NORTHHaifa’s hiCenter Entrepreneurial Campus hosted a Japanese and Chinese delegation last week, to share the center’s experience in training start-up companies and creating entrepreneurial initiatives in the city, the Local website reported.HiCenter CEO Yael Mittelman presented the center’s vision, development goals and existing projects to the guests. She noted that the center has so far invested in 20 start-ups and expects to invest in 10 more in the coming year.Board chairman Eli Kulas described the center as “a light unto the nations” with regard to its technological and entrepreneurial initiatives. “We are engaged in the development of worldwide relationships with synergic investors and groups, and we are pleased that the world sees us a source of high-quality professional knowledge in this field,” the Local website quoted him as saying.The delegation included representatives from Japan’s Suntory Group as well as from academia and research bodies in the country. The team toured technological projects in the area to scout for potential collaborations with the group, which owns retail chains and major trading firms. The delegation’s visits included companies such as Netafim, Amdocs and Given Imaging.The Chinese delegation came from the Shandong Province, led by Yong Shen, vice president of the district’s Institute of Innovation. He was accompanied by senior representatives of venture capital funds from Singapore.GALILEE PEDESTRIAN AND KILLED BY MINIBUS A pedestrian died late Sunday after he was hit by a minibus while walking across Route 804 in the Galilee.The incident occurred on the stretch of highway between the towns of Rama and Arrabe.Police launched an investigation to determine the cause of the accident.Youth arrested for puncturing tires outside nightclub Kiryat Shmona police arrested a 19-year-old on Sunday on suspicion of puncturing the tires of eight cars parked outside a nightclub over the weekend.The suspect is a resident of Tuba.CENTER ISRAELI ANIMAL RIGHTS PROTEST GOES GLOBAL Animal rights activists are set to take to the streets of Tel Aviv this weekend in an Israeli initiative that has swept the world, and will see civilians in 20 international cities demonstrating simultaneously. The first-time initiative is a joint effort of a number of organizations and individuals working for animal rights, including dog shelter volunteers, NGOs fighting animal testing, vegetarians and vegans, and activists battling harm caused to wild animals.Many people are expected to take part in the demonstration under the banner “Look them in the eye,” in an effort to draw the public’s attention to the rights of dogs, cats, monkeys, foxes, chickens, geese and calves raised for veal.The protest is set for Saturday at 8:30 p.m., and activists in cities in Europe and America will demonstrate at the same time, from London to San Francisco to Moscow to Costa Rica. Demonstrators will set off from the corner of Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard and Allenby Street, and will march through Habimah Theater Square, ending at the cinematheque.The event began as a private initiative of a few individuals but quickly grew; a week ahead of the demonstration over 4,000 people had confirmed their attendance on Facebook.In accordance with the event theme, organizers said that at the end point of the rally, hundreds of demonstrators will stand blindfolded as a symbol of blindness and indifference toward the suffering of billions of animals every year. This includes abandoned cats and dogs, chicks thrown in the garbage as soon as they are hatched, chickens imprisoned in cages for life, horses harnessed to carts, calves separated from their mothers, foxes and raccoons hunted for fur and wild animals whose surroundings are being encroached upon. The demonstrators’ call for change encapsulates perception, awareness, legislation and enforcement processes, and basic caring for animals.“It’s time we all march together and say in a clear Japanese, Chinese delegations visit Haifa entrepreneurial campus A global animal rights protest is set to start at 8 p.m. on Shabbat at Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Blvd. and Allenby St. voice: enough violence, enough exploitation, enough enslavement, enough cruelty, enough objectification, and enough of the slaughter of animals,” reads the event’s Facebook page. “Animals are not a product, they are not merchandise. They are sentient creatures deserving of freedom and life, and it is our obligation to give them a voice.”Dr. Assaf Herdof, an expert in criminal law and an initiator of the event, said: “No population is undergoing such terrible oppression as animals everywhere. This terrible wickedness is based on a method of concealment and lies. If we see the oppression and suffering, and not only their products, if we look them in the eye – we will be filled with shock, horror and compassion. Within each of us beats a heart, all of us have souls and emotion, we all suffer pain. We all hear the cries of the animals, and we will make them heard, together, for them.”Cooperating organizations include Let the Animals Live, Anonymous for Animal Rights, the Israeli Society for the Abolition of Vivisection, Behind Closed Doors and 269 Life.MAN ROBS HOLON BANK WITH NOTE TO TELLER: 'THIS IS A ROBBERY' Police said a man entered a branch of the First International Bank on Sokolow Street in Holon on Sunday and handed a note to the teller demanding money, which read, “This is a robbery.” He then took money and fled.Police placed roadblocks in the area and conducted a search for the suspect.ARKIA JET LANDS SAFELY AFTER ON-BOARD TECHNICAL MISHAP An Arkia passenger jet landed safely at Ben-Gurion Airport late Sunday night after pilots and crew reported a possible technical mishap on board, Israel Radio reported.Airport staff on the ground went on high alert and prepared for an emergency landing after the pilot indicated that the propellers of the ATR 72 twin-engine plane began to vibrate, according to Israel Radio.The jet was carrying 72 passengers on a flight from Cyprus. After it landed safely, the airport resumed normal operations.SOUTH2 NEW SHOWS FOR BEERSHEBA CULTURE VULTURES Two new plays are showing this month at Beersheba’s Fringe theater as part of the summer line-up – with the support of the Culture and Sport Ministry, which is promoting cultural events in the periphery. The plays are With Unarmed Forces and The Son of the Last Jew.With Unarmed Forces is a tragicomedy about war and sex, a co-production by Israeli visual company Clipa Theater and Czech p hysical theater group Novoga Fronta. The idea for the play emerged during a November 2012 visit by Novoga Fronta to Clipa Theater coinciding with Operation Pillar of Defense, when rockets were being fired into Israel from Gaza. The performance is about a couple isolated from the outside world, where an endless war is raging.The Son of the Last Jew also deals with the topic of war, following a young IDF officer who returns from battle shell-shocked and feeling guilty about his friend, who died in his arms.Culture and Sport Minister Limor Livnat said: “The ministry, under my leadership, has in recent years supported hundreds of diverse activities in the areas of theater, music and dance throughout the country, with a particular emphasis on the periphery... to make Israeli culture as accessible and available as possible to the citizens of Israel. It will continue to do so in the future.”She added: “We are a culture-loving nation and I am proud that the government makes possible the existence of various cultural artistic events for the general public.”1 KILLED IN COLLISION BETWEEN 3 TRUCKS IN NEGEV One person died and another was injured in a collision between three trucks at the Negev’s Magen junction on Route 232 on Monday.Magen David Adom paramedics arrived at the scene and evacuated the injured person, who was in moderate condition suffering from multiple injuries, to Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba.Police were investigating the circumstances of the incident.FRENCH ALIYA FAIR IN NETANYA Yaakov Hagoel, head of the World Zionist Organization’s Department for Activities in Israel & Countering anti-Semitism, initiated the first annual French Aliya and Absorption Information Fair last year, together with Netanya Mayor Miriam Feirberg.Hagoel spoke at the second annual fair last week, saying that it was “impressive and inspiring” to witness the “natural relationship between French Jewry and the State of Israel.”Beyond being a clearly Zionist community, he said, French Jews are dealing with an unstable economic crisis that is plaguing Europe, with anti-Semitic incidents increasing drastically in the last decade. However, he said, the catalyst for the aliya of French Jewry is neither financial nor due to anti-Semitism, but rather a strong sense of Zionism.“We are sending a clear message that Israel is your home. I am confident that Zionism is strong in France and I hope to greet new olim here in Israel soon, as one nation with one fate,” he said.
