Category Archive » Relations
Wounded Syrian arrives in Israel with note from doctor
The note
Syrian hospitalized in Safed brings note in Arabic from physicians who treated him before his transfer to Israel. ‘Patient was hit by bullet that penetrated his chest and caused a fracture in the lungs. Please do what is needed. Thank you in advance,’ note reads
One of the two injured Syrians who were admitted to Safed’s Ziv Medical Center on Saturday entered Israel with a note from the doctor who gave him first aid on the other side of the border.
The note, which was written in Arabic and addressed to Israeli doctors, includes details about the injured young Syrian’s condition: “To the respectable surgeon hello. The patient, 28, was injured from a bullet that penetrated his chest and caused a fracture in the lungs, as well as from shrapnel that caused damage to the diaphragm and liver.
“The chest has been opened up and the bleeding has been stopped. The abdomen has also been opened up and the bleeding in the liver has been stopped,” the note read. “It is the doctors’ opinion that the abdomen should be opened up to assess the condition of the liver and remove the pressure bandage. Please do what is needed. Thank you in advance.”
The note also detailed the medication that was given to the patient.
Dr. Oscar Embon, director of the Ziv Medical Center, said “the surgery the patient underwent in Syria was basic. I don’t know what instruments the doctors who treated him had at their disposal, but the operation apparently saved his life. Here he underwent a second liver operation. We stitched up his diaphragm and drained the chest.”
Some 20 injured Syrians have been treated in Israeli hospitals over the past few months.
Source: Ynetnews.com
Israel to help India diversify fruit, vegetable crops
Israel will offer technology and know-how to India to diversify its fruit and vegetable crops and raise their yield, senior Israeli officials has said.
New Delhi will also get help to set up 28 centres of excellence in 10 states over the next three years.
“We are providing technologies and know-how. Our focus is on training the trainers,” Daniel Carmon, head of Mashav, Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation, said.
Mr. Carmon said Israel will help set up 28 centres of excellence in 10 states, of which eight are likely to be functional by the end of 2013. Each centre will be focussed on specific fruit and vegetable crops.
Israel is a world leader in agriculture technologies. Despite limited water resources and a difficult environment, the yield per acre of most of the farm products in that country is among the highest in the world.
Mr. Carmon said yield can rise manifold in India with the help of generic Israeli technologies and agricultural techniques.
“We congratulate India on being self-sufficient in food. Feeding 1.2 billion people is not an easy task. But with improvement in technology, a lot more can be achieved,” he said.
Mr. Carmon said Israel would also offer help in increasing milk output in India. Average milk output per cow in Israel is around 12,000 litres, the highest in the world.
According to Uri Rubinstien, counsellor for international cooperation (Mashav), science and agriculture, at the Israeli embassy in New Delhi, Israel is providing seeds and technologies to help grow new variety of vegetables and fruits like capsicum, cucumber, mango, dates and herbs.
“We will be introducing a variety of coloured capsicum and a new variety of cucumber and other vegetables,” Mr. Rubinstien said.
Most vegetable and fruit crops in India are seasonal and have short life span. “Increasing the life span will boost output and earnings to farmers,” Mr. Rubinstien said.
One centre of excellence, to focus on orchards, was recently inaugurated in Haryana’s Sirsa district. Also in Haryana, another centre is proposed to be set up near Karnal, focussed on vegetables.
Mr. Carmon said two centres were functional in Maharashtra and would be formally inaugurated soon. Other states where the centres would be located include Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Gujarat and Karnataka.
Agriculture cooperation projects are also planned to be set up in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.
Mr. Rubinstien said Israeli technologies and know-how would play a significant role in the second green revolution in India.
“Now India needs to focus on increasing the production of healthy food like vegetables, fruits and milk. We have proven technology and would like India to benefit from it,” he added.
Source: TheHindu.com
Pope Francis says intends to visit Israel
Pope Francis Photo: AP
During meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister Elkin, Pope Francis says he has plans to visit Jewish state
Three months after succeeding Benedict XVI , Pope Francis has intimated he is planning a visit to Israel.
On Wednesday, the Pope met with Deputy Foreign Minister Zeev Elkin as part of Israel’s ongoing dialogue with the Vatican.
The two discussed the payment of property tax by churches in Israel. The Pope asked Elkin to push for an agreement on the matter.
The meeting was held at the Pope’s residence rather than the reception hall, at the Pope’s request. At the end of the meeting, the deputy foreign minister presented the Pope with a silver embossment of Jerusalem and invited him to visit Israel, to which he replied that he has every intention of doing so.
Source: Ynetnews.com
Viva la Tel Aviv (and France)
Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality has just announced that Vincent Autin and Bruno Boileau, the first Gay couple to be legally married in France last month, will be special guests of honor at the City’s Pride Parade this Friday!
Autin and Boileau will be in Tel Aviv especially to attend the Pride Parade. In addition to the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, the couple is also being hosted by the French Embassy in Israel.
This year’s Parade will be marking 20 years of pride in the city. From its humble beginnings in 1998, today the parade has become a major annual municipal event, as well as a ‘must do’ on the international gay calendar, drawing tens of thousands of participants and supporters from Israel and around the world, with over 100,000 expected to take part this year.
That Tel Aviv is one of the most gay-friendly cities in the world, let alone the Middle East, needs no introduction. In 2011, the city was even named ‘Best Gay City’ in a major survey conducted by the popular GayCities website
Mayor of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Ron Huldai: “The Pride Parade has turned into one of the symbols of the city of Tel Aviv with tens of thousands of participants and tourists from all over the country and the world. I believe that Tel Aviv-Yafo, a city of tolerance, is a beacon to other cities in this issue”.
According to Nadav Peretz of ‘Fabulous Israel’, which specialize in boutique travelling experience for the LGBT community to Israel, the reason Israel has become such a popular destination for gay travellers is due to its mix of “hot guys, hot girls, a dynamic nightlife, the beach, such and Middle Eastern cuisine, together with opened minded and liberal Tel Avivians.”
The Parade will kick off at 13:00, with floats, music, DJ’s, costumes and every which colour under the rainbow you can imagine! It will be formally launched by the Mayor Ron Huldai, together with leading politicians, including Yair Lapid (Minister of Finance), Limor Livnat (Minister of Culture), Tzipi Livni (Minister of Justice) and Shelly Yachimovich (Head of Opposition).
After a procession through the streets of central Tel Aviv, the Parade will culminate with a mega party on the beach, hosted by none other than Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli
The Parade is the jewel in the crown of Pride Month in Tel Aviv, during which the City will hold an array of cultural events, lectures, exhibitions, festivals and special attractions.
For all the info, make sure to check out the website at the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality
Israel to host European Rugby tourney this weekend
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This is a big week for Israeli rugby. On Sunday, the women’s national seven-a-side team finished a commendable third in the Division B European Nations Cup held in Bratislava, Slovakia.
Kurdish students in Iraq push for relations with Israel
Kurdish students: ‘We should have the same relations with Israel’
In University of Kurdistan, students debate whether to forge diplomatic ties with Israel. Debate judge tells Ynet ‘arguments focused on historical connection between Jews, Kurds, says believes can have ‘fruitful ties’
“Should Iraqi Kurdistan have open diplomatic relations with Israel?” Students in the University of Kurdistan think the answer is yes, at least that is the position that won during an unusual debate held in the university in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
More than 200 students from all of the university’s faculties showed up to take part. In the event, two teams numbering three people each faced off in front of a judges’ panel.
Susan Mandelvey, head of the university’s public relations and one of the members of the judges’ panel spoke to Ynet and said: “We see ourselves as an institution in which people can openly express their opinions.”
At the end of the debate, the judges’ panel decided that the team arguing for relations with Israel was victorious, and afterwards the audience echoed their decision vehemently voting in favor for relations with the Jewish state.
Another judge in the Erbil debate said: “The arguments of the winning team focused on the historic relations between Jews and Kurds. I also believe that we can have good and fruitful relations with Israel.”
Nonetheless, she diplomatically evaded giving further details on the character of those relations when pressed for an answer, saying “because I judged the debate I am barred from fully stating my own opinion. I need to remain neutral.”
Iraqi Kurdistan was formed in the wake of the 1991 Gulf War. Its formation was further spurred by the American invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Iraqi Kurds, who number around five million, enjoy the highest level of autonomy of the entire 30 million strong Kurdish population spread world wide, located mostly in Iran, Syria and Turkey.
In wake of Kurdish aspirations and independent identity, tension between the central regime in Baghdad and Masoud Barzani, Iraqi Kurdistan’s regional government president since 2005, have become common.