City Notes: Peres visits summer camp for Hashomer Hatza’ir centennial

Weekly round-up of local news.

By TAMARA ZIEVE
City notes (photo credit: Wikicommons)
City notes
(photo credit: Wikicommons)
NORTH
President Shimon Peres visited the Shomria summer camp in the Jezreel Valley last weekend, to mark the centennial of the Hashomer Hatza’ir youth movement.
Peres received a special tour of the camp, which is hosting over 3,000 from Israel and around the world.
The president toured the tents and other facilities that the campers had built for the occasion, and sang along with the youth movement songs.
Hashomer Hatza’ir, a secular Zionist group, was founded in 1913 in Poland, Peres’s birthplace.
Peres saluted the thousands of participants, including groups from Germany, Australia and the United States. “Hashomer Hatza’ir is a glorious movement that contributed greatly to establishing and strengthening the State of Israel, even before the state was founded,” Peres told his young audience.
“The movement advocates values of peace and social justice and continues to contribute to society today.
I’m happy to see you here, successors, carrying forward the movement’s values.”
Woman, 76, killed by rock on windshield A 76-year-old woman from Nahariya was killed and another woman was injured in a car accident near Karmiel on Sunday.
The woman and her daughter were injured when a large rock that fell from a moving truck hit their car’s windshield.
Woman killed, teenager lightly hurt in collision outside Zemer A 60-year-old woman was killed and a 16-year-old boy was lightly injured in a collision between a car and a truck outside Zemer on Sunday.
The teenager was evacuated to Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera for further treatment.CENTER‘Israel Through Foreign Lenses’ exhibition to open in TEL AVIV A new exhibition, “Israel Through Foreign Lenses,” is due to open at Tel Aviv’s Beit Hatfutsot – Museum of the Jewish People at the end of the month. It will showcase, through various camera lenses, how foreign diplomats and journalists view Israel.
Some 450 photographs, submitted by photographers from the foreign diplomatic staff, were posted via a special interface deigned specially for the exhibition.
The best 50 images were selected and will be displayed; out of those, the winning top three photographers will receive prizes.
The project is an initiative of the Israeli Diplomatic Club, led by Julia Verdel, CEO and publisher of The Diplomatic Club Magazine, in cooperation with the Foreign Ministry’s Protocol and Official Guests Bureau, headed by Talya Lador-Fresher. The Tourism Ministry and the GPO also participated in the project.
The stated aim of the photographic competition is to promote the appreciation of photography, to discover emerging talent and to introduce foreign amateur photographers from the diplomatic staff, media, foundations and religious bodies to the artistic community of Israel.
Categories include family, nature and environments, daily life, fine art, and religion and spirituality.
Culture and Sport Minister Limor Livnat is scheduled to attend the opening event, which will be held on July 31 at 6 p.m. Other representatives from the Foreign and Tourism Ministries are also expected to attend.
Outstanding periphery students begin TAU summer program Twenty-five students selected from peripheral cities are set to attend the summer semester at Tel Aviv University, as part of an initiative led by the Negev and Galilee Development Ministry and World ORT Kadima Mada.
The students – graduates of the 10th and 11th grades – received scholarships after going through a rigorous screening process. They chose from a variety of university summer semester courses and will take exams at the end of the semester, after which they will receive credit that they will be able to use at whatever academic institution they choose to attend in the future. The scholarship includes residence at the dormitories at Hakfar Hayarok.
The venture, which is called “YOUniversity,” is operating in five cities in the Negev and the Galilee: Nahariya, Safed, Nazareth, Kiryat Gat and Dimona.
Last year, the Negev and Galilee Development Ministry and World ORT Kadima Mada established centers for youth to take various science and technology courses throughout the year, in cooperation with leading institutions in Israel’s industries and academic establishments.
Negev and Galilee Development Minister Silvan Shalom said: “The activities carried out by the Ministry of Development of the Negev and the Galilee in conjunction with World ORT Kadima Mada are unique and extraordinary in the opportunities that they offer to children of the Negev and the Galilee.
“These are activities that expose youth to the fields of science and technology with an emphasis on excellence at the highest level, and thus enable them to develop in those areas,” he added. World ORT Kadima Mada director Avi Ganon remarked that the centers open up new horizons to youth, in hopes that these youngsters will in the future go on to be central players in academia and in Israel’s science and technology industries.
TAU’s summer program aims to give talented young men and women from the periphery access to higher education and a window to the academic world and university life. Hundreds of students who participated in the program in the past are today integrated into top universities and educational institutions in Israel, according to World ORT Kadima Mada.
City of Netanya inaugurates new Ha’atzma’ut Square The city of Netanya on Sunday night inaugurated its new renovated Ha’atzma’ut Square in a festive event that included a “Sea of Love” show to mark Tu Be’av. The show included water screens, special fountain jets and interactive LED screens. Singer Rudy Beinsin put on a performance in honor of the occasion, and the Netanya Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Nancy Brandes, also featured in the event, along with dozens of dancers, actors and street performers.
Work on the square began in December 2011, and was slated to cost NIS 30 million.
SOUTH Beersheba police arrest men for attack after noise complaints Beersheba municipal police last weekend arrested two men in their 30s for allegedly attacking the team that had arrived at the scene in response to noise complaints, the Local website reported.
The officers arrived at a Beersheba neighborhood following a complaint over an unreasonable level of noise made by a group of people underneath a residential house, according to the report. According the complainants, the suspects refused to stop or lower the noise despite repeated requests from residents.
The police approached the men, whom they judged to be drunk, and requested that they leave the area. According the report, the group refused to do so and began to attack the officers.
During their arrests, a can of pepper spray fell to the ground, and a female suspect picked it up and allegedly used it against the policing team. The Local website reported that the police knew the identity of the suspect and said that she would be arrested at a later stage.
Municipal policing unit commander David Levy said that the violent behavior of the suspects against the police, and any other incidents of this nature, would be met with zero tolerance.
Maltreated Ashkelon dog confiscated from owners An Ashkelon veterinary service received an urgent call last week regarding a dog in poor physical condition, tied up with a short leash in the northern industrial area of the city, the Local website reported. Inspectors Moshe Peretz and Ophir Reuven arrived at the scene and discovered a very thin dog covered in sores and bruises, according to the report.
Upon their manager’s instructions, they immediately confiscated the dog and took it for treatment to the municipal dog pound, which serves as a shelter for abandoned canines.
After receiving initial treatment from the municipal veterinarian, in cooperation with Let the Animals Live, the dog was taken to a clinic associated with the animal rights NGO for further care.
Municipal veterinarian Dr. Gadi Sharvit said the veterinary service is “doing everything its power to prevent the abuse of animals and possession of pets that does not run in accordance with animal welfare laws.”
He added that justice would be served in every case in which a person is abusing an animal or holding it against the welfare laws. He said that in such cases, the 106 municipal hotline was available to receive complaints and pass on information to the around-the-clock veterinary service supervisor.