Activity In Israel Research Articles

Immunology in Israel: Society and research

Immunology in Israel: Society and research

Dietary acculturation and increasing rates of obesity in Ethiopian women living in Israel

Objective Immigration from Third World countries to the developed world is characterized by modification of lifestyle and acculturation to local customs. This study investigated changes in nutritional status and eating behaviors in female Ethiopian immigrants in Israel. Methods Personal interviews, two 24-h dietary recalls, and anthropometric measurements were carried out in a random sample of 53 women 32 ± 6 y of age. Results After living in Israel for an average of 14 y, body mass index was similar to the general Israeli population, with 42% of participants with a body mass index greater than 24.9 kg/m 2, including 11% categorized as obese. This is in stark contrast to the body mass index measured at arrival in Israel (∼19–20 kg/m 2). Less than optimal consumption of dietary fiber, calcium, folate, and B12 was documented. Analysis by food groups showed that intake of dairy products, fruits, and vegetables was negligible, whereas simple sugar intakes were high. The women continued to prepare traditional Ethiopian foods but also incorporated local, less healthy foods into their diets. Compared with the high energy expenditure in rural Ethiopia, participants reported minimal physical activity in Israel. Conclusions This immigrant community is at high risk for developing nutrition-related chronic diseases. Culturally sensitive nutrition education programs are urgently needed.

Between Feminism and Orthodoxy in Israel

The research on which this article is based was carried out in Israel among Orthodox women who are strongly advocating a feminist agenda in the religious public sphere. They are actively engaged in attempting to achieve increased participation of Orthodox women in synagogue ritual and in the hierarchy of religious authority — possibly reaching the ultimate objective of the rabbinical Orthodox ordination of women, eventually. Other Jewish religious denominations have largely succeeded in reaching these goals. The Orthodox women interviewed for this study represent a wide range of attitudes about the strategies to be employed. They are acutely aware that there has been a movement in Israel recently towards religious fundamentalism, often referred to as haredization. They, on the other hand, are trying to lead in the opposite direction: towards the liberalization of Orthodoxy. That movement of Orthodox women with a feminist agenda is well-known in the United States but it has not received a great deal of attention about its activities in Israel. In fact, many very significant changes have been occurring in the position of Orthodox women within Israeli society

Entertainment‐education: dilemmas of Israeli creators of theatre about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in promoting peace

Israeli–Palestinian peace is promoted through political and diplomatic channels, as well as indirect channels such as conferences, lectures, meetings, workshops and political journalism. However, there is less awareness of the extensive artistic activity in Israel surrounding peace and its implications for society, or of the uniqueness of the theatrical medium as a public medium that allows its viewers and participants to clarify their conflicts and positions related to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. As part of a large and comprehensive study of plays about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict (which included mapping out and analyzing the themes of 37 plays about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict between 2005–2007, and checking the impact of some of the plays on teenage audiences), this study focused on Israeli theater creators who deal with the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The goal was to specify the models, issues and strategies the creators used in plays about the conflict in order to influence viewers’ positions. This article represents the findings of the analysis of 26 in‐depth interviews with various creators (playwrights, directors and actors), who intended their plays to be seen by adult and high school audiences. The findings discuss the ideological, ethical and pedagogical dilemmas as well as the strategies they used to build texts meant to influence their viewers, and which distinguish dramatic works that educate for peace.

Biblical Prophecy—A Scribal Enterprise. The Old Testament Prophecy of Unconditional Judgement considered as a Literary Phenomenon

AbstractAt the heart of the biblical prophetic books is scribal reinterpretation of earlier prophetic legacies. These legacies testify to prophetic activity in Israel and Judah—kinds of prophecy which in essence resembled prophetic and other divinatory activity found elsewhere in the ancient Near East. It was however the scribal reception, revision, and elaboration of these earlier legacies that gave rise to “biblical prophecy” and prompted the development of the prophetic books. In this process of reinterpretation the ‘prophets’ were removed from the realm of divination. They became to be portrayed as isolated figures, contra society, commissioned by Yahweh to declare his message of unconditional and total destruction. Through their ‘message’ the disastrous events that had befallen the states of Israel and Judah were explained (ex eventu) as being due to divine anger. This was in fact the common explanation for calamities, used throughout the ancient Near Eastern world.

Support Services for Victims of Political Violence and Their Families: A Comparison Between Israelis and Palestinians

This report summarizes interviews with five social workers who helped families that experienced political violence, and with 16 families that lost a family member due to terrorist activity in Israel and Palestine from 2000 to 2005. Results revealed a great disparity between the Israelis and the Palestinians on the types of and extent of benefits and support services given to the victims and their families of a terrorist incident. Israeli has a well-established system of victim compensation and has immediate and long-term benefits. Palestinian victims and their families have few services, little money for reparation, and no well-organized system for the support and compensation for acts of political violence.

The relative advantages of criminal versus administrative environmental enforcement actions in Israel

Most environmental enforcement programs have separate criminal and administrative procedures for addressing violations. Pitting "criminal"versus"administrative" enforcement as mutually exclusive alternatives constitutes a "false dilemma". Clearly, the government response should be influenced by the severity of pollution and the specific circumstances of the polluter. Yet, policy makers seeking to improve environmental compliance need to have a clearer picture about the merits of each approach and their relative effectiveness. This research empirically assesses the effectiveness of criminal versus administrative enforcement activities in Israel. After considering the philosophical implications associated with each regulatory approach, the results of a year-long study are presented. A series of performance indicators are utilized, with particular weight on compliance status in the field, to assess the condition of environmental violations several years subsequent to completion of enforcement activities. The state of 100 violations of air, water and hazardous materials laws that had been addressed through the criminal process were matched with results of comparable violations, against which administrative actions were taken. Results suggest that while criminal enforcement is a longer process, compliance following these actions was significantly greater than in administrative enforcement cases. The findings also underline the significance of a systematic follow-up system for tracking violations after enforcement actions are complete. Finally, the study confirms the benefits of targeted assistance to improve compliance among violators of environmental standards.

The ecology of physical activity in Israel: active transportation, health and public policy in the age of sport industrialization

The aim of this study is to examine the processes in the sport industry and consumer society in Israel, following similar global trends, which paradoxically contribute to the creation of an obesogenic culture and a sedentary lifestyle, while completely overshadowing popular participatory physical activity. This essay examines the case of active transportation in Israel (walking, cycling, roller-blading, skateboarding, etc) to widen the scope of discussion in popular sport to include the ecology of health, environmental injustice and governmental decision-making which produces an inactivity-enhancing environment instead of a sport promoting one. The ecological vision of health and sport is contrasted with television-dominated professional commercialized ‘sport’ and of sedentary lifestyle. Active Transportation is viewed as an environmental alternative to traditional sport for promoting active living and a healthy lifestyle in society at large, while bike advocacy is portrayed as an attempt to realize active transportation in Israel. The essay also surveys the controversy sparked by the issue of safety and bike helmets legislation, and questions the self-professed role of professional sport as inspiration for popular physical activity.

The Deployment of Moral Authority: Veteran Activism in Israel

The Deployment of Moral Authority: Veteran Activism in Israel

Judicial Administrative Review in Times of Discontent: The Israeli Supreme Court and the Second Palestinian UprisingGuy I. Seidman is a Senior Lecturer, the Interdisciplinary Centre, Herzliya, Israel.

Most democracies offer some form of judicial review of administrative action,1 yet they differ greatly in the remedies available, and in judges' willingness to pass judgement on executive action an...

2.4.3 DOES INCOSE NEEDS PR?

AbstractThe mission of INCOSE is to foster the definition, understanding, and practice of world class systems engineering in industry, academia, and government.INCOSE's vision is to be world's premier professional society for advancing the art and practice of systems engineering.INCOSE makes this vision a reality through its members, its chapters, its partners and through the systems engineering community.Even though INCOSE has grown significantly since its formation in 1990, there are only five thousand members. The potential base individual members is more than hundred thousands.There are hundreds of organizations which practice systems engineering and are familiar with the leading role of INCOSE in promoting systems engineering. But there are thousands of organizations that are not familiar with the benefits of systems engineering and the capabilities of INCOSE.In this paper we propose to use Public Relations (PR) as one of the approaches and tools to promote the mission and the vision of INCOSE.“PR is the practice of creating, promoting or maintaining goodwill and favorable image among the public towards an institution, public body.….”.We demonstrate the planning of PR campaign for INCOSE by proposing the goals & aims of the campaign, defining the target audience, suggesting the messages & ideas to be delivered through the campaign, presenting some examples for how to deliver the messages (the medium), and discussing the timing of the individual PR activity.This proposed PR campaign is not standalone, but it is part of the professional & managerial development of INCOSE, and a part of its marketing efforts.It is proposed to form a PR committee which will plan the campaign and execute it.The proposed goals for the PR campaign are very ambitious ‐ like doubling the number of members in 10 years, doubling the number of participating in INCOSE Annual International Conference in 5 years. But we assume these goals and aims are achievable, if we launch a PR campaign with broad perspectives: Professional campaign Excellence campaign Globalization campaign Business success campaign Public decision making campaign.Also, we describe some ingredients of PR campaign that we are launching for the INCOSE activities in Israel through the Israeli Chapter – INCOSE‐IL.We propose that INCOSE management will consider to adapt our proposed approach for the benefit of INCOSE, its members, its chapters and the whole systems engineering community.

Judicial Activism in Israel: Sources, Forms and Manifestations

Judicial activism does not have an agreed definition. However, two major groups of definitions can be identified. One can be viewed as emerging from a jurisprudential vantage point, the other from a political science or theory of the state viewpoint. The jurisprudential gateway offers a non-relational definition of judicial activism - examining to which extent courts allow themselves leeway, freedom and discretion in interpreting existing norms (constitutional and legislative and indeed common law ones) and to what degree the courts allow themselves departures from previous rulings - the degree of changes in the law the source of which are the courts. The political science gateway adopts a relational definition to judicial activism, focusing on the role of courts in shaping collective decision-making in society relative to the role of the other branches of government - the legislature and the executive - and in relation to the public opinion. The Israeli judiciary is portrayed by scholars as one of the most activist judiciaries in the world, according to both grand definitions of judicial activism. The aim of the paper is to describe the manifestations and forms of judicial activism in Israel in various fields of law - public law and private law - and to analyze the sources of this activism. Among the sources of judicial activism in Israel on which the paper elaborate are: the system of government in Israel, the nature of the legal system as a mixed one, the court structure and especially the public law enforcement procedure, the process of judicial selection and the immense impact of the legal and judicial philosophy of the retired President of the Israeli Supreme Court - Aharon Barak. Some of the examples of judicial activism which are dealt with in the paper are the courts' involvement in matters of security, the war against terrorism and the Occupied Territories, judicial review of the legislation and administration without constitution empowerment, judicial made bill of rights and purposive and broad interpretation of private law legislation in the areas of contract, torts and unjust enrichment. The paper concludes with analysis of the recent public debate and reaction to increasing judicial activism in Israel. The Israeli example seems to support the Madisonian argument that the right structure of government, and more specifically the right division of powers, can be sufficient to nourish a liberal democracy, even against a lack of an entrenched bill of rights. However, it argues that such division ought to be entrenched in a formal constitution. Otherwise, changing and difficult circumstances, combined with irrational political forces, can undermine a vital foundation on which the future success of the democratic process rests.

Mekorot's research activity in technological improvements for the production of unrestricted irrigation quality effluents

Israel is a country situated in a semi-arid zone with insufficient natural water resources. Due to the excessive abstraction as compared to water availability, some of the seashore aquifers have been depleted and there is a danger of excessive salinity in the aquifers. Wastewater effluent reuse and desalination have become the main alternative sources of water to compensate for the future water shortage. The main reuse activity in Israel is agricultural irrigation (65% of the connected sewage in Israel is reused for this purpose), while most technological efforts are spent for the improvement of unrestricted irrigation quality water. This paper presents the recent years' research activity, in Mekorot National Water Co., in tertiary effluent treatment and effluent desalination in order to achieve high quality water suitable for unrestricted agricultural reuse as well as for public park irrigation, industrial reuse and aquifer salinity reduction.

The Regional Location of Knowledge Based Economy Activities in Israel

The article analyzes the spatial location behavior of economic activity that is knowledge based, by decomposing the Knowledge-based Economy Index developed by the OECD (1999) and elaborated by Cooke and Schwartz (2003) into major components that represent groups with different characteristics. The spatial behavior is analyzed in Israel in the years 1995–2002. We find that business services and high tech services tend to concentrate in metropolitan areas. Business services are found in the main city and high tech services in the satellite urban ring, with the outer-cities becoming stronger over time. Public services supporting the knowledge-based economy are concentrated in the center of the country, though not necessarily in the principal city, and they can represent an important tool in regional policy. The high tech manufacturing is concentrated around the big cities, mainly around the main metropolis. The other knowledge-based manufacturing activities tend to leave for the periphery.

A Rebel with a Cause: Hillel Kook, Begin and Jabotinsky's Ideological Legacy

IN MAY 1946, AT THE height of the Zionist struggle against the British in Palestine, Menachem Begin, the commander of the Irgun, sent a letter to Hillel Kook-the Irgun's maverick activist in the United States.' At the beginning of the letter, Begin thanked Kook, all that he has done in true pioneering spirit and full devotion; but after the warm opening, the tone of the letter changed. The Irgun's commander warned Kook to stop spreading rumors alleging that the American League for Free Palestine, an organization that Kook founded in 1944, was responsible for boats bringing illegal Jewish immigrants to Israel. Begin claimed that such rumors would only strengthen the Irgun's opponents and impede its activities in Israel. Moreover, Begin demanded that Kook concentrate his efforts entirely on procuring arms and ammunitions for the fighters in Israel, because, according to Begin, the future of the Zionist struggle for national independence lay in the military front and not in the campaign to bring immigrants to Israel. Lastly, Begin admonished Kook for insisting to refer to the Land of Israel as the Free Palestine State. Begin preferred that Kook use the name Free State of Eretz Israel; he felt that using the name Palestine without any identification with the Jewish people could prove to be very dangerous for the Zionist cause.

Evidence About The Link Between Education, Poverty and Terrorism Among Palestinians

The primary goal of this paper is to investigate whether participation in terrorist activity can be linked to ignorance (measured through schooling) or to economic desperation (measured through poverty on the individual's level and various economic indicators on the societal level) using newly culled data of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist cells. This paper performs a statistical analysis of the determinants of participation in Hamas and PIJ terrorist activities in Israel from the late 1980's to the present, as well as a time series analysis of terrorist attacks in Israel with relation to economic conditions. The resulting evidence on the individual level suggests that both higher standards of living and higher levels of education are positively associated with participation in Hamas or PIJ. With regard to the societal economic condition, no sustainable link between terrorism and poverty and education could be found, which I interpret to mean that there is either no link or a very weak indirect link. Special attention is given to the suicide-bomber phenomenon, and the analysis of the determinants of becoming a suicide-bomber provides additional intriguing findings. In contrast with the classic characteristics of a suicidal individual (Hamermesh and Soss, 1974), suicide-bombers tend to be of higher economic status and higher educational attainment than their counterparts in the population.

Synergy between urban planning, conservation of the cultural built heritage and functional changes in the old urban center—the case of Tel Aviv

The old urban center of Tel Aviv, like other urban centers in the western world, is undergoing accelerated development processes. Together with the trend towards gentrification are processes of urban renewal and infrastructure development and increasing demand for land and buildings, all of which increase the value of the land. The difference between Tel Aviv and other cities in the western world, as well as in Israel, is its young age and its quick pace of change. The old urban center of Tel Aviv is unique in that it is less than one hundred years old and is changing rapidly. Tel Aviv, which in 1909 was a small suburb of Jaffa, has evolved into an independent city, which is today the center of economic and cultural activities in Israel. Tel Aviv's short but significant history, together with its rapid changes, creates its image as an active and vivid metropolis with embedded heritage values. However, rapid development brings with it dilemmas. On the one hand, urban planners, tourists and entrepreneurs identify the center of town with its historical nucleus and heritage values. On the other hand, the rapid development and need for urban renovation are clearly in conflict with the need to preserve Tel Aviv's historical values and unique qualities. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that conservation of built heritage and urban development in ‘Young Tel Aviv’ can coexist and synergistically support each other, and that the historical values have economic potential, which may contribute to urban development. Heritage values can be formulated and even artificially produced to promote urban development. Although Israel has many very old cities with universal historical values, the young city of Tel Aviv is at the forefront of conservation.

Dental and oral trauma and mouthguard use during sport activities in Israel.

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the occurrence of oral and dental injuries in young Israeli population engaged in diverse sport activities. The participants' awareness of the use of protective devices, such as mouthguards, during sport activities was also evaluated. A population of 943 young adults, 95% males and 5% females (ages 18-19), was surveyed. A questionnaire was distributed relating to the type of sport activity practised, past oral and dental injuries over their lifetime, specifying the time and type of sports in which the injury occurred and the use and awareness of the protective devices. Of the total population examined, 850 (90%) were active in at least one type of sport, either as professionals or as amateurs. The analysis included the population that regularly participated in at least one sporting activity. The most commonly practised sports were soccer (54% of all active participants) and basketball (50%). The total number of dental and oral injuries experienced during all sport activities was 229, affecting 27% of the participants of whom 73 (9%) suffered dental injuries. Most dental injuries occurred during the basketball and soccer training sessions and matches reaching 42 and 41% of the total number of injuries, respectively, and affected 7.2 and 6.6% of the basketball and soccer players. Traumatic dental injuries in other sports occurred in less than 7% of the participants in these activities. Only 27% of the participants were aware of the protective devices, such as a mouthguards, and only 3% actually used these devices. These results point to the high risk of potential dental and oral injury during sport activities, the little knowledge about the benefits of using mouthguards and their limited utilization. The importance of public health education to increase the awareness of protective measures and devices and their actual use in Israel is the main focus. It should be a combined duty of dentists and sports physicians and of the coaches to encourage the use of protective devices during training and games.

Goods versus Factors: When Borders Open, Who Moves?

This paper raises the question when both goods and factors can move in an opening of two countries’ borders whether it is possible to say a priori which of the two would move and which moves faster as both move. The paper notes that this question should be answered in terms of the extent of the existing barriers whether natural or policy based and the ability to shift production activities in the two countries or regions. The issue is analysed taking into account the movement of goods and factors between the centres of activity in Israel and the West Bank and Gaza. The main finding of the analysis in this case is that following the opening of the borders, adjustment took place predominantly through the movement of factors, almost exclusively labour: and only to a very limited extent through the exchange of goods. This may be due to the short distances and prohibition of shifting residences. In steady state this is expected to be large and sustained compared to an increase and a decline of labour movement in steady state if residency were available..

Rapports: Israel: More of the Same: Judicial Activism in Israel

Rapports: Israel: More of the Same: Judicial Activism in Israel