This week’s news is quite a mixture of sadness, controversy and joy. Israel is always a mixed bag of emotions, even the biggest supporters will agree on this! The last story we share in this post is especially eye opening, please make sure to read to the end. You can also read the original stories through the links in the titles of each story. The picture we shared above is part of the Judean desert after the winter rains last year. It is also close to the area written of in the first story.
Happy Weekend all and please share a smile today, you never know how it will help!
Rescue workers and medics at the scene of the flash floods in south Israel~pic:israelnationalnews.com
Twenty-five students from the Bnei Tzion pre-army preparatory academy in Tel Aviv were hiking in the Nahal Tzafit area in southern Israel this past Thursday when the group was hit by a flash flood. The hike was school sponsored exercise to help the new students bond before starting classes next year. It was confirmed that 10 had died in the flood and the search was still on for a missing truck driver.
The families and communities are in shock and mourning these deaths. What makes it even harder to bear is that the police had issued warnings to stay out of the area because of the risk of these types of flash floods. Police spokeswoman Meirav Lapidot said school administrators okayed the hike, despite flood warnings and instructions by police not to travel in the area. The headmaster of the school and two other staff members were arrested on suspicion of negligence and while two remain under arrest, one was released to house arrest.
“It’s a terrible tragedy and it’s easy to avoid such disasters. All you have to do is listen to instructions,” Laipodot told the Reshet Bet radio station. “We are issuing many warnings all the time, and it is unfortunate that we have reached this situation.” All of Israel and many around the world send their condolences to the victim’s families.
US Embassy in Tel Aviv (Ariel Schalit:AP)
The historic move of the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is going to happen. Plans were made and approved and now Israel is planning for the other countries embassies being moved to Jerusalem in the near future. Construction Minister Yoav Gallant, Israel, has instructed the top officials in his ministry to begin the process of planning and approving a new quarter for embassies from countries around the world that will be built in Jerusalem, he revealed on Thursday in an interview from New York.(jpost.com) The name of this embassy neighborhood is not finalized yet, but one option heard was “Trump Town”, after the President who kept his promise.
The Jerusalem Municipality also recently approved an emergency plan to build a second road to create better access for the interim embassy that will be housed in its Arnona neighborhood. City Council member Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, the leader of the Yerushalmim party stated, “I am thrilled that the US Embassy move has been the catalyst to other countries to finally recognize the reality that Jerusalem is and always will be the capital of Israel, and on a practical level, I am proud to have been part of the decision this week in the finance committee of the city to approve the construction needed on a road in Arnona for the embassy to move very soon.”
(L-R) Russia’s Mikhail Puliaev, Japan’s Hifumi Abe, Georgia’s Vazha Margvelashvili and Israel’s Tal Flicker celebrate on the podium during the medal ceremony at the World Judo Championships in Budapest on August 29, 2017. (AFP Photo/Attila Kisbenedek)
This year the European Judo Championships were held in Tel Aviv and when Israeli judoka Sagi Muki won a gold medal Friday in the under-81 kg class he was finally able to celebrate with his countrymen by singing the National Anthem of Israel. Previously, at the competition held in Abu Dhabi, all Israeli symbols and songs were forbidden, despite a direct ruling by the governing International Judo Federation that the UAE treat Israelis athletes equally.
Muki had won the gold in the 2015 championships and was considered a favorite for a medal at the 2016 Olympic games in Rio. However, he suffered two slipped discs in his back prior to the Games. Despite the injury, he managed to compete and reach the semifinals.
“It’s a dream come true to win in Israel. Since finishing Rio I’ve dreamed of this moment, with the entire rehabilitation process I’ve undergone,” Muki said. (timesofisrael.com)
The day of competition started with a moment of silence for the ten teens that had lost their lives the previous day in the Judean desert in a flash flood.
Over the course of several centuries, thousands of mines and tunnels were dug beneath what is now Timna National Park (Credit: Sara Toth Stub)
In Israel’s Negev Desert, the Timna National Park can be found. It is famous for its incredible rock formations and colors. But most intriguing of all is what can be found underground. Sara Toth Stub took a trip there and reported on the amazing finds for BBC.com.
She writes, “Timna National Park was once one of the centres of metal production in the ancient world; here, thousands of mining shafts and tunnels were painstakingly bored to harvest the copper embedded in the stone. This mine, and the others in the area, follow the horizontal turquoise veins of copper that snake through the ground south of the Dead Sea in both Israel and Jordan. Thousands of years ago, miners chiselled out this copper ore, carried it out of the mines, then heated it to extract a shiny metal that was used to make beads, pendants and other decorative items. It was among the earliest examples of people deriving metal from stone, Dr Ben-Yosef said, and thanks to the dry climate, Timna’s are among the world’s best-preserved ancient mines.
High-resolution radiocarbon dating of seeds and other organic matter left in the miners’ work camps indicates the mines were active between the 11th and 9th Centuries BC, lending credence to theories that Timna was the source of copper for the biblical King Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem. Definitely worth a visit!
An Israeli man who was whipped by a belt in an anti-Semitic attack while wearing a Jewish kippa (skullcap) in Berlin told German television on Wednesday night that he was not Jewish but wanted to find out whether it was safe to walk in the street dressed as a Jew.
Israeli Arab interviewed by Kann News in Germany after Anti Semitic attack. (screenshot of Twitter feed)
“I am not Jewish, I am an Israeli and I grew up in Israel in an Arab family,” Adam Armush, 21, told broadcaster Deutsche Welle. “It was an experience for me to wear the skullcap and go out into the street yesterday.” He said he filmed the attack on him and a second man as evidence “for the police and for the German people and even the world to see how terrible it is these days as a Jew to go through Berlin streets.” (timesofisrael.com)
Armush filmed one of three men who were following and cursing them, whipping him with a belt while calling out, “Yahudi,” or “Jew” in Arabic, before he is stopped by a passerby. It was unnerving to officials that the attack happened in a more upscale neighborhood, not a typical Muslim neighborhood.
In response to a rising number of anti Semitic attacks, Chancellor Merkel created a new position of commissioner to fight anti-Semitism under her new coalition government sworn in last month. One reason for the rise in anti-Semitic attacks has been attributed to the large influx of predominately Muslim asylum seekers since 2015.
You can watch the video through the link in the title.
