is currently compatible only with GE Nachum gathered a mostly female group of Israeli experts over 10 years, I can finally return to serving people in my uterine fibroids and adenomyosis. CE approval for prostate imaging devices, the company recently signed a non- to birth Livia: industrial designers from Tenenbaum Hazan

44 45 from israel. INNOVATIONS Design Studio in Herzliya, marketing and branding gurus from Tross Creative in Tel Aviv, and publicists from Blonde 2.0 in Tel Aviv. It was the publicists who had the idea of 3D-printing 20 prototypes to send to influential women journalists.

The result is a small patent-pending wearable (available in a variety of fun colors) that claims to provide nearly instant relief from cramps in three easy steps: attach the electrodes via gel pads to the spot where pain is worst, clip the device onto a waistband or pocket, and switch it on. Livia lasts up to 15 hours on a single charge, doesn’t interfere with the menstrual cycle or hormonal balance, The Reuben Foundation and provides a discreet natural alternative to pain pills and hot-water bottles. Now nearing completion of the FDA and CE regulatory approval processes, Livia was clinically tested on 163 is proud to support women by Dr. Bari Kaplan at the Women’s Hospital of Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva.

“Over 50 percent of women suffer primary menstrual cramps, for which they consume large amounts of The Anglo-Israel Association painkillers,” said Kaplan, a male gynecologist. “Livia uses a pain-relief method that does not involve drug consumption. The idea is to close the ‘pain gates.’ The device stimulates the nerves, making it impossible for pain to pass. The method Livia uses has been proven effective and wishes everyone a in several clinical studies.” The drug-free system lasts up to 15 hours on a single charge. successful 67th Annual Dinner

Photo courtesy of Livia

Assembled in Israel, Livia devices are supposed to go on the market in October at an initial retail price of about $149, though Nachum hopes to reduce the cost as manufacturing becomes more streamlined. “Especially with people looking into holistic alternatives for food, medicine, and other industries, Livia is the natural step to take in order to get relief from menstrual pain, especially for women whose cramps can really be debilitating,” says Nachum.

Based in Ra’anana, iPulse Medical has established a corporate presence for Livia in Delaware in anticipation of a lot of demand in the American market. The device is expected to sell worldwide.

46 47 n March the AIA invited members to an evening with Dr TuviaTenenbom at the House of Lords. The evening proved to be both fascinating and revelatory Our guest speaker Dr TuviaTenenbom, Ihaving left Israel many years beforehand, decided to return on a fact-finding tour and has written a bestselling, chart topping, book on his experiences. Catch the Jew! recounts his adventures wandering around Israel and the Palestinian Authority for seven months in search of the untold truths. With total chutzpah, Tenenbom boldly goes where no Jew has gone before, at times risking his life as he assumes the identities of Tobi the German and even Abu Ali in order to probe into the many stories in this strange land and poke holes in all of them. “Finally, someone sheds a light on the hypocrisy of the Palestinian/ Israeli situation! Tuvia levels his finger squarely at Western and European NGO’s getting fat off the good intentions and misguided guilt of the world-at-large. He exposes the so-called journalists and do-gooders for what they truly are: self-righteous, unrepentant narcissists more concerned with keeping their budgets intact than working towards any real justice or peace. What’s so depressing about this book is how it also captures, beyond the tangled mess that has enveloped the land of milk and honey, the humanity and vibrancy of the Arab and Jewish population, giving us a sense of what could be, if we may ditch the entrenched BS and talk to one another as human CATCH THE JEW beings. But unfortunately this will never happen - there are simply too many “peace activists” with their demonizing agendas in the way, determined to maintain the status quo, no matter what the truth might be!” Tuvia Tenenbom is not just a best-selling author, but also a journalist, dramatist, and the founder of the Jewish Theater of New York. He studied for his doctorate in English literature at St. John s University, earned his MFA in playwriting at CUNY-Brooklyn, BS in mathematics and computer science at Touro, and finished his rabbinical studies in Jerusalem. He also studied Christianity and Islam in Israel and New York as well as journalism, acting, theatre, and finance (at NYU). Tuvia was named one of the best minds in America by Germany’s prestigious Die Zeit, and his theatrical work was hailed by the New York Times as irresistibly fascinating and by the Village Voice as theatre of integrity, inquiry and chutzpah. Tuvia’s articles and essays have been published in leading Western media, including Die Zeit of Germany (in which he has a monthly column), Corriere della Sera of Italy, Yedioth Ahronoth of Israel, and the American Fox News and Forward. He is the author of the Spiegel Top-10 Best Seller Allein unter Deutschen (I Sleep in Hitler’s Room in English), and the number one best seller in Israel- Catch the Jew!

48 49

inscription at the path’s side. It said be impossible not to mention Ruth

simply, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” Saunders, Jacob Vince, Avihu Cohen,

I do not think I can add to that. Mike Rogoff and the many others (both in Israel and the Palestinian Territories) ” “A Reflection who made the 2016 Clergy Study Tour The trip to Israel and the Palestinian such a blessing, such a special time and Territories has changed me, the very a real privilege. “A Reflection” special, enriching, meaningful journey through the land of the Bible has happened again. It has made me want to be more of a peacemaker, advocate The Rev. Paul Jack is a and reconciler in all that I do. It has Church of Ireland The Anglo Israel Association and Christian Friends of Israel 2016 Clergy Study Tour. made me more desirous and prayerful Minister (Anglican) than ever before God, that the Israeli and Rector of had been to Israel only once, in justice to standing high on the roadway on the trip. and Palestinian people will take the the Parish of late March 2011, on a Church at Mount Scopus and looking across at Much later on in the week Shabbat brave and incremental steps towards the St. Thomas, of Ireland Connor Diocesan Jerusalem in all its glory, as you hear was amazing. As it approached and peace, new relationships and prosperity Eglantine Pilgrimage along with 81 other the words of Psalm 122 read aloud. Or before darkness descended, there they all deserve. Avenue, pilgrims. It was a very special, being at the first ever new Palestinian was the busyness of the Mahane I would like to thank the Anglo Israel Belfast, Ienriching, meaningful journey town of Rawabi and hearing of all the Yehuda market in Jerusalem, it was Association and The Christian Friends Northern through the land of the Bible, in terms positive, exciting hopes and plans the colourful and happening, normal, of Israel in their generosity and for Ireland. of my own journey of Christian faith city planners have for its future. very dynamic and full of character. making this trip possible. It would also and “faith seeking understanding” to The Study Tour as a whole was very Then Shabbat began and there was use that densely challenging phrase busy and really challenging in many palpable quietness and tranquillity- of St Anselm. It led and inspired me aspects, you certainly learn a lot in a faith driven and enveloping Jerusalem. to deeper faith as it brought alive so very short space of time about politics, The Shabbat meal with Rabbi Yonatan vividly Jerusalem, Galilee and many the nature of the Israeli-Palestinian and his family was equally special, other of the places, stories learning about the Jewish and events of the Hebrew and faith and Sabbath. It made Christian Bible. me think about faith, all the It made me also deeply possibilities of commitment aware of the other passionate to relationship, interfaith commitments I have always dialogue and learning from had within my Christian each other. journey and ministry, a love So much is memorable; the of people and relationship, meeting with members of the a love and commitment to PLO negotiation advisory unit peace and reconciliation, a in Ramallah, led by a Xavier, love of fairness and justice. a Palestinian Christian, Another firm passion grew the productiveness, from these and out of that inventiveness and communal first visit to Israel and the living of life on Kibbutzim like Palestinian Territories and Saad (one of the oldest) or that is an interest in the Sde Eliyahu (Bio Bee and full Jewish faith and Islamic faith, of ecological innovation). their interaction with Christianity and conflict and what it’s like to be Jewish, I think of the students of Birzeit the dynamic between them all. Palestinian and Christian. University milling about with normal And so to get the invitation to go on the I think of many moments that were university life and academic study January 2016 Anglo Israel Association profoundly challenging or special and going on, yet mixed strongly with Clergy Tour was amazing, after 4 very often a combination of the two. A politics, and our meeting with Israeli years of concerned thinking about few of these follow. diplomats at the Ministry of Foreign the 2011 Holy Land trip and praying I think of us all gathered on the first Affairs in Jerusalem who were for peace and stability in the region, it day of the tour proper, at a Gaza Strip committed to peace-making in the was like an answer to a prayer I never observation point, learning about reality of great complexity and many said!! I was very soon really looking Gaza and its 1.8 million inhabitants of issues. I would like to go back to forward to the impending January whom about 75% are under 25. Then Ancient Shiloh one day because I 2016 Tour and after all the busyness visiting the Kerem Shalom crossing found it so biblically profound. of Christmas I was also full of quiet where 850 truckloads per day take One day, it was a bright morning on the expectation and anticipation. What all supplies into the Gaza Strip from shores of Lake Galilee, at the Church would it be like and what would it be Israel. There was the complexity of of the Beatitudes and we had just about? the poor relationships between Gaza finished a service of Holy Communion Well, like a lot of life, it was an and Israel and Gaza and Egypt. It was outside. On walking along the path, unfolding journey and it has to be a sobering and challenging time for us I stubbed my toe off a little marble experienced, an itinerary does little all, possibly one of the most profound

50 51 THE ELEVENTH ANGLO-ISRAEL COLLOQUIUM MEASURING THE VALUE OF THE ARTS

MISHKENOTSHA’ANANIM, JERUSALEM, 30 OCT-1 NOV, 2015

52 53 more troubling context of our deliberations was • The illustrious group of Israeli panellists that was This year’s Colloquium visited not ignored, took great skill, thought and careful so ably assembled by Prof. Micha Levin created an planning. atmosphere of academic excellence of the highest a topic that we had first level which enabled a most relevant dialogue and tackled back in 1998. In the 15 In general I found the discussion meetings lively, exchange of ideas with the UK participants. It is respectful, informative, well-run (all those glowing my personal conviction that discourse between years that have passed there things that people always say in the summing up Israeli arts practitioners and academics with their were pretty accurate I thought.). I’m afraid this is counterparts from the UK during this difficult have been major changes in going to be a bit gushy! What I found particularly period of international Boycott and political bias is illuminating was to continually be brought back to of primary importance. The fact that we were able the way the arts and culture comparisons between vastly different cultures and to create a positive and meaningful dialogue and different politics etc. I came across a good quote from meeting of minds among all the arts practitioners in general are perceived by anthropologist Gregory Bateson the other day who at a time when most international academics have a says something about how the word ‘idea’ in its most pre-set notion about the current Israeli intellectual the public, entrepreneurs and elementary sense is synonymous with ‘difference.’ environment was to my mind an achievement of the Difference teaches he insists. I also enjoyed the fact highest order. On a personal level I greatly enjoyed administrators of cultural that participants on both sides were drawn from meeting everyone and look forward to developing events, public and private various backgrounds - practitioners, academics, our acquaintance into meaningful friendships going administrators, philosophers; some insisting it’s forward. corporations and foundations, all about politics, others with a more personal even Amina Harris, Lawyer, spiritual engagement. The other thing I thought Chair of the International Society, donors and philanthropists, worked well was not having each session have the Cameri Theatre, Tel Aviv same format. This was maybe down to different and above all, the government chairs wanting to do things in different ways (rather • The colloquium was a great success, and I am glad than the planning, which maybe aimed to be more that enough of us were determined to make it to and the local authorities. ‘consistent’), but for me that ended up being helpful Jerusalem despite the difficult security and political in changing the pace. situations. Dialogue, it seems to me, is key here, The topic is one of real Ken Arnold, Head of Public Programmes, in keeping with Israel’s status as a parliamentary Wellcome Trust democracy and the wide variety of opinions contained interest and relevance to therein. The official part of the colloquium was on a • I wish to express my gratitude for inviting me to relevant topic to both countries, and I went away with both countries especially take part in the Anglo-Israel Colloquium 2015.The an understanding of the particular passion our Israeli with regard to what can be meetings were interesting, important and inspiring. colleagues had for the arts: For them the arts were I deeply appreciate the opportunity to meet leading not merely decorative but a vibrant and challenging considered “low” as opposed professionals (both locally and internationally) to expression of their identity. Mishkenot was an share dilemmas and complexities that concern us ideal venue, and the hospitality much appreciated. to “high” art and to what all. You have without a doubt succeeded - in these And although this may seem a minor point, I was troubled times - to create an island of sanity based on very grateful to our Israeli colleagues for speaking extent either or both should social and cultural dialogue that surely contributed to English not only during the formal proceedings, but all parties. With deep thanks and appreciation. also during our social interactions afterwards. This be funded – and by whom – if Aya Lurie, Director and Chief Curator, courtesy was very much appreciated by the UK Herzlia Museum of Contemporary Art participants. indeed they should be at all. Richard Howells, Dept. of • This year’s colloquium on “Measuring the Value of Culture, media and Our debates have often included the arts and in’ Measuring the Arts” was quite stimulating in terms of the arts, Creative Industries, the Value of the Arts’, we revisited many of the issues their value, and how (or whether it was appropriate) Kings College London debated in previous Colloquia. The coordination by our to measure that value. Our meeting and interacting chairpersons, and Professor Michael Levine with our with the participants from Israel was very provocative, indefatigable convenor Asher Weill made for excellent and I do think my team and I shall end up putting deliberations and heated exchange. They have set the bar together a collaboration with David Behar. I learned high for our next event to take place in 2017. quite a lot about the arts scene in Israel -- most importantly that the state is not very generous and • Full details of the Colloquium can be found on our that Israelis are much more creative with fund- website at www.angloisraelassociation.com raising. The art shown to us -- most notably by Omer Krieger and Michal Rovner -- was excellent and The 2015 Colloquium, was judged a great success and stimulated my interest in learning more about Israel. here are just a few extracts of the comments received I felt it was useful to hear from Said Abu Shakra, but from Participants. I also felt that informal conversations during dinner (particularly with David) made me feel much more • I wanted to thank you for making the last few days informed about the current political situation than such a rare treat! I felt a great sense of privilege one is from simply hearing about dramatic events in to be part of a consistently interesting, thoughtful, the newspapers. pertinent and challenging set of conversations. Harry Witchel, Lecturer on physiology, To do so in such a beautiful and relaxing setting, Brighton and Sussex Medical School but nonetheless to make sure that the bigger,

54 55 DEBATINGDEBATING DEBATINGDEBATINGDEBATINGDEBATINGDEBATING MATTERSMATTERS MATTERSMATTERSMATTERSMATTERSMATTERS

THE WINNING Ankori team. ‘Unlike ordinary debating tournaments, the Debating Matters format puts an emphasis on substance, not just rhetoric and style.’. (photo ISRAELISRAELcredit:ODED KARNI) ISRAELISRAELISRAELISRAELISRAEL

Following on from its success last year, the Anglo-Israel Association, the organizers decided to bring Israeli students know that learning it doesn’t have to be campuses. I can honestly say that the willingness of the AIA again supported Debating Matters Israel. the competition to Israel as well and see how Israeli torture. Entering DM has completely turned my students’ pupils to learn English has turned into a passion. students coped with stating their strong opinions in a views around, not because they liked studying all of a They were asking about DM2016 already in September, One of the teachers involved reported on her civilized manner that does not include shouting. sudden, but because they were having fun. Building their and lining up to take part in it. The ones who were chosen arguments, conducting thorough research on the topics school’s success. Unlike ordinary debating tournaments, the DM format puts to represent the school took their role seriously and were and preparing their presentations was something they did an emphasis on substance, not just rhetoric and style. The extremely proud in the knowledge they accumulated. to impress the judges, audience and the opposing team. participants have one month to prepare their showcase Forming intelligent questions was something they did Tom Ashkenazi Naim (18) said: “For the first time you are SCHOOL DEBATING on given contemporary key issues such as civics, science in order to fail their rivals. Winning the battles last year really praised and rewarded for doing this thing you love.” and society, and are judged by a panel of specialists from a It is Wednesday, April 13, 2016, and we are at the has brought them confidence and pride – but not for one wide range of professional backgrounds. His fellow student Eran Roi (17) remarked: “As students in National Library in Givat Ram, Jerusalem. It has just moment during that entire process did they realize they the Israeli educational system, Debating Matters was able been announced that our team from the Ankori School in The competition is open to basically everyone, including were learning. to provide us with a challenging task of thinking on our Jerusalem has made it to the finals of the English-language schools with a long tradition of debating and those with no Truly, seriously, learning; or that they were speaking feet and answering questions that we had not prepared Debating Matters (DM) Israel tournament in which we experience at all. English the whole time. for, making us think for ourselves.” were competing all day against 10 other Israeli schools, Well, no debating experience at all is something we Jewish and Arab. The thrilled students are preparing to go This is why debating matters to language and this is why David Roiterstein (17) said: “This competition taught all of definitely had, and I jumped on the opportunity and on stage, only to find out they have prepared to speak for it matters to education. Because forcing students to write us what we are willing to do to be the best we can be.” registered. Unfortunately when I broke the news to my the wrong side of the motion. For three horrifying minutes a 120-word opinion essay in their matriculation exam students they were not as keen and I had to work hard to And Or Halperin (18) added: “I believe winning was only it seems like a colossal disaster, as one of the speakers on some random “surprise” topic is, and forever will be, persuade them this was a good thing. the second-best prize. Us sticking as a team from start to an excruciating task that does not begin to scratch the runs outside with tears in her eyes. Even our opponents finish and having each other’s backs through and through The fact that I had to talk them into it has to do with how surface of their abilities. Why would they even want to from the Branco Weiss Rabin High School in Hadera are – that was the best prize we got from this competition.” sympathetic. studying is perceived by the average Israeli teenager: explore their abilities or stretch them, when they are finally a boring burden that they have to carry through their judged by a faceless entity that gives them a number? DM Indeed, placing first in the 2016 tournament has uplifted But then team spirit helps the students regain their adolescence, a series of tests they have to pass without gives them the opportunity for constant feedback on their their spirit, a considerable achievement we must not composure, and they just go on stage and do it. seeing a point to it, and a bunch of papers they need to get performance, as the judges take the time to explain at underestimate – but the broadening of their minds and And they win! It all started with an email I received from over with by the time they turn 18. length to each individual contestant why they did or didn’t horizons is the achievement they will probably never talk competition coordinator Joel Cohen last year, inviting our do well, and how they can improve. Each of the opening about, and the one that really counts. To add a debating competition to their to-do list was just school to take part in the pilot of DM Israel. As the English statements they wrote, and re-wrote and pondered and adding more weight to the heavy load they were already coordinator, I receive dozens of emails per day and most polished was a finer opinion essay than they could ever struggling with, therefore most of them simply refused to of them are tedious, but this one immediately caught my formulate on a test, because they were craving feedback cooperate, and the ones who said yes only did it because I The writer, known as Trixie, is an English teacher attention. Founded in 2002 by the Institute of Ideas (IoI), and because they cared about it. begged them to. and coordinator at the Ankori School in Jerusalem, DM is a national sixth-form debating competition involving Last year’s DM changed the atmosphere in the classroom where she also teaches drama and media. nearly 300 schools from around the UK, and has also been Every student in Israel knows why English matters. and its echo continued to resonate in the following months, operating successfully in India since 2008. It is the global language and they all agree they must learn so much so that our network of schools decided to have Following its success abroad and with the support of the it to maximize their future possibilities. However not all an English-language debating tournament involving all

56 57 In contrast, Israel makes use of 75% drip irrigation. country is now one third non-Jordanian and/or refugees. Netafim is a pioneer and global leader in drip irrigation Jordan is now planning to construct a desalination plant The 7th solutions with a global presence across 110 countries – at Aquaba – but this will only meet a small amount of the the group is currently working with strawberry growers in country’s water needs. South East England. Dr. Clive Lipchin, director of the Arava Institute’s Centre for Naty Barak made the key point that the technology Trans boundary Water Management from Israel, warned irrigates the plant itself, not the soil, commenting that a that the Middle East is now facing chronic water scarcity AMBASSADORS’ shift to drip irrigation use by farmers in Africa and India and said that desalination offered a key opportunity for the could also provide significant time savings. MENA countries. He also suggested that water should be considered in a regional, not a national context and that the However, one of the delegates raised the issue of the long- real borders of significance are hydrological, not political term effectiveness of drip irrigation, referring to growing borders, with water used to both underpin and drive peace levels of organic pollutants like toluene and benzene as agreements. a result of using recycled wastewater and the fact that Israel has now banned the use of boron in detergents. He Dr. David Johnstone from the University of Oxford said the went on to caution that irrigation with water solutions needed to address global water challenges were containing salts was beginning to change the not simply technical. They were also political and financial, soil physics of Israel. requiring innovative finance and new business models – and Israel could act as a key enabler to help address global Dr. Tim Hess, Associate Professor in Water issues. Management at Cranfield University, said that less than 2% of total annual water use Israel – looking to expand business clusters including in the UK was for irrigation, commenting water into global international markets that sometimes that there was a danger of Oded Distel, Director of Foreign Investments and Eco thinking that efficiency could be fixed simply Systems at Israel’s Ministry of Economy and Industry said by investing in technology – a view which has Israel was now looking to take the Israeli global business implications for the wider water sector. cluster into global international markets. He went on to point out that some work in the Similar trends are now being seen across different sectors UK had found low levels of efficiencies had ranging from water to health services, medicine and been generated by high-end technologies energy, including: which were supposed to deliver well and that technology itself could not address drainage • Big Data losses from a site. • Speed and efficiency He also made the interesting point that • Transparency research by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation had found no examples of mandatory use of • Personalisation AIA ROUNDTABLE 2016 – Israeli water sector – a model Eastern and Maghreb countries, all major water resources technology by regulators to ensure greater take-up. for addressing global water issues? are trans boundary. Israel is currently experiencing a boom in business growth, Regional water – “pace at which things change is pace at with around 1400 new start-ups in 2015 alone. The Israeli The 7th Ambassadors’ Round Table was held at the Foreign The country has made great efforts to secure its water what is politically feasible” water technologies sector currently consists of around and Commonwealth Office’s Lancaster House in February supply, which is maintained by Mekorot, the national 200 companies – including Takadu and Amiad – a growing Professor Tony Allan, head of the Water Research Group with the subject “Water innovation and regional co- water authority, via the implementation of novel water number of which are already selling their products and at Kings College London and the School of Oriental and operation in the water sector” The Round Table was held technologies. services into the UK and other countries. in conjunction with the Arava Institute for Environmental African Studies kicked off a fascinating discussion on Irrigation efficiency plays a key role in Israel’s agricultural Studies and discussed the way forward to the possibilities regional water management. Describing trans boundary Oded Distel commented: sector of greater technology and water resource sharing in the borders as “an un-researchable topic”, he commented; “Israel has successfully addressed water challenges Irrigation efficiency plays a key role in Israel’s agricultural water-stressed Middle East – with Israel serving as a “The pace at which things change is the pace at which they which are now being faced by countries across the globe – sector, where levels of up to 92% water irrigation efficiency model to address global water challenges. are politically feasible.” including the key issues of water security, resource scarcity, have been achieved via state-of-the-art response irrigation agricultural production and trans boundary cooperation. Opened by the Acting Israeli Ambassador Eitan Na’eh, Monther Hind from the Palestinian Wastewater Engineers using sensors and detectors integrated into a single As a country the need to develop our expertise in the water the Ambassadors’ Roundtable was attended by over Group which was set up in 2004 to support the Palestinian computer system. The sector also makes significant use sector and innovative technologies has been an imperative 80 delegates from international academic, research, Water Authority spoke about the problems and challenges of recycled wastewater – 85% of Israel’s sewage water is – and knowledge sharing and technology transfer could government, finance and business communities. faced by the Authority. Palestine currently has more than reclaimed and used for agricultural purposes. make a significant contribution to help other countries The thought-provoking and wide-ranging discussion 100 decentralised wastewater treatment plants which Farmers in Israel pay for the water they use and they successfully tackle similar problems.” during the day-long event covered a number of key issues are off-grid. Only 30% of the population is connected to are incentivized to practice the most efficient water use. related to water resources in the Middle East, including the wastewater network, with the remainder reliant on The more food produced per unit of water allows them to Israel’s surface and ground water resources and how cesspits, open ditches and septic tanks and only about benefit from better tax rates, likewise the more food which scarcity is being addressed via water management and 15% of generated wastewater is properly treated. is sent for export generates preferential exchange rates. policy. Suleiman Halasah from iGreens Environmental Consulting First appeared on ‘Water briefing’ Naty Barak, Chief Sustainability Officer at irrigation Water is treated as a national commodity and part of from Jordan, added that about 40% of Jordan’s water Elaine Coles, Managing Editor ‘Water briefing’ specialists Netafim, drew attention to the fact that homeland security in Israel, as with oil and gas resources. resources are trans boundary and that each Syrian worldwide, 78% of global irrigation is flood irrigation – In the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region itself, refugee in Jordan was costing its water sector around 500 currently only about 5% is drip irrigation. which extends from Morocco to Iran, including all Middle Jordanian dinars each year. The total population of the

58 59 INFORMAL FALLACIES AND THE ISRAEL By David Collier, DISCUSSION

‘justice’ (never ‘peace’) at every anti-Is- for peace. BDS commits yet another generation of raeli event I witness, I have long lost ordinary Palestinians to poverty and conflict, just as some count of the number of times universal Palestinian elites get treated like kings in foreign palaces. ore and more of the discussions on Israel, the ‘two adopted flag to oppose Zionism. The ‘occupation’ of 1967 ‘democracy’ is waved around as if it is the inevitable re- The way it has been for 100 years. state solution’ and even on definitions of anti-Sem- therefore is not, nor has it ever been the problem. sult of pressuring Israel to unilaterally cave in to their en- itism are played out in an unhealthy and unhelpful emies. Like most left wing visions of democracy, it comes M What the ‘occupation’ is however, is a thorn in the side of environment. The central themes are manipulated through across as supremacist, racist, one sided. Look to Syria, those that both internally and externally seek to build an SEVERAL RABBIT the application of irredeemably flawed logic, by smearing Libya, Iraq, Yemen, look to every nation in the region apart accommodation between two conflicting entities, one born all political opponents or building towers on informal fal- from Israel. What part of the relationship between West- to re-create the Jewish homeland, the other born to op- lacy. ern Democracy and Middle East reality are people having HOLES IN ISRAEL. pose that Jewish homeland. The two state solution is seen trouble understanding? We can begin with common statements. “Opposing settle- as a possible way of defusing the conflict. It argues that With no hope in sight, no partner on the horizon and no- ments is constructive criticism, not anti-Semitism”. An there are 2 possible endings, the total defeat of one of the Nothing can change until the narrative changes, until the body willing to force the Arabs into self-reflection, inter- attack on a specific policy, is not of course, in itself an- competing sides, or the ‘sharing scheme’, where somehow Palestinians begin to tell themselves the truth. To begin to national focus inevitably turns to Israel. After all, as the ti-Semitism. Or at least not the last time I checked. The both entities exist in the tiny area of land allotted to them. understand that they themselves are also responsible for ‘superpower’ of the region, Israel holds all the cards, and trouble however, is that the central arguments, like many International opinion overwhelmingly favours this ‘sharing what they encountered. That they have missed countless as an able defender of its citizens, Israel is more than ca- of those who push a similar line, exist inside a rabbit hole. scheme’. opportunities to make things better. The riots and massa- pable of taking risks. For a politician, who needs to be seen cres of the 1920’s and 1930’s, the rejection of partition, the to be doing something, Israel presents an entity that can Whilst at every single election, Israelis in the vast majority invasion by Arab irregulars in early 1948, the catastrophic be pressured. The Palestinians do not. vote for territorial compromise, the Palestinians made no leadership, the greedy Arab neighbours, all elements that THE ISSUE OF So focus turns to one of the areas captured in 1967. Not such strides. As Fatah publicly indicated a willingness to need to be absorbed. Historical events that inevitably lead Gaza, but the West Bank. Nobody talks about Gaza be- perhaps live within the sharing paradigm, new and more to ‘Nakba’. PALESTINIAN radical groups emerged. The fleeting light of Oslo exposed cause it reminds everyone of what happens when Israel a violent undercurrent of factionalised rejectionism. If you Unfortunately, the West fosters and reinforces the false cedes territory to those that seek to destroy it. Israel al- NATIONALISM do not represent the unifying Palestinian cause, you will narrative, working against any possibility of the Arab street ready did in Gaza what people want it to do in the West be replaced by those that will. Hence the rise of Hamas. ‘growing up’. Financing the NGO’s, perpetuating the Pales- Bank, they pulled out and dismantled all the settlements. Here is the crunch: The Palestinian identity was forged tinian refugee, and focusing on Israel’s actions because it It took weeks for the first rockets to fly, and just months Accommodating the ‘two state solution’ is seen as betray- as a response to British rule and Zionism. This is not the is more convenient to do this than face down the truth. And for Hamas to make things so much worse for everyone in al. Those endorsing it will be rejected and despised just same as saying they ‘never existed’ as people. As a result, the Boycott Divestment Sanctions strategy (BDS) is the the region. Now if Israel could only play nicer in the West as Fatah are. This is the tale I hear at every campus that what binds many of the Arabs of Ramallah, of the camps, worst offender of all. Bank, what could possibly go wrong? embraces BDS. Fatah are ‘complicit in Israeli war crimes’, of Gaza, is hatred towards pre-1967 Israel. Outside of this they ‘police the Palestinians for Israelis’. Only those not With every lie spun at every BDS event, with every vote The ‘rabbit hole’ is an argument that engages the people conflict, they have never functioned as a cohesive unit. willing to accept Israel are ‘loyal’ to the cause. So in any they receive, Palestinians are pushed further away from involved in something irrelevant, creating an ever larger Rather the opposite in fact, internally they are divided, vote that would take place today, Hamas would win. the negotiating table. A movement designed not to network of complex burrows to explore. The more you talk with split loyalties, different histories and vastly divergent push towards peace, but to propagate the fundamental about settlements, the bigger the problem of settlements post-conflict goals. An area of feuding clans in a backwa- This is an issue those pushing the ‘democratic’ angle, con- myths of the Palestinian narrative, driving yet another become. The less you talk about the problem of Palestinian ter part of the greater Arab nation, that unified under an veniently ignore. As I hear discussions of ‘equality’ and wedge between the peoples of the region and all hopes terrorism or rejectionism, the more irrelevant they seem.

60 61 You can create a virtual conflict simply by focusing on set- sides. Give me a different scenario, I may give a different the ‘leader’? tlers, Israeli extremism and settlements. You can expand response. Talk to me about Jordan. What is a settlement anyway, and then what exactly is a theories of democratic deficit, research the impact of ex- There is no agreement on Israel being removed from the ‘settler’? It depends on who you ask. If you ask some – tremism on Israeli society and build economic models to map. So there will be no agreement. Even if Hamas would there is no such thing. If you ask me, they are people in highlight how schools in Bat Yam suffer because of a road one day follow Fatah and accept the principle of two-states, caravans on hilltops. As you drift further left, more and in Ariel. Fascinating stuff. And in these burrows, only what the act of Hamas lowering the flag of Palestinian control more of Israelis become included. At a certain point as they want to talk about matters. ‘from the river to the sea’ would inevitably see them re- you leave the confines of left wing Zionism, the definition Settlements – rabbit hole, Israeli extremists – rabbit hole, placed just as Fatah were. crosses the green line, and by the time you enter discus- proportional response – rabbit hole, casualty figures – rab- sions with those I encounter on campus, that ‘settler’ The Arabs inside will not be allowed to sign away the rights bit hole. And whilst arguing about the conflict, if you ever brush has tainted every single *Jewish* Israeli. Even those of those outside. This is a core element of the problem that find yourself engaged in discussions focusing on Israel’s who consider every Jew on the West Bank a settler, may simply cannot be ignored. If you do a deal with 2 million treatment of the Bedouin in the Negev, you are engaged flinch at applying the same rule to the Golan. And yet be- in the west bank, then 4 million living outside will reject in a discussion without rhyme or reason – yes, you have tween annexed Jerusalem and the annexed Golan – what it. New terror groups will line up on the borders. Civil war voluntarily entered a rabbit hole. is the difference? will overthrow whoever signed the deal in Ramallah. The If you want to grasp this issue fully. Imagine the landscape situation will deteriorate and many Israelis and Palestini- Which renders the term itself one to be used to deliber- of UK politics in the period of 1935-1939. An entire appa- ans will die. Of course it is just scaremongering – after all, ately smear those you politically take issue with. Everyone ratus, vast amounts of money and endless arguments, all left wing optimism has always proven so reliable before. draws their own borders, this as they all point the finger of over how the UK needed to understand German grievances blame onto Israel. ‘Israel apparently does not want peace’. and find ways to reduce tension. When only one questioned Yet the visible truth, the majority opinion, that is represent- mattered – how to defeat the Nazis in war. Almost an entire ONE GIANT STRAW ed within the Israeli parties of Labour, the central parties nation lost down a rabbit hole that resulted in tens of mil- and Likud, posits that DESPITE the historical and legal lions of victims. False paradigms cost lives. MAN. underpinnings of the Jew inside ALL OF ISRAEL sacrifice or compromise may have to be made for peace. I was personally building bridges inside Ramallah, Jeri- WE HAVE HEARD cho, Bethlehem and Nablus just days, before the outbreak The vast majority of Israeli citizens, those who have lived of the second intifada. Like most Israelis I am willing to through the trauma and the experiences of Oslo and the IT ALL BEFORE. entertain a two state scenario that leaves Israel with rela- Gaza pull-out, sit to the right of the two state Oslo para- tively secure borders. Like most Israelis I have no interest digm. The ones that lived through the promises, listened The right wing says: “If Israel were to dismantle every set- in bringing up my children to fight. Like most Israelis a to every argument, experienced the reality of the violence tlement, pull out to 1967 lines what then? Rockets on Ben future with a Palestinian state at peace with Israel would that Oslo brought. These are the people who felt the ex- Gurion?” be my preference. For me, like most Israelis, Oslo was a plosions and experienced the loss. These people paid the trauma that on more than one occasion extracted a heavy price. They, in the vast majority – currently believe there is The left wing says: “It wouldn’t be like that, there would personal price. nobody to talk to, that peace is temporarily beyond us. As be restrictions on what they could do and anyway just one do I. But then hey, I lived through it too. rocket and we’d show them. Remember too, if Israel takes So my rejection of the two state solution is because I be- risks for peace, the international community would stand lieve it will only bring more war. Period. So when I engage The next question would be, if the Israelis are pressured by them…” people who I believe are lost down the rabbit hole of the again into doing something they know from experience will Oslo process, I have little time for their arguments. After go wrong, and it does, who ends up paying the price next At which point I stop you. We have heard it all before. I was all, to engage them you need to enter a rabbit hole your- time? in Israel before, during and after Oslo. For two decades self. those on the right warned of the consequences and those on the left said they were scaremongering. Talk of bombs It isn’t that the arguments do not make sense within the in the high street were rejected, talk of rockets on Kfar world vision in which they are created. They are intelligent By David Collier, Saba were ridiculed. Warnings of what would happen in positions, put forward by rational, well-intentioned people. Writes for ‘Beyond The Great Divide’ Gaza were cast aside. Look now at Gaza and see how the Applied onto a blank canvas of political possibilities, I can trap works. Is the international community standing by Is- even agree with much of what is being said. It is when that rael for the risks it took with the Gaza withdrawal? What theoretical logic is placed onto the real life complexities of can you really do to undo the damage that has been done? a world with Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, Iran, that everything falls apart. The plain truth is this. On every single occasion, the fears of the right have not just been realised but returned ten- It is only within an environment that denies or belittles fold. The optimism of the left has been rewarded with Israel’s very real, very radical enemies that Israel can be Israel being ostracised in the court of public opinion and presented as the party that does not want peace. All po- blamed for killing babies in Gaza. This is the Oslo project. sitions created from here, are built on informal fallacy. It The idea that somehow, the Arabs will accept self-rule and all suddenly becomes about an Israeli ‘land grab’. Israeli be led by people who want to make things better for every- designs on lands it captured in a defensive war in 1967 are one. Today, with events in Syria, we can just be thankful somehow responsible for a conflict that has been spilling the deal to return the Golan did not go ahead. Remember Jewish blood since 1920. that? Those on the left were telling us it was worth it. Suddenly the image is created that Israelis do not want So I currently reject the two state solution. Not because I to negotiate an agreement or hand over lands for peace. do not want the Arabs to have a state of their own. Not be- A fantasy driven discussion. What peaceful withdrawal? cause I want to hold on to land. Not because I am a racist. What negotiations? With whom are they meant to negoti- But because in the current circumstances, ceding land is ate? As the Palestinian factions split into ever decreasing the surest way to waste even more civilian lives; on both circles, just which particular clan is meant to be used as

62 63 FLORENTIN – Israel’s unofficial street art capital

By Abigail Klein Leichman

n the neighborhood of Florentin, galleries exhibit and gallery.” Indeed, the raw space provides an authentic ShiraGepstienMoshkovich Located at 54 Abarbanel Street near the Street Art Gallery, sell the works of popular street artists, stretching the context to the rotating exhibition. stands near Dede’s Under 1000 is managed by Moshkovich and Niv Borenstein, Iboundaries of public art. signature bandages and both graduates of Midrasha School of Art and former gallery Maya Gelfman’s signature co-owners. Street art is one of the most ascendant forms of visual yarn bird street sculpture, expression in cities across the world. In Israel, the in the Street Art Gallery. unofficial street-art capital is the bohemian South Tel Aviv Photo by Abigail Klein neighbourhood of Florentin. Leichman

And the art galleries in this fast gentrifying area are Though many of the works spearheading a movement to give greater exposure to hanging in the Street Art the works of prominent Israeli street artists such as Gallery mirror those painted on the walls and buildings of Know Hope (Adam Yekutiel), Foma, Dede, Wonky Monky, the neighbourhood, here you can buy the artworks as well Latzi, Untay (Boaz Sides), Signor Gi, jack-tml, Dioz, Maya “The Last Supper” by AdiSened hangs in the Street Art as street-art phone skins and archive-quality photographs Gelfman, NitzanMintz, Adi Sand, AdiSened, Oren Fischer, Gallery. Photo by Abigail Klein Leichman of street art by the internationally renowned Daniel Siboni, Ambi, Ometz and others. who co-owns the gallery with Eli Edri. Commercializing an essentially anti-establishment “This isn’t a regular concept, because street art belongs outdoor art form runs the risk of compromising its Edri also features many Tel Aviv street artists at his two- Under 1000 Gallery managers Niv Borenstein and Shira on the street and now it has a house,” says artist Shira character. Yet bringing them indoors assures the works’ year-old PachotM’Elef (Under 1000), a gallery promoting Gepstien Moshkovich. Photo by Abigail Klein Leichman Gepstien Moshkovich as she shows us around the new permanence, allows admirers to own them and helps the original Israeli artworks priced at less than $1,000 (that’s Street Art Gallery housed in a former carpenter shop off artists monetize their talent. dollars, not shekels). the intersection of Abarbanel and YedidyaFrenkel streets. “We have 150 artists and more than 600 works of art at any given time. You can find top artists of Israel, young artists, “But it’s not a gallery like other galleries. It matches the “In 2011, there was an exhibition of street art in the Helena photographers and street artists. The commonality is that concept of street art — it’s not a white cube like a museum Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art at the Tel Aviv everything costs under $1,000,” says Moshkovich. Museum of Art, and that represented a big step for the artists. But here it’s like their home,” says Moshkovich. “The same artists present their work for higher prices in “The whole story of street art is here in Florentin.” other galleries, but here they agree to sell a few works cheaper so that people can have art. This is the whole idea. Everyone deserves to have fine art.”

This arrangement enables artists to sell more pieces and build name recognition and wider exposure. “We have a large assortment so everyone can find an original piece that speaks to his heart and get it at an affordable price,” says Moshkovich, adding that purchases can be shipped worldwide.

64 65 Under 1000 features everything from Menashe Kadishman’s when sales are made; there are no posted prices. world-famous sheep to the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man by Christian Friends of Israel UK a Tel Aviv artist who goes by the street name Staypuff. “The point of this gallery is not about money. It’s a closed gallery, a gift to the neighbourhood,” says Cohen. “People can just come by and look and not feel uncomfortable as Education toward the Church they might when walking into a commercial gallery. I’m doing it to support art, and street art is definitely the new Advocacy alongside the UK Jewish community thing.” Aid to cross-community causes in Israel In the small yard behind the apartment building that houses Tiny Tiny, Cohen gives street-art workshops for children and teens. They tour the neighbourhood’s street art and then try it for themselves on white paper covering the walls of the outdoor space. Under 1000 has artworks on its roof for the benefit of On the front of the building and above its cornice, Cohen apartment dwellers across the road. Photo by Abigail Klein has installed 2D and 3D works by street artists including Leichman AdiSened, Marian Boo and Imaginary Duck. Her own creations are found throughout Florentin. MeshunaAppreciating at 112 Herzl Street in Florentinthe work also displays of the Anglo Israel Association Appreciating the work of the Anglo-Israel Association street art among its exhibitions. It was opened two years Baltimore native Mitchell Blickman, now living in Tel Aviv, ago by wire artist Anton Avramov and street artist Oren showcases and sells Cohen’s and several other artists’ Fischer. work online at TelAvivStreetArt.com. He started out by documenting the city’s street art, and branched out from “Street art is popular worldwide mainly due to its social there. and creative accessibility,” says Avramov. Taking it from the public sphere into a gallery “breaks the boundaries Blickman says that street-art tours are popular in of the art establishment,” giving the artists access to Florentin, especially Guy Sharett’s 90-minute StreetWise mainstream art-lovers while drawing in people – including Urban Culture & Graffiti Tour. teenagers – who don’t ordinarily go to museums, he adds. CFI Communications Tel: 01323 410810 Email: [email protected] Web: www.cfi.org.uk “Street art is an integral part of the urban landscape,” says You can even enjoy Israeli street art in your own home by Avramov. Facebook.com/cfiuk @cfi_uk www.cfi.org.uk purchasing street art-inspired clothing fromPilpeled or furniture fashioned from authentic Florentin street art by Street Capture.

Street Art Gallery and Under 1000: +972-3-652-6061 Tiny Tiny: [email protected] Meshuna: [email protected]

Patrons enjoying street artist Untay’s show at Meshuna Gallery in Florentin. Photo by Neat Eye Images

Technically speaking, the first dedicated street-art gallery in Florentin was Tiny Tiny, opened about two and a half years ago at 18 Florentin Street by street artist Murielle Cohen, a Montreal native. 1 Heath Street, Hampstead, London NW3 6TP Tiny Tiny is so small (3 feet wide by 13 feet deep) that you can’t walk inside. A display window gives passers-by a 24/7 peek into the narrow lighted space filled with works of one local artist at a time.

Every month, Cohen holds a block party at which she ceremoniously removes the newspaper from the window hiding the newest exhibition. Opening night is generally

66 67 srael’s $800 million widening and straightening of tion on either side of the roadway, including the replanting highway 1 between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv is in- of 30,000 flower bulbs in the Jewish National Fund’s Rabin tended to make travel safer and more convenient Park near Sha’arHagai. — not only for people but also for animals. Landesman says this is not the first ecological bridge in Although the abundant wildlife living in the hills Israel. “Animals that attempt to cross busy roads are hurt west of Jerusalem will not be driving on the high- and run over by cars and sometimes cause accidents,” he way, animals need to access food and habitats on says. “Netivei Israel works in collaboration with experts Iboth sides of the road. And so a 70-meter-wide concrete on ecology in order to provide safe passage for animals.” “eco-bridge” has been built over a six-kilometer section of new roadway between Sha’arHagai and the Shoresh Junction. “The overpass is necessary because the route of the paved road in the Jerusalem hills goes through areas that constitute habitats for hundreds of species of plants and wildlife,” says David Landesman, head of Highway 1 project for Netivei Israel National Transport Infrastructure Company. “There are dozens of types of animals in the area, including deer, gazelles, wild boars, foxes, jackals, hyenas, porcupines and many reptiles,” Landesman explains. “Establish- ing this ecological bridge is designed to allow safe passage of all animals in the vicinity and WHY DO it will make Route 1 into one of the greenest paved roads in the country in the coming years.” A view of the Highway 1 eco-bridge at night. When the new road is completed, the wind- ing lanes seen to the right will be rerouted under the bridge. Photo courtesy of Netivei FOXES, Israel The new wider road is expected to bring additional green benefits to the people and animals of the region by reducing fuel con- sumption and air pollution. It will be em- JACKALS bedded with sophisticated electronic sys- tems for traffic management and control, utilizing cameras, sensors and detectors. The new Highway 1 is considered one of AND HYENAS the most critical transportation projects to be undertaken over the upcoming years by the Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure CROSS and Road Safety and Netivei Israel. The body of the eco-bridge as seen in early 2016. Photo courtesy of Netivei Israel Landesman says the design plan for the animal overpass was created with the assistance of landscape, environment ISRAEL’S and architecture consultants, and with the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, with particular emphasis on scenic and ecological aspects. Luckily, the eco-bridge builders were able to take advan- tage of 200,000 cubic meters of dirt and sand excavated HIGHWAY 1? as part of Israel Railway’s ongoing construction of train tunnels connecting Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Landesman TO GET TO THE OTHER SIDE, THANKS TO A NEW ECO- says the dirt was brought to the site nearby in 5,000 trailer BRIDGE CONSTRUCTED AS PART OF ISRAEL’S REROUTING loads. OF THE JERUSALEM-TEL AVIV HIGHWAY. The overall construction project also includes landscape plans to preserve and restore hundreds of acres of vegeta- By Abigail Klein Leichman 68 69 THE IMPROBABLE HAPPINESS OF ISRAELIS Global surveys find Israel high on happiness and life-satisfaction rankings – despite threats all around. By Avinoam Bar-Yosef The Wall Street Journal

he World Happiness Report mention Jewish tradition as impor- than 90 countries, of all colours and 2016 Update ranks Israel tant. Strong families and long friend- walks of life, are united in one society. (Jews and Arabs) 11th of 158 ships stretching back to army service They cherish the sense of self-deter- countries evaluated for the as young adults, or even to childhood, mination. TUnited Nations. Israel also shines as also foster a sense of well-being. All And it isn’t just Jews. Go to any beach No. 5 of the 36 Organization for Eco- of these factors bolster the Jewish or shopping mall and – despite the nomic Cooperation and Development state’s raison d’être. frictions – you will see Jews and Ar- countries on the OECD’s Life Satisfac- This year, May 12 will mark the 68th abs peacefully coexisting. They all tion Index – ahead of the U.S., the U.K. anniversary of Israel’s founding, when can take pride in their country’s ac- and France. a nation was created against all odds. complishments, as when Israel faced How can this be so? Israelis live in The enormous challenges never erod- a water crisis a decade ago and a hostile and volatile neighborhood, ed Israelis’ energy, or hope. launched a desalination project that is engaged in an endless conflict with now the envy of the world. David Ben-Gurion, the first Israeli the Palestinians and under the threat prime minister, once said: “We will In 1964, my close childhood friend, of nuclear annihilation by Iran. If you know we have become a normal coun- Aryeh Argani, a young Israeli Defence crunch the different components of try when Jewish thieves and Jewish Force pilot, was killed in action. Since these indexes, Israel falls much fur- prostitutes conduct their business in then I have visited his grave every ther down the lists. It ranks only 24th Hebrew.” Well, in this respect Israel spring on Independence Day. Three in GDP per capita, and comes in at has done much better than he could years ago, I got a phone call from his No. 30 of the 36 OECD countries on have dreamed: with one ex-president squadron telling me that they had no- security and personal safety. Israel in jail for rape, and a former prime ticed that no one was participating in has only the 17th-highest per capita minister locked up for corruption. Is- the official memorials for Aryeh. He income in the world. raelis find comfort in the fact that the had been an only child, and the sor- But Israelis do not rank as stupid high and mighty are treated the same row destroyed his parents. The squad- on any index. Israel was the fifth- under the law as common crooks. ron had learned that he and I had been most innovative country in the 2015 friends, and they invited me to attend Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Bloomberg Innovation Index, and a a memorial for Aryeh. In the pilots’ who died in 2014, once recalled that 2014 OECD study ranked it fourth in club of Squadron 103, I found, a cor- after finishing a day’s work with his the percentage of adults with a higher ner of the club is dedicated to Aryeh’s father in their Kfar Malal fields, he education. memory. His violin rests there. had pointed out in frustration how So what explains the Israeli paradox? much was left to be plowed. His fa- These kinds of things make Israelis Do Israelis only become stupid when ther, Samuel, told him to turn around proud and happy. If the global hap- thinking about their own happiness? and take in how much they had done. piness and satisfaction index could measure them, we might get a better The explanation probably lies in indi- In every aspect of Israel’s existence grip on the Israeli paradox. cators not considered in standard sur- there is plenty left to be plowed – plenty veys. For instance, a new study by the of room for improvement. Yet Israelis (Mr. Bar-Yosef is a former chief Jewish People Policy Institute, looked take comfort in looking back and sa- diplomatic correspondent and at pluralism in Israel and found that voring how much has been achieved, Washington bureau chief for the 83% of Israel’s Jewish citizens con- how sovereignty over the land of their Israeli daily Maariv.) sider their nationality “significant” to forefathers was reclaimed. At least their identity. Eighty per cent men- 60% of the Israeli population, now tion that Jewish culture is also “sig- eight million, are Jewish immigrants nificant.” More than two-thirds (69%) or their children. Jews from more

70 71 The AIA Educational Trusts very prestigious. Second, many of the Israelis who are of- the two Trusts, Baroness Meta Ramsay in celebrating her JONATHAN GORDON Report on scholarship trusts fered a place have to reject the offer as there are almost Birthday donated £30,000 to the Kenneth Lindsay Trust. So Jonathan is studying at the University of Cambridge for no available scholarships for Israeli students. This has got for this year we could solve our problem and have awarded a full time MPhil in Machine Learning, Speech and Lan- By Linda Diamond to change; Israel is losing the war over the world’s public a £1,000 scholarship to the following excellent graduates. guage Technology. His aspiration is to lead a research opinion”. BUT we cannot continue without your help and we would group working on the theoretical and applied aspects of urgently ask you to consider supporting this worthwhile Machine Learning. He feels strongly that contributions in ducation makes a people easy to lead but difficult to The Kenneth Lindsay Trust fund is struggling and urgently cause. Any donation – large or small – can make a big this area could be significant to many aspects of science, Edrive: easy to govern, but impossible to enslave. needs an injection of funds. Each year, we receive more difference. technology and society. Peter Brougham students applying for our Kenneth Lindsay Scholarships, and the standards of those applying are remarkable. This Kenneth Lindsay Scholarships for 2016 have been award- MICHAEL GRIZEN The Anglo Israel Association administers two Trusts – the makes it extremely difficult for our Trustees to decide who ed to the following:- Michael is studying at UCL for an MPhil in Mechanical Kenneth Lindsay Scholarship Trust commemorating a for- should be awarded a scholarship. We were extremely de- Engineering. He is a Thermal Engineer at MBT Division mer director of the Association which awards scholarships lighted and overwhelmed therefore,when our Chairman of ALON BARAM of Israel Aerospace Industries. He is interested in joining to Israeli students wishing to study Alon is studying at the University of Oxford as a graduate Dr.Towari’s team at UCL, as he is certain that it is possible in UK Universities and the Wyndham student for a DPhil in Clinical Neurosciences. During the to increase energy efficiency in many fields, through a bet- Deedes Travel Scholarship Trust, past year he has been working under Prof Tim Beherns’ ter understanding of the nano-scale transport phenome- named in honour of our founder, lab team in the department of clinical neurosciences, na. He hopes to employ the knowledge and experience he which provides scholarships for UK working to better understand psychiatric disorders such has gained to his PhD. graduates to undertake research in as schizophrenia. Israel. OHAD GUTMAN NAOMI CARELEBACH Ohad is at the London School of Economics for a full time As previously mentioned in our mag- Naomi is studying at the University of Oxford for a DPhil MSc in Political Science and Political Economy. azine these are very difficult times in Experimental Psychology. After completing her studies During the past two years, Ohad has taken part in key pro- for Jewish and Israeli students at- Naomi plans to go on to a postdoc and pursue a career jects both in the private and public sectors including Isra- tending universities in the UK but it in academia. Her goal is to combine research with clini- el’s Prime Minister’s Office and Ministry of Finance on a is imperative for us to continue to cal work in the development of cognitive assessment tools project which addressed the economic disparities of Isra- help Israeli graduates attend our and rehabilitative treatments following brain injury. el’s Arab sector. Their plan, has been recently validated in universities so that the other stu- a formal government resolution. dents may have the opportunity of meeting and engaging with them, rather than being force fed the terri- ble lies which are prevalent in many LSE University universities today.

One of our Kenneth Lindsay Schol- ars wrote the following – “the experience I have been through this year has brought me to the con- clusion that it is extremely important to have a greater presence of Israeli students in British academic institu- tions. It is vital for Israel and for Jew- ish communities abroad to balance the debate around the issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as to have a clear and decisive voice against those who deny the right of the State of Israel to exist. In gener- al, Israelis are underrepresented in British academic institutions and in the War Studies department in par- YAEL DROR ANAT HAAS ticular. There are two main reasons Yael is at the University of Oxford for a full time MSc in Law Anat is at Schumacher College in Devon for a full time, 1 for this; first, only one out of every and Finance. Her long term objective is to be a consultant year MA in Economics for Transition Degree. twenty applicants is accepted to this for the Israeli Parliament Constitutional, Law and Justice programme, as it is considered to be Committee.

72 73 YEHUDA INBAR MICHAEL MASHKAUTSAN ROTEM PERACH TALIA AMIRA SHMOOL Yehuda is studying at the Royal Academy of Music, as a full Michael is at the University of Oxford for a full time, Master Rotem is studying at the University of Kent for a PhD in Talia is studying at the University of Cambridge for a full time student, Advanced Diploma (Piano). of Public Policy (MPP) at the Blavatnik School of Govern- Psychology. In his first year, Rotem was able to present time PhD in Chemical Engineering. Yehuda started playing the piano at the age of six. After ment. He is aiming for a career in Israel’s public sector, his work to five academic conferences including two an- Her project focuses on direct quantifying terahertz and/ finishing his studies in Israel at both the Buchman-Meh- with a focus on promoting robust engines of growth by pro- nual conferences of The British Society for the Psychology or picosecond-nanosecond inter-molecular dynamics that ta school of music and the Jerusalem Academy of Music viding the adequate government policy and action. of Individual Differences (BSPID) and graduate festivals in govern the crystallisation of organic amorphous systems. and dance, furthering his studies abroad seemed to be the Canterbury and London. As an associate lecturer he has The goal of her project is to develop an analytical meth- essential step for his musical and personal development. DR ERAN MELKMAN taught British and international undergraduates in three od that can be used to quantify the likelihood of structur- Ernesto Macaro of the University of Oxford has offered courses. Across his academic pursuits, he strives to ac- al changes, ultimately culminating in crystallisation, oc- SHLOMO ROITER JESNER Eran Melkman a position as a Post-Doctoral Researcher tively represent and enhance the visibility of an inventive, curring in amorphous materials over extended periods. If Shlomo is studying at Hughes Hall, University of Cam- at the REES Centre in the Department of Education, Uni- educated and cultural side of Israel. successful, the Terahertz and Raman methods could be bridge for a BA in Human, Social and Political Sciences versity of Oxford. implemented for drug-development activities almost im- Tripos. Shlomo hopes to pursue a career in the diplomatic AHLAM RAHAL mediately. service or in a NGO dedicated to improving the perception Eran has already formulated a research proposal in col- Ahlam is studying at the University of Nottingham for a of Israel abroad. When going to Cambridge he understood laboration with Prof. Sebba the head of the Centre. He is full time, PhD in Education. She works as an educational SIGALIT SHMUL-COHEN it would not be “Israel friendly”. However the ignorance he confident that his post-doctoral studies will enable him to counsellor in the Max Stern College of EmekYezrael and in Sigalit is at the University of Derby for a full time doctoral found at a university which prides itself as being one of the enhance the understanding of the development pathways a high school. She hopes to establish an innovative centre degree in education. world’s leading academic institutions was mind-boggling. of risk and resilience among vulnerable children. which deals with challenging social and educational is- Her thesis deals with the integration of technology in He did not find students who were hateful towards Israel in sues relating to Israel and its multicultural needs. learning and her research subject identifies the change any manner, but simply students who were grossly misin- MICHAL MILNER required in the conception of the role of the teacher who formed. He feels an Israel presence on British universities Michal Milner is at the London School of Economics for a MAAYAN RAVID teaches generation Z students in a technologically inte- campuses is imperative if Israeli opinion is to be heard. full time, MSc in International Relations. Michal aims to Maayan is at the University of Oxford for a full time, DPhil grated environment. Criminology Degree. Maayan plans to pursue a DPhil, researching migrant YUVAL STAV treatment and ethnic conflict in light of migration to Israel. Yuval is studying at Schumacher College for a full time MA This project follows nearly a decade of grassroots involve- in Economics for Transition. ment in Israel: community activism alongside Sudanese and Eritrean asylum seekers, work with Ethiopian Jewish GAL TREGER communities, and with Israeli citizens in neighbourhoods Gal will be studying at The Blavatnik School of Govern- affected by immigration. Her doctoral proposal builds on ment, University of Oxford the findings of her MSt thesis and will deepen her exper- His main area of interest is the intersection between con- tise through a DPhil at Oxford which will allow her to pur- crete policy making and the intellectual depth of economic sue her goals and make a difference in the academic field theory, political philosophy and analytical problem solv- and beyond. ing. Whilst at Oxford University he intends to deepen his understanding of these topics, with the hope of eventually ISHAY ROSENTHAL implementing meaningful policy resolutions in the Israeli Cambridge University Ishay is at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL for an government. MSc Architectural Computation. Ihsay is an architect, practicing in Israel. He wanted to SHIRA TSUR both broaden his scope of thought and enhance his abil- Shira will be studying for a full time MSc in Clinical Mental YOTAM LEVY develop her career in organisations that advance, facilitate ities. The MSC Architectural Computation – is a leading Health Sciences at UCL. Yotam is studying at King’s College, London for a full time and support co-operation in the Middle East, particularly program in its field and has no equivalents in Israel. He PhD in Human and Physiological Sciences. Yotam’s previ- between Israel and its neighbours as well as the interna- hopes the skills he will acquire will enable him to create JONATHAN WAGNER ous work on Nemaline Myopathy has evolved into his cur- tional community. She is presently the Assistant for In- better cities and a better experience of the city by its users. Jonathan is at Imperial College London for a full time MSc rent research, where he is investigating the involvement ternational Affairs at Eco Peace Middle East. (EcoPeace in biomedical engineering. of a complex of muscle proteins (LINC complex) in muscle is an Israeli-Jordanian-Palestinian environmental peace IRA RYK-LAKHAM disorders and old age. He has developed a novel method building organisation based in Tel Aviv, Amman and Beth- Ira is studying at University College London PhD in Inter- YARON WOLF for imaging single muscle fibres in 3D and this emerges as lehem.) Her work involves cooperation and dialogue be- national Law of Foreign Investments. Her research subject Yaron is at Wadham College, Oxford studying for a D.Phil a very promising tool in muscle research. So much so that tween Israel, Palestine and Jordan over water, sanitation, for her PhD is “Armed Conflicts and Foreign Investments” in Philosophy. he has already presented his current study at conferences energy, mitigation of climate change impact and sustaina- or “Armed Investments and Foreign Conflicts?” – The Re- His research for his DPhil is in the philosophy of psychol- in France, Sweden and the USA. ble development issues. ciprocal Influence of the Laws of Armed Conflicts and In- ogy which he hopes will contribute both to contemporary ternational Law of Foreign Investment. debates and to the history of thought in this field. His DEVORAH MARGOLIN MARK MIRMELSTEIN Thesis title is - Attention to Life: Bergson’s Philosophy Devorah is at King’s College London for a full time, MPhil/ Mark is at University of Sussex for a full time PhD on As- DR YOCHAI SCHONMANN of Memory and the Frontiers of Psychology.Following his PhD in War Studies tronomy. Yochai will be studying at the London School of Hygiene & DPhil research, he intends to proceed towards an academ- She has worked as a Research Assistant on terrorism and Mark has been working on his research with Prof. Yoel Re- Tropical Medicine for an MSc in Epidemiology.Yochai is a ic career in Philosophy, aiming for a position at a leading counter terrorism at various institutes in California and phaeli at Tel Aviv University. In Sussex he can continue his young doctor specializing in family medicine. His ambition Israeli department of philosophy. Israel and was a participating member of IDC’s Delega- research with one of the most prominent researchers in is to become a highly qualified researcher, capable of ini- tion to NATO Headquarters in Brussels. After completing this field today, Dr Antony Lewis. In addition he has been tiating research projects on a national scale, collaborating her studies she would like to return to the IDC Herzliya to advised that currently there is no other Israeli in the Phys- with leading clinicians/researchers, and mentoring stu- teach. ics and Astronomy department in Sussex so he hopes to be dents and residents. Learning the most advanced current able to further connections between the UK and Israel at a methods to model and assess big population cohorts will scientific and personal level. allow him to develop more ambitious and innovative re- search projects when he returns to his post in Israel.

74 75 parison with the English legal system. Despite being closely rooted in English legal principles, from the time of the British Mandate, the Israeli legal system has evolved substantially in its own right and, in certain respects, has overtaken other longer established systems. The approach of the Israeli Supreme Court to issues of counterterrorism is particularly instructive to an English lawyer as legal in- stitutions in the UK are beginning to grapple with similar problems in the balance of national security against indi- vidual rights and freedoms.

It is evident that the Israeli Supreme Court is at the coalface with respect to the application of international legal norms to complex conflict situations and has embraced the chal- lenge of addressing competing issues of national security and human rights considerations. I believe, as an English lawyer, there is a great deal to be learned from the reason- Hebrew University ing exhibited by Israeli Supreme Court judgments in cases which demand complex legal balancing exercises. It was very encouraging to see an exchange of justices from the Israeli and UK Supreme Courts during my time in Israel. project she was asked by Yochai Avahami to teach a work- I believe that cooperation between legal bodies in the UK shop at the Bezalel Academy of Arts in Jerusalem. Her and in Israel can lead to an improved understanding of the Wyndham Deedes Scholarship research in Israel will involve 40 encounters that will be unique position that Israel finds itself in and the extent to designed in the form of an urban intervention aimed at which many legal and political institutions in Israel serve We encourage British students to study in Israel to see provoking dialogue about one’s inner journey. as a bulwark of human rights and a set positive example to first-hand what Israel is really like. They come back full of the international community.” enthusiasm and with a changed perspective. The objective We have received very interesting feedback from some of of the award is to enable graduates of British Universities, our recent scholars:- Sue Lawrence, is a PhD graduate of the Royal Holloway, who are normally resident in the UK, to make an inten- University of London. She examined the risk and resiliency sive study of some aspect (sociological, scientific, cultural, Natasha Handsdorff was awarded a WD Scholarship last in high risk Israeli youth. economic, etc.) of life in Israel. year. Natasha is a graduate of Oxford University and BPP Law School. After qualifying as a commercial solicitor with Tom Ellis a former WD scholar reports “During my Wyn- This year we awarded 3 scholarships to:- an American firm, she took a year out of work to pursue an dham Deedes scholarship I was a researcher in mathe- LLM at Tel Aviv University. As part of her focus on public matics under the supervision of Tel Aviv University Profes- TOM O’BRYAN international law, Natasha undertook research on interna- sor Boris Tsirelson. In collaboration with another Israeli Tom is a UK Kennedy Scholar at Harvard University’s John tional humanitarian law. She writes mathematician, Ohad Feldheim, I proved a result in the- F. Kennedy School of government, specializing in conflict oretical probability theory, in technical terms that “the resolution, peace building and human rights. He has been “I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the Anglo-Is- Brownian web is a two-dimensional black noise”. This invited for 3 months to work with the Office of the Quar- rael Association and the Wyndham Deedes Memorial Trust is only the second known example of a two-dimensional tet, the representative of the US, EU, Russia and the UK in for their support of my research while at Tel Aviv Univer- black noise, the first example having coincidentally been Israel and Palestine. Tom will play an important role sup- sity. It was a great privilege to have the opportunity of fo- discovered by another Israeli mathematician, the late, and porting the Quartet’s work to promote the rule of law, cat- cusing my study on international humanitarian law in an much celebrated, Oded Schramm, along with his collab- alyse economic development, reinforce peaceful cohabita- academic environment which is inevitably at the forefront orator Stanislav Smirnov. Finally, the paper that I wrote tion and respect for human rights. of analysing and developing international legal doctrine on when I was in Tel Aviv has been published in the Annales armed conflict. The experience has also afforded me an in- de l’Institut Henri Poincaré, a probability journal. CARTER SPEEDY depth perspective on the practical application of humani- Sonti Ramirez awarded a WD scholarship last year reports Carter is a PhD student at Goldsmiths, University of Lon- tarian norms and principles. on ‘Working towards a sustainable environment in Jeru- don from the unit for Sound Practice Research in the Mu- salem.’ sic Department. His research concerns arts-based sound- Being based in Israel made it possible for me to discuss Is- scape composition exploring the emergence of different rael’s humanitarian efforts with representatives of COGAT We hope to continue helping graduates to visit Israel diaspora spaces in the UK: specifically the influx of Jewish (the unit of the IDF concerned with the ‘Coordination of for many years to come but again we cannot do it with- refugees during the Second World War and contemporary Government Activities in the Territories’ and humanitar- out your help. Full details about both these scholar- refugee experiences. He has been accepted for the Grad- ian relief), Israeli army officials, politicians, lawyers and ships and how to donate may be found on our website at uate Studies Year Program at the Rothberg International judges, all of whom are substantially involved in ensuring www.angloisraelassociation.com School (part of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem). that the standards of humanitarian law are upheld in times of armed conflict. Indeed, it has been my observation that SAMINA VIRANI the Israeli Defence Force often goes beyond international Samina is a conceptual artist and founder of a creative legal requirements in its protection of civilians in armed residency program called “the rabbit hole”. It consists of conflict situations. There is likely a great deal that can be approximately 1400 creative people – academics, artists, learned from Israel’s example. philosophers, designers, filmmakers – from 56 countries. Through this residency, she has curated and created jour- While studying for my LLM, I had the opportunity to look neys and shows in New York, Europe and Israel. After the at the Israeli legal system in detail and analyse it in com-

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