Nahariya girls win national road safety design contest

City Notes: Weekly round-up of local news.

By TAMARA ZIEVE
Hadas Drucker's road safety sticker 521 (photo credit: Courtesy of the Amal Group website 521)
Hadas Drucker's road safety sticker 521
(photo credit: Courtesy of the Amal Group website 521)
NORTH
Two students from Nahariya won first place in national competitions on road safety last week. The winners, Nicole Sergeiv and Hadas Drucker, are both students of Amal, the Yitzhak Rabin Arts and Sciences High School in the city.
Tenth-grader Sergeiv won the “creating safety on the road” national poster contest, which the Or Yarok Association for Safer Driving in Israel headed in conjunction with the Education Ministry. Meanwhile, 11th-grader Drucker took the gold in another national competition for the best-designed sticker with a focus on the danger of drunk driving. Conducting that competition was the National Road Safety Council, in cooperation with the National Student and Youth Council.
Sergeiv’s poster depicts a smartphone with a half-written text message to the driver’s loved one reading, “Honey, I’m on my wa –” alongside a heart and smiley emoticon. Accompanying the message is an image of a smashed windscreen. Drucker’s sticker design features a giant hand holding a car on puppet strings, with a caption that reads “Don’t let alcohol control you.”
Amal Group CEO Ravit Dom sent a letter of congratulations to the school manager, Yigal Goshen, saying that “the two triumphs attest to the high level of ability of the students. The fact that both competitions concern road safety also testifies to the high level of awareness of this important issue. These achievements are a great honor for the winning students, for the Rabin Arts and Sciences High School, to the Amal Group and the entire city of Nahariya; it evokes a great sense of pride in all our hearts.”
3 injured after Nazareth car crashes into wall
A car slammed into a wall in Nazareth last weekend, injuring three men in their 20s. The collision took place near the Mar Yousef Nazareth Baptist School.
Magen David Adom paramedics arrived at the scene and evacuated the men to a nearby hospital.
One man suffered serious injuries, while the other two were lightly to moderately hurt.
Man nabbed over sexual offenses against teen relative
Police arrested a 35-year-old man in Nazareth last Friday on suspicion of committing sexual offenses against a 17-year-old family member.
The suspect is a resident of a village in the Galilee. He was set to appear for a remand extension at the Nazareth Magistrate’s Court.
Injured man found lying in road
A 48-year-old man was found lying in the road last week in Shibli, in the Mount Tabor area, with injuries to his upper body.
The man was evacuated to Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center by helicopter.
Police launched an investigation into the incident.
Faulty hand-brake leaves young man severely hurt in Safed
A 25-year-old man suffered serious injuries after attempting to stop his unattended car from rolling away due to a faulty hand-brake.
Once the young man parked the car, it began to move, and when he tried to stop it, he became caught between the vehicle and a wall.
A friend who was with the man moved the car immediately and saved his life.
Police were called to the scene, and the man was taken to Safed’s Ziv Medical Center.
Syria protesters disrupt Little League soccer match
During a Little League soccer match in Majdal Shams over the weekend, between children from the village and children from Kafr Kama, several residents suddenly stormed the field, shouting that the area belonged to Syria.
The disturbance led the referee to stop the game.
Golan Police arrested six people in their 40s on suspicion of violating public order, and they were to be brought to the Kiryat Shmona court for a hearing.
CENTER
MDA calls for blood donations ahead of Passover
In an effort to preempt the expected slack in blood donations over Passover, Magen David Adom called on members of the public to donate blood before the holiday began.
In addition, MDA increased its manpower as of Monday, the first day of Passover.
The national aid organization’s director, Eli Bin, said that “MDA is ready to solve any situation that might arise during the holiday.”
NGO Pitchon Lev runs food drive for needy
Ahead of Passover, NGO Pitchon Lev launched a massive food drive for needy families, aiming to hand out some 10,000 baskets of goods worth a total of NIS 3 million.
The baskets contain basic food items for the holiday, including matzot, oil, wine, canned beans, chicken soup, sugar, coffee, chocolate spread, matza meal, meat, fruit and vegetables. The drive began last week at the NGO’s center in Rishon Lezion, and the state contributed NIS 2 to each of the NIS 350 baskets. The goods are collected through fund-raising and donations.
The NGO distributes over 4,000 packages to disadvantaged families every month, with social workers and social services across the country referring the families to the organization. This year, however, Pitchon Lev was so inundated with letters that the quantity of requests for aid exceeded its capacity. In an unprecedented move, it was forced to issue a letter requesting that the social services stop the flow of referrals, though thousands of families were still waiting to receive their packages.
According to Nissim Zioni, the organization’s founder and director-general, the NGO works throughout the year, and especially on holidays, to meet the needs of the large number of needy families in the country. In a letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, he called on the government to enable Pitchon Lev to continue providing families with food and holiday cheer by sending food or funds to the organization.
Shoes piled up in Rabin Square in solidarity with survivors
Relatives of Holocaust survivors and others began piling up old shoes in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square on Sunday to show solidarity with the plight of the country’s survivors. The mountain of shoes was to remain in the square all week.
83-year-old Netanya man suspected of stabbing wife to death
An indictment was filed against an 83-year-old resident of Netanya on Sunday, in connection with the murder of his wife three weeks earlier.
According to the indictment, an argument over money broke out between the couple, during which the man took a kitchen knife and stabbed his wife seven times in various parts of her body. Afterward, he allegedly hid the knife in the washing machine and changed his clothes, which were covered in blood.
SOUTH Obama praises BGU brain researchers
US President Barack Obama bestowed accolades upon researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev who presented two brainfocused technologies at the Israel Museum technology showcase during the president’s visit last week.
The researchers presented Obama and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu with brain activation technology by the ElMindaA startup company, founded by Prof. Amir Geva of BGU’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
The company’s trademark “BNA” technology measures brain state and brain changes and can potentially be applied to assess a wide range of neurological, psychiatric and physical conditions, including concussions, sports injuries, and central nervous system-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Additionally the technology serves as a tool in the development of treatments for these diseases, in rehabilitation from sports injuries, and in evaluating when physical activity can be resumed. The US president lauded BNA as “a great idea.”
Obama also viewed the MinDesktop, a hands-free, thought-controlled computer developed by three BGU students to help disabled people communicate. The technology includes a cap equipped with 14 EEG connect points that sense brain activity. Newsweek/The Daily Beast quoted Obama as telling Netanyahu that the inventors of the MinDesktop “have deeper thoughts probably than the two of us.”
Doron Krakow, executive vice president of the New York-based American Associates, BGU, said, “Today, we were stars, and it is so incredibly gratifying to be able to present two examples of the cutting- edge technology being developed and commercialized by BGU.”
He added, “We are proud of the two groups from ElMindA and MinDesktop who are fulfilling Ben-Gurion University’s mission to develop technologies that are helping people in Israel, in the United States and around the world.”
Police nab cell suspected of weapons trafficking
Following an undercover operation conducted last month, police from the Negev’s YAMAR (Central Investigative Unit) arrested 12 suspects in the South on suspicion of possessing and trafficking weapons for financial gain, the Local website reported.
After the month-long investigation, Negev Police filed a declaration in support of remanding the 12 suspects in connection with 14 separate incidents.