City Notes: As school starts, Hadera focuses on road safety

In effort to improve student safety, the Hadera Municipality repainted crosswalks, curbs and safety railings outside educational institutions.

By MICHAEL OMER-MAN
Tel Aviv Bike Rental 311 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Tel Aviv Bike Rental 311
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
NORTH
In an effort to improve road and student safety, the Hadera Municipality has been preparing for the new school year that began this week by repainting all of the crosswalks, curbs and safety railings outside educational institutions in the city, the Local website reported. Each year, municipal workers, along with various groups and government agencies, volunteer their time to make the improvements. The project is taking place during the first week of the school year, both during school hours and in the evening.
In addition, first graders will be given road-safety kits, designed to help them learn the rules of road safety and map out the safest way to get to and from school. The kits include a bag, a shirt, maps outlining the safest route to school, which they can plan together with their parents, bracelets, erasers and various other souvenirs from the National Road Safety Authority, Local reported.
Haifa love triangle leads to stabbing
A 40-year-old resident of Haifa was stabbed in the midst of a fight that broke out on Geula Street late last week, when a conflict developed between a couple after the wife returned home with another man.
It is believed that the woman’s husband stabbed the other man, injuring him critically. Magen David Adom paramedics evacuated the man to Bnei Zion Hospital in the city. He was said to be in a moderate to serious condition.
An initial police investigation revealed that the perpetrator is known to the police. Haifa police arrested the suspect.
Rabbi arrested on suspicion of vandalizing girls’ school
A rabbi and a number of his students stand accused of vandalizing a religious girls’ school in Hadera and of blocking the girls from entering the building on the first day of the school year, police said Monday. Police stated that the rabbi took the action over a disagreement he had with the Hadera Municipality. Authorities who arrived at the scene arrested the rabbi and three of his students. Police were interrogating the suspects.
A/C tank explosion leaves one critically injured
An air-conditioning gas tank exploded inside an air-conditioning repair vehicle traveling along the Acre-Haifa road near Kibbutz Ein Hamifratz on Monday, critically injuring one and moderately injuring another. Magen David Adom paramedics evacuated the injured to a nearby hospital. Three firefighting units arrived at the scene to extinguish the blaze.
Diver finds skull off Bat Galim coast
A scuba diver discovered a human skull while diving at a depth of some nine meters off the coast of Bat Galim in Haifa over the weekend. The diver retrieved the skull and brought it to the surface before contacting police. Police brought the skull to the L. Greenberg Institute of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir, where an investigation into the circumstances of the unknown person’s death was opened.
CENTER
Meretz’s Shabbat buses arrive in Holon
Meretz’s Shabbat public transportation initiative arrived in Holon last week, following stints in Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Ra’anana and Kfar Saba. Meretz MK Nitzan Horowitz spoke out against “religious coercion” within the Transportation Ministry on Saturday during the ride, saying that public transportation is a “vital service” that should run on weekends as an issue of freedom of movement for those who do not own a car.
A Meretz City Council initiative in Tel Aviv petitioned the Transportation Ministry to promote regular public transportation on weekends. The petition is awaiting a response from the ministry.
Israeli paper artists open show in Tel Aviv
To mark a year since the publication of the art book Israeli Paper Artists, the Frenkel Gallery in Tel Aviv will be opening a group exhibition next week. The exhibit, which features paintings, sculptures, drawings on paper, collages, installations, paper cutting and paper folding pieces, will open on Tuesday at the gallery, located in Tel Aviv’s beachfront Opera Tower.
The artists participating in the exhibition include Batya Gazit, Gita Carmel, Vered Fishman, Hava Epstein, Haim Israel, Lili Nativ and Mina Ben-Nun.
Curator Yael Nitzan said of the process leading to the creation of the exhibition: “I have long been fascinated by paper art of all sorts in Israel and overseas, and I was excited by meeting the paper artists and [seeing] their fascinating creations. In conversations that I held with the artists, I realized that they find their material in the paper, in which there is inherent and limitless potential for creation.”
Man attempts to set himself ablaze in Rabin Square
A man poured flammable liquid on himself and attempted to set fire to himself in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square last week, but was not harmed in the incident. Police detained the man and were investigating the background of the attempt.
The man was the latest in a string of people who have attempted to set themselves afire this summer, following the death of despondent activist Moshe Silman, who did so in July in protest of the government’s economic policies and his losing battles with bureaucracy.
3 Palestinians arrested in TA for sex crimes
Police arrested three West Bank Palestinians in Tel Aviv last week on suspicion of committing indecent acts against minors, Israel Police reported.
Two of the men are residents of Salfit and Hebron, and were suspected of indecent acts against an 11-year-old girl. The third is a Kalkilya resident, suspected of indecent acts against a 16-year-old and a 14-year-old. A Tel Aviv court extended the suspects’ remands.
SOUTH
Kahlon to consider ‘cooling grant’ for Eilat seniors
In a visit to Eilat last week, Welfare and Social Services Minister Moshe Kahlon said he would consider working with the National Insurance Institute to establish a special “cooling grant” for the southern city’s elderly citizens, due to the high cost of running air conditioning units through the summer months. “Heating grants” are often given to elderly residents living in cities with colder climates.
Kahlon also discussed ways of encouraging students to study social work at the Eilat campus of Ben-Gurion University. Social services tends to have difficulty filling positions in Eilat due to its remote location and unique conditions.
Also on the agenda was the city’s unique social dynamics and the problems they create, including the influx of teenage vacationers and a large temporary population. While praising the social services professionals in the city for their work on the wide range of problems in the far South, Kahlon said he would examine ways to maximize the aid his office provides to the city.
Better Place inaugurates southernmost battery station
Electric car company Better Place CEO Moshe Kaplinsky and Eilat Mayor Meir Yitzhak-Halevy inaugurated the country’s southernmost electric car battery changing station last week. The station, one of the company’s flagships, is located next to Kibbutz Eilot.
Better Place lauded the newest battery changing station, saying that it will allow longer trips in the electric vehicles and is an integral part of the company’s nationwide network of switching stations. Kaplinsky and the mayor both spoke at the inaugural ceremony.
24 dogs fly north in search of loving homes
A long-running cooperative project operated by the Eilat branch of Let the Animals Live, the Eilat municipal veterinarian and Arkia Airlines flew 24 dogs in need of adoption from the country’s southernmost city to the center of the country last week. Due to the difficulty of finding homes for stray dogs in Eilat, for five years the canines have been flown to the Center, where they have better chances of being adopted in the more populous region that also offers a more hospitable climate.
Most of the dogs that participated in the program have found homes, according to the Eilat Municipality. There are currently 70 dogs of various breeds waiting to be adopted in the southern city. Let the Animals Live’s Eilat branch manager Danielle Shulenberg-Ortner noted that the organization’s goal is to bring 50 needy canines to the Center in each round of special flights.