City Notes

Urban space of Haifa’s southern outskirts to be named after Peres.

By TAMARA ZIEVE
The fourth Site Specific theater festival kicks off this weekend (photo credit: Courtesy)
The fourth Site Specific theater festival kicks off this weekend
(photo credit: Courtesy)
NORTH
The Haifa City Council last week approved the Municipal Names Committee’s suggestion to name the urban complex under development in the southern outskirts of the city after President Shimon Peres.
The council took the decision after committee chairman Prof. Yossi Ben-Artzi explained that the compound largely reflects the president’s work and vision. “The naming committee believes that it will be a honor to Haifa to name the area after Peres,” he asserted, adding it will also honor the president that the diverse space which reflects his character will be named after him.
The municipal complex includes new residential areas that are being built up; a life science park under construction; the Sammy Ofer Stadium, which is close to completion; the largest and oldest hi-tech park; shopping centers; and the Israel Electric Corporation offices. The compound stretches from the coast to the Carmel mountain range.
The planned residential neighborhood consists of 4,400 housing units, and allows pedestrian access between the residential area and public buildings via pedestrian bridges and bicycle lanes that cross main roads and public areas. Mayor Yona Yahav said the area would constitute a “magnificent entrance to the North.”
Man stabbed, robbed in Beit She’an
A 40-year-old man was stabbed and lightly injured in Beit She’an on Monday.
He was evacuated to the hospital with minor injuries after he was attacked and robbed.
Police arrested two suspects, aged 19 and 21; items suspected to be stolen were found in their possession. Police launched an investigation into the incident.
CENTER
Thousands celebrate Maccabi win in Rabin Square
Thousands of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans took to the streets on Sunday night, following the team’s Euroleague win, with celebrations centering in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square.
MDA raised its alert level in response, with extra ambulances and paramedics available to revelers in the area.
Fans remained in the square until the early hours of the morning, chanting victory slogans, singing, dancing and jumping into the fountain.
The city hall was lit up in yellow and blue in accordance with the basketball team’s colors.
‘Site-specific’ theater festival takes place in TA
The Site Specific theater festival is taking place in Tel Aviv this weekend for the fourth year running. “The idea of the festival is that it is a site-specific festival, and we work from the space itself, not from a text or an idea but looking for an interesting location, whose architecture and history inspires you,” one of the event organizers, Nataly Zukerman, told Metro.
The event is being held in nine locations around the city, including three boulevards: Chen, Rothschild and Yerushalayim, as well as Jaffa’s Noga neighborhood, and the area near the Great Synagogue on Allenby Street “in between the mundane and the sacred.”
Other locations include Rabin Square and Ankori High School.
The festival will be open from 8:30 p.m. until midnight on Thursday and Saturday, and from midday to 4 p.m. on Friday. Performers are mainly fringe theater artists; the festival will also include video and music.
Zukerman said that participants are not mainstream artists and that the site-specific concept is not a common one in Israel. The annual festival is organized by a team of five artists, “who decided to do something for other artists”; for the past three years it has received support from the Tel Aviv Municipality.
Yavne children take part in Druse heritage quiz
Jewish children participated in a quiz on Druse heritage last week, as part of the “Covenant of Life” program that aims to bring the Jewish and Druse sectors closer.
The event was held in Yavne, and students from city schools answered a variety of questions on the Druse holidays, customs, lifestyle and villages.
Participating in the event were: Yavne Mayor Zvi Gov-Ari, Zionist Druse Movement chairman Yosef Nasser Adin and management member Sheikh Jadallah Saad, Zionist Council in Israel chairman Yigal Bibi and CEO Yigal Brand, school principals and other dignitaries.
The Covenant of Life program is held every year under the auspices of the Education Ministry, the Zionist Council in Israel, the World Zionist Organization and the social and defense wing of the Defense Ministry.
The participants, between the ages of 14 and 18, learn during the school year about the history, traditions and heritage of the Druse community. The program also includes tours and visits between the Druse and Jewish villages, and lectures prepared by representatives of both sectors.
This is the 10th consecutive year the program has run in Yavne.
SOUTH
Road safety association launches awareness program for children
The Or Yarok Association for Safer Driving in Israel has begun operating a new program in preschool and elementary schools, starting with the Harel school in Ashkelon. The purpose of the program is to instill safe practices in children and reduce the number of young casualties on the road.
According to the Local website, the association ran special activities in the Harel school this week, including interactive games dealing with pedestrian safety, cyclist safety and safe conduct when riding in a family car.
Children are considered a vulnerable population because their senses are less developed than those of adults, they have lower spatial awareness capabilities, they are more reckless and due to their size it is more difficult for them to see in between the cars.
According to Or Yarok, in 2013, 24 children under 14 were killed in road accidents. “This high number demands that the state increase road safety education for children to reduce the number of children killed and injured on the road,” the association stated.
2 minors arrested on suspicion of setting fire to youth club
Kiryat Malachi police arrested two minors on Sunday on suspicion of setting fire to a youth club in Moshav Emunim at the end of last month.
The two suspects are also suspected of breaking into the club along with another minor, and stealing property.
The suspects were released under restrictive conditions and the investigation is ongoing.