Haifa to get ‘North’s largest cinema complex’

From around Israel, the round up of news you need to know.

By MICHAEL OMER-MAN
Haifa to get ‘North’s largest cinema complex’ (photo credit: wikicommons)
Haifa to get ‘North’s largest cinema complex’
(photo credit: wikicommons)
NORTH
Haifa will soon have the largest cinema complex in the North, following a NIS 200 million investment in the Sami Ofer Stadium project being developed on the outskirts of the city. The entertainment and commercial complex is planned to span 20,000 square meters. The investment and development in the complex was made by the Haifa Economic Corporation, which is also developing the Sami Ofer Stadium on behalf of the Haifa Municipality.
Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav said, “We have invested a great deal of thought into making the Sami Ofer Stadium the most advanced in Israel,” adding, “We are planning an entertainment center that will draw the public yearround, centered on the active and vibrant stadium.”
Yahav continued, “We have great interest in attracting diverse crowds of women and men, young people and seniors.” The entertainment complex is being built with that in mind.Kibbutz-owned development organization lauds new factory
The Galilee Development Corporation lauded the opening of a new factory in northern Israel this week with the announcement of a new factory for Big-Pack, a sustainable packaging company. The company is a joint venture of the Galilee Development Corporation, Kibbutz Gadot, Kibbutz Ein Zivan and Merom Golan.
Galilee Development Corporation vice president Ronit Badler said the Big-Pack factory’s opening is an example of how the organization operates by locating factories and entrepreneurs from the Center that can be replicated in the North with the aid of a core group of investors and the appropriate platform for relocation.
The Galilee Development Corporation is owned by 33 kibbutzim in the Galilee and currently operates and manages nine factories, mostly in the industrial zone of Kiryat Shmona. It aims to establish new enterprises in the region in order to build its economic base and to create jobs for residents of the Galilee.
Haifa brothers stabbed, but not over loud music
Two Haifa brothers were stabbed and moderately wounded over the weekend, initially telling police they were attacked after asking a man outside their home to turn down the volume on his car stereo. Police later said the two had lied in their initial statement, however, and that the stabbing was part of an ongoing dispute with the assailants.
Paramedics evacuated the men to Bnai Zion Hospital in Haifa.
One of the men accused of perpetrating the stabbing was arrested Saturday, and an additional arrest was forthcoming.
17-year-old unlicensed driver arrested in hit-and-run
Haifa police over the weekend arrested a 17-year-old suspected of perpetrating a hit-and-run in which a nine-year-old boy was moderately injured last Thursday.
According to police, the suspect was located after a quick investigation and confessed to the crime, going on to reenact it for investigators at their request.Police added that the youth does not have a driver’s license.
The suspect is accused of striking the boy with his motor scooter after overtaking a bus that had stopped to allow the victim to cross the street at a crosswalk. Police requested that the suspect’s remand be extended at a hearing at the Haifa Magistrate’s Court on Saturday evening.
CENTER
Likud joins Ra’anana City Council
The Ra’anana Municipal Council signed an agreement with the local Likud branch this week to bring the party into the municipal coalition, the Local website reported. Under the agreement, faction head Ilan Cohen will be a member of the city’s most senior forum, the “staff forum” and will serve as the chairman of the neighborhoods council and deputy chairman of the Association of Municipalities.
Ra’anana Mayor Nahum Hofree welcomed the agreement with the local Likud, saying that faction members Ilan Cohen and Moshe Hershkovitz “are veteran members whose strength will be used for the good of city residents. We decided to join hands for the good of Ra’anana and its residents in the face of challenges we will face in the near future,” the website reported.
Saying it respects the agreement, the city opposition bloc noted that it is still one-third of the city council and “will continue to use the powers legally vested in it and to protest [the coalition’s] failures,” according to the report. The coalition statement accused the mayor of playing political games recently, which it said are indicative of a crisis.
TA leaves property taxes ‘mostly’ unchanged
The Tel Aviv municipal management approved property tax rates for 2013 this week, leaving the rate unchanged save for a legally mandated increase of 2.3 percent, the Local website reported. The decision was made in a joint meeting with the municipal finance committee.
One major change that the city plans to propose this year, however, is directed at the phenomenon of empty homes. The city aims to double the municipal property tax on homes and apartments that are left uninhabited for long periods of time, the website reported. The move aims to encourage absentee owners to rent their properties, thereby increasing the supply of rentals in the city and driving down prices.
The Tel Aviv Municipality claimed that municipal property taxes in the city are the lowest of the largest nine cities in Israel, with an average rate of NIS 41.29 per square meter, according to the report.
Taiba parking ticket collector arrested for fraud
Police arrested a collections agent tasked with collecting unpaid fines owed to the Taiba Municipality this week, the Local website reported. The collections agent is accused of collecting extra money beyond what was actually owed to the city, according to the report.
Police were investigating the possibility that the man committed the same fraud in other cities.
Police said the collections agent, “who was collecting money owed for parking tickets in the city, was arrested on suspicion for sums that were hundreds of shekels more than what the debtors owed,” the website reported.SOUTH Heavy rains, floods hit the South, shut down Eilat’s airport
The Eilat airport was reopened on Saturday after stormy weather in Israel’s southernmost city led to its closure on Friday. Tree branches and stones blown on to the runway by the storm were cleared, allowing the airport to reopen after three incoming flights and three outgoing flights had been canceled. Some 4,000 travelers were expected to pass through the airport on Saturday, according to Army Radio.
Large swaths of Eilat were flooded Friday as torrential rains hit the city. An estimated 42 millimeters of rain fell, half the average annual amount, blocking entrance into the city via Highway 90 in addition to shutting down the airport. In Sderot, the rains also caused flooding on the city’s streets.
Ashkelon moves to shut down Eritrean-owned businesses
The Ashkelon Municipality’s enforcement department issued administrative orders to shut down three businesses in the city that it said were operating without proper licenses. The three businesses, which the city said were owned and operated by Eritrean nationals, were located on Herzl and Ha’avoda streets in the city, the Local website reported.
Two of the businesses were operating as coffee houses and kiosks, the city said, but part of the administrative orders to shut them were for the unlicensed sale of alcohol, according to the report. The city noted that none of the businesses had ever applied for the proper municipal operating permits. The city also mentioned noise and public disturbance complaints from nearby residents in its explanation of the orders, saying many complaints were received, including of drunken customers hanging around the area and of broken glass outside the businesses, the website reported.
The administrative orders shut down the businesses for 30 days, during which time the municipality’s legal department is to decide on the future of the businesses, according to the report.Negev cyclist killed in hit-and-run
A 35-year-old bicyclist was killed in a suspected hit-and-run accident on a road leading to the Dead Sea over the weekend. Magen David Adom paramedics dispatched to the scene attempted to save the man’s life, but were declared him dead on the scene. Pieces of his bicycle were found scattered over dozens of meters.
Police said a preliminary investigation showed that the cyclist had been struck by a car that subsequently fled the scene. Police set up roadblocks in the area to try to locate the suspect vehicle.
Several hours later, police located and arrested a 23-year-old suspect. Police interrogated the local resident, and crime scene investigators conducted an examination of his car in order to connect him to the accident.