NORTH
Police officers and their students planted some 200 seedlings together
with first-graders in the Tzipori forest ahead of Tu Bishvat last
week.
The initiative, held in cooperation with Keren Kayemeth
LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund, was attended by children from the Or Avner school
in Kiryat Yam and members of the police studies program in Hodayot youth
village, along with their educators. The police studies program places an
emphasis on relations with the community, giving initiative and service to the
public.
This initiative was just one of many green events taking place
all over the country last week in honor of the environmentally friendly
festival. KKL-JNF announced that a record-breaking one million seedlings were
planted over the week, with more than 600,000 being planted by hundreds of
thousands of people in one day.
JNF world chairman Effi Stenzler issued a
message of thanks “to all the hundreds of thousands of people who participated
in the biggest Tu Bishvat planting enterprise ever held in the
country.
“Every seedling that was planted this Tu Bishvat will in its
lifetime absorb an average of 200 kilograms of carbon dioxide and will emit some
600 kg. of oxygen, which will result in green lungs for everyone,” he said. “The
State of Israel is the only country in the world that has more trees in the 21st
century than it had in the previous century.”
He added that the heavy
rainfall that showered the land ahead of Tu Bishvat would greatly aid the
seedlings to grow.
Haifa residents nabbed in prostitute-smuggling network
Police last week arrested suspected members of a network that smuggles minors to
Israel for prostitution.
Police arrested two men in their 30s, both
residents of the Haifa district, on suspicion of managing the
network.
Police said that the two worked alongside a young Ukrainian
woman living in Israel, to locate girls abroad and smuggle them to Israel to
work as prostitutes, seemingly with their consent.
Police search for
hit-and-run suspect
Police were searching for a white Citroën Berlingo van that
was involved in a hit-and-run road incident in Kiryat Bialik last weekend. A man
in his 50s was seriously injured in the accident and was taken to the Rambam
Medical Center for treatment. Police were also seeking a witness to the accident
and believed the suspect’s vehicle to be missing its right-hand side wing
mirror.
CENTER
Soldiers embark on ‘Operation Rescue Bird’ as Israel votes
As Israelis exercised their democratic rights on Election Day last week, the
United Hatzalah organization received an emergency call from soldiers regarding
a wounded bird. Soldiers serving at one of the Tzrifin bases had rescued a
little bird from the mouth of a hungry cat and were determined to find medical
help for their feathered friend.
One of the soldiers set out, with the
bird in a cardboard box, to the Ramat Gan Safari veterinary clinic. But he was
held up by heavy traffic, as the roads were jammed by day trippers taking
advantage of the national holiday. Fearing that he would be greatly delayed, the
solider turned to the volunteer emergency medical organization United Hatzalah.
The dispatch center sent out one of its volunteers by emergency motorcycle to
meet the soldier. The volunteer picked up the bird and hurried it to safety of
the safari clinic.
United Hatzalah spokesman Haim Greydinger said that he
and his colleagues were very moved by the soldiers’ efforts, and responded
accordingly to help save a life. “We hope the wounded bird will soon be able to
spread its wings,” Greydinger added.
‘Abraham Was an Optimist’
photography exhibition
A unique photography exhibition brought about by a chance
encounter between a German photographer and a Holocaust survivor opened this
week in Tel Aviv.
Neveh Shechter, in cooperation with the German Embassy
in Israel, is hosting the event, in which photographer Manuela Koska-Jäger and
Rabbi William Wolff document the past and present of the Jewish community in
Schwerin, West Pomerania.
The photographer met her subject while
wandering around a market in Berlin a decade ago; the hat-clad rabbi caught her
eye and his intriguing smile kindled their joint project. Koska-Jäger, who was
born in communist East Germany, previously had no knowledge of Judaism or the
Holocaust and was not aware of the existence of rabbis. Rabbi Wolff fled Nazi
Germany as a child and later re-established the Jewish community in
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern community, which is today the second-largest Jewish
community in the country.
The exhibition is open for two weeks, on 42
Chelouche Street, Neveh Tzedek.
Agriculture Ministry warns against buying
‘bad eggs’
The Agriculture Ministry issued a warning last week against buying
eggs stamped by Yossi Eggs Ltd., after it discovered that despite having had its
distribution license revoked, the company continued to market is
produce.
The warning came five months after police arrested company owner
Yossi Amar on suspicion of smuggling eggs from the Palestinian Authority into
Israel, among other allegations. Officials filed an indictment at the district
court, charging Amar with knowingly acting in a way that could spread disease,
transporting undocumented eggs in violation of Poultry Council regulations and illegally importing
animal products.
In light of these allegations, the ministry decided that
there was no place for Yossi Eggs to continue as a licensed contractor in the
eggs market, and thus canceled Amar’s accreditation. Yossi Eggs previously
distributed approximately 8 percent of the eggs on the market.
SOUTH
Beersheba man attacks officer over election propaganda material
A Beersheba
resident allegedly attacked a policeman on Election Day last week, after the
officer prevented him from entering the polling station with propaganda, the
Local website reported.
The police officer detained the suspect on the
grounds that he was breaking the law, which does not permit bringing propaganda
into polling stations. The police said that the man objected and subsequently
assaulted the officer.
In a separate incident, a fight broke out near the
polling station in a Beduin village near Tel Sheva, according to the website. A
17-yearold was evacuated to Soroka University Medical Center after being lightly
hit in the head, seemingly by a stone that was thrown at him.
Crystal
type drugs and cannabis found in Tel Sheva
Police found 200 grams of a crystal
type drug and 43.7 grams of cannabis divided into portions and four M16
cartridges in Tel Sheva last week.
The identity of the suspect was known
and police said that he would be arrested at a later date.
Ashdod poop
scoop campaign yields results
A long campaign to clean the city of Ashdod from
dog feces has borne fruit, according to municipality inspectors quoted by the
Local website. Through the formulation of a municipal bylaw, an emphatic PR
campaign, a happening for dogs and cooperation with dog owners, inspectors say
Ashdod has become both clean and dog-friendly.
“We see the change in the
public mentality and we are pleased with the cooperativeness of dog owners in
the city and their recognition of the PR campaign that urges them not to leave
their dogs’ feces in public areas,” the Local website quoted the manager of the
municipality’s inspectors’ unit, Moshe Binyamin, as saying. “In the last round
of inspections only one report was filed.” Inspectors patrol the city every day
starting at 6 a.m. “All the dog owners we met in recent days were equipped with
plastic bags and used them as needed, so the area remains clean and well-kept,”
Binyamin stated.
Young cancer patient goes on tour with police
Southern
District police made it their mission to fulfill a young cancer patient’s wish
to accompany police in their squad car for a day. Police learned of 11-year-old
Zohar’s dream when they visited the oncology ward in Soroka Medical Center over
Hanukka. Zohar was excited by their visit and told them of his dream, which they
promised to bring to fruition as soon as he felt better. When Zohar’s health
improved, his mother called to the boys in blue and they readily upheld their
promise.
Last week, FSM Guy Yeruham and Supt. Sarit Agami picked Zohar up
from his house in Beersheba with their police car and took him on a ride around
town to patrol the streets. They also explored the police station with the boy
and showed him the Division of Identification and Forensic Science and the
interrogation room.
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