06/14 Links: Anti-racism protesters in Paris yell 'dirty Jews' at counter-protesters; Jason Greenblatt: Applying Israeli law in West Bank is not illegal ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Anti-racism protesters in Paris yell 'dirty Jews' at counter-protesters

French anti-racism protesters shouted antisemitic slogans including "dirty Jews" and waved placards reading "Israel, laboratory of police violence" at a rally in Paris's Place de la République on Saturday.

In light of the Black Lives Matter rallies that have been taking place in protest against police brutality in the US, French protesters gathered in the city to protest the death of Adama Traoré, a Malian French man who died in police custody in 2016. According to Valeurs, tensions were running high as police first blocked the march from taking place, holding protesters in the square, and then a counter protest group dropped a banner from a nearby building reading "Justice for the victims of anti-white terrorism."

In response, protesters were heard yelling "dirty Jews," at the counter-protesters. The police prefect has reported these remarks to the magistrates, they said on their Twitter account.

In addition to the chants, to which the protesters raised their fists, i24 reported that protesters were seen wearing t-shirts reading "Justice for Palestine," and waving Palestinian flags at the event. Placards being held aloft included the phrase "Israel, laboratory of police violence," and another banner read "Stop the massacres by Israel. Liberty and justice for Palestine."

Last week an American organization, the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, likewise blamed the deaths of a number of African-Americans on Israel, claiming that the IDF trains American police offers in tactics that lead to human rights violations. The group tweeted: "The Israeli military trains US police in racist and repressive policing tactics, which systematically targets Black and Brown bodies," with a link to a 2016 Amnesty International report making the same claim.

Crif, the umbrella organization for French Jewry, denounced the incident, saying “there cannot be a fight against racism which directly or indirectly tolerates antisemitism in its ranks.”

Anti-racism protesters in Paris today shout "Dirty Jews!" pic.twitter.com/APQCep0da0
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) June 13, 2020

Israel Advocacy Movement: Europe descend into antisemitic chaos!

Anti-racists in Paris screamed “dirty Jews” at white supremacists
Google removed Churchill’s image, but not Hitler’s
‘Patriots’ in London defended Churchill’s statue by Nazi saluting it
A Jew was stabbed 2 miles from Corbyn’s house… he said nothing
Can someone cancel 2020?

Jonathan Tobin: Jews Should Not Help ‘Tear It All Down’

As long as we’re tearing down monuments and statues to alleged racists, why not trash the antisemites while we’re at it?

That’s the attitude of some Jews to the rerun of China’s Cultural Revolution currently playing on our televisions screens in which woke protesters are seeking to erase all evidence of alleged evil racists on display in the public squares of the world. The reaction to the callous murder of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis policeman has provoked a necessary debate about police brutality and racism, even though many of those who are seeking to guide that discussion are operating under some misconceptions about the facts of police killings.

The problems with the protests go beyond such distortions, or even the fact that in some cases, rioting and looting followed. What we are now faced with is a surge of revisionism, moral preening, and virtue signaling about racism that is seeking to retrospectively erase or “cancel” — to use the language of social media — much of our history, art, and literature that is alleged to represent its racist past.

A fair-minded observer might respond to this spasm of iconoclasm by suggesting that we not stop with statues of those who owned or traded slaves, fought for the Confederacy, sought to have American slaves returned to Africa (Abraham Lincoln), or defended British imperialism (Winston Churchill). We could then go on to include prominent antisemites on the list of those to be toppled from their famous perches.

If we were to do that, rampaging Jews could join the anarchists in the streets and start by decapitating most busts or statues of leaders of the Roman empire for their atrocities against the Jewish people — a task that would include dynamiting the Arch of Titus, which depicts the enslavement of Jews and the looting of the Second Temple, and renaming Hadrian’s Wall in northern England (named for the emperor who built the amazing structure that stretches across the entire island of Britain, but who also laid waste to Judea, murdering countless Jews during the Bar Kochba revolt).

We could go on to knock down statues of all medieval and early modern European monarchs who discriminated against or persecuted and murdered Jews (it would be easier to list the ones who didn’t attack the Jews than the ones who did), as well as some, but not all, of the popes. The list of antisemitic modern statesman, in addition to thinkers and writers, is equally lengthy.

New York Times Publishes Op-Ed Of Apparent Terrorist Supporter Who Calls For Abolishing ‘Prisons And Police’

The New York Times has published an op-ed from a far-left activist that was a fellow at George Soros’ Open Society Foundation and who is an apparent terrorist supporter, which comes just a week after the newspaper said that it should not have published an op-ed from Republican Senator Tom Cotton (AR) that espoused a political view that the majority of Americans support.

The op-ed was written by Mariame Kaba, who, according to a website that is in her name and a blog that she purportedly runs, is an apparent supporter of Assata Shakur – who is on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist list.

Investigative reporter Jordan Schachtel tweeted: “Fun fact: the lady who wrote this op-ed in The New York Times is both a terrorist supporter and a radical leftist. Good thing her name isn’t Senator Tom Cotton!”

Fun fact: the lady who wrote this op-ed in The New York Times is both a terrorist supporter and a radical leftist. Good thing her name isn't Senator Tom Cotton! pic.twitter.com/RDIN01CXlB
— Jordan Schachtel (@JordanSchachtel) June 12, 2020

Highlights from the radical op-ed, which espouses views that the overwhelming majority of Americans reject, include:

We can’t reform the police. The only way to diminish police violence is to reduce contact between the public and the police.

…when you see a police officer pressing his knee into a black man’s neck until he dies, that’s the logical result of policing in America. When a police officer brutalizes a black person, he is doing what he sees as his job. …

I’ve been advocating the abolition of the police for years. Regardless of your view on police power — whether you want to get rid of the police or simply to make them less violent — here’s an immediate demand we can all make: Cut the number of police in half and cut their budget in half. Fewer police officers equals fewer opportunities for them to brutalize and kill people. …

But don’t get me wrong. We are not abandoning our communities to violence. We don’t want to just close police departments. We want to make them unnecessary. …

People like me who want to abolish prisons and police, however, have a vision of a different society, built on cooperation instead of individualism, on mutual aid instead of self-preservation. What would the country look like if it had billions of extra dollars to spend on housing, food and education for all? This change in society wouldn’t happen immediately, but the protests show that many people are ready to embrace a different vision of safety and justice.

The fringe op-ed comes after leftist reporters at The New York Times and at other left-wing publications claimed that an op-ed from Sen. Cotton last week put the lives of black people at risk because he advocated for the military to be called in to stop the violent riots from destroying inner cities, a view that is supported by 58% of Americans.

Jason Greenblatt: Applying Israeli law in West Bank is not illegal

On Friday, an opinion piece by Yousef al-Otaiba, United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United States, was published in an Israeli newspaper. I spent three years at the White House working to bring Israel and its Arab neighbors closer, and though the op-ed’s overall message potentially undermines my efforts and those of the Trump administration, I commend Otaiba for writing it. I am glad he spoke directly to an Israeli audience.

Moreover, his piece is well written and devoid of the hysteria and robot-like comments often seen from diplomats and politicians who speak about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

I don’t want there to be any misconceptions. To put it bluntly, I strongly disagree with parts of the op-ed. For example, I don’t agree that the extension of Israeli sovereignty to the areas being contemplated would be an illegal seizure of land. The US government also does not believe so, which is why President Donald Trump’s vision for peace provides for this concept.

I personally support the move, but my personal opinion is not relevant. I am not Israeli. It will be the decision of Israel’s democratically elected government whether to move forward with this.

I also strongly disagree with his use of the term “Palestinian land.” It is not Palestinian land. It is land that is disputed, and the only way to resolve this is if the two sides can negotiate a settlement of the dispute directly together. But that has proven to be elusive. This is one of the main reasons we drafted the vision for peace in the manner that we did.

The Palestinian leadership is fractured perhaps beyond repair between the leadership in Ramallah and the bloodthirsty Iran-funded terrorists in Gaza who subjugate approximately two million Palestinians and cause much suffering to Palestinians and Israelis. But the leadership in Ramallah rejected the vision for peace before it was even published. Indeed, they rejected, again and again, plans and ideas put forward by prior US administrations. Our view was that the leadership in Ramallah should no longer have a veto on what happens to this land and to the Israelis living there. But to protect the Palestinians, we gave them a lengthy period – four years – to get their house in order so that they, too, could obtain the many benefits contemplated by the vision for peace.

For Netanyahu, despite mounting opposition, annexation is already paying off

An Israeli annexation of some part of the West Bank seemed all but inevitable just two weeks ago.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who made the annexation of most of the Jordan Valley and Israeli settlements throughout the West Bank his signature initiative in the run-up to the September 2019 election, has clung to the idea ever since, vowing to follow through with some as yet unclear version of his original annexation proposal in just three weeks, on July 1.

But challenges have mounted on all sides. Many settlement leaders now rail against the move because it comes as part of a broader Trump peace plan that includes the establishment of a Palestinian state, which they are opposed to. European leaders are warning of damage to ties — Germany’s foreign minister was in Israel Wednesday on an urgent visit to push back against the idea. The Democratic contender for the US presidency, Joe Biden, has warned against it. The Palestinian Authority is threatening to both disband and declare statehood. Jordan has warned it could rethink its peace treaty with Israel.

Israelis, for their part, appear to have responded to the idea with a collective yawn. It feels to most Israelis like a symbolic act with little practical meaning on the ground. A poll conducted in early June by the dovish Geneva Initiative found that a plurality of Israelis opposes annexation — 41.7% oppose and 32.2% support — but also that nearly all of its supporters view it as a low priority. Asked what they prioritized as the “most important” issues the government must address, top billing went to the coronavirus-ravaged economy (42.4%), followed by the fight against the virus (24.6%). Annexation came fifth and last at 3.5%.

A similar poll using different language (for example, “annexation” was replaced with “applying sovereignty”) conducted for Channel 12 on June 8 offered similar results: 46% oppose, 34% support. Even among the self-described right, 39% oppose, 41% support. And where does annexation fit on the priority ranking? Once again, in the single digits: “battling the economic crisis” got 69%, “fighting the coronavirus” 15%, “annexing settlements in Judea and Samaria” 5%.

As the critics multiply and Israelis shrug, one question stands out above the rest: Why? Why does Netanyahu believe it is worth all the trouble? Why now?

.@SecPompeo: Given Israel’s robust civilian and military legal system, and strong track record of investigating and prosecuting wrongdoing by military personnel, it’s clear the ICC is only putting Israel in its crosshairs for nakedly political reasons. It’s a mockery of justice. pic.twitter.com/zrAuhOFvcy
— Department of State (@StateDept) June 12, 2020

New Swedish ‘ambassador to Tel Aviv’ denied support for Israel

Sweden’s designated ambassador to Israel, a political appointee, publicly disassociated himself from support for Israel and opposed members of his party holding an event in the parliament in Stockholm with representatives of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party.

Erik Ullenhag, a former minister of integration and leader of the Liberal People’s Party, has been Sweden’s ambassador to Jordan since 2016, and will arrive in Israel in September.

He courted controversy last month when he announced his new posting by tweeting that he was appointed “ambassador to Tel Aviv,” as opposed to Israel. He later thanked people for congratulating him on becoming ambassador to Israel, using the country’s name.

Ullenhag has one other tweet mentioning Israel, and it is a denial that he supports it. In 2014, he defended his participation in a “Kippah March” – protests against attacks on people wearing Jewish symbols – by writing that he was protesting “against antisemitism, not in a manifestation of support for Israel.”

Sweden is one of the countries that is least friendly to Israel in Europe. The Liberal People’s Party’s MPs have a range of views on Israel, including some who support moving Sweden’s embassy to Jerusalem, according to recent Swedish media reports.

Police summon Temple Mount Waqf guard who detained a woman citing Jewish history

The Israel Police summoned a Waqf security guard after he detained an Israeli woman for asserting that a Jewish temple had once stood on the Temple Mount in a Facebook Live video that she broadcast during a visit to the flashpoint holy site, law enforcement confirmed on Sunday.

The security guard, Mohammad Sanjalawy, was summoned for clarification of his conduct during the Wednesday altercation, a police spokesman said, adding that no additional punitive measures would be taken.

The Israeli woman, Shaina Hirsch, posted a live stream of her visit during which she explained the history of the Temple Mount, the current site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. After several minutes of talking, she was approached by Sanjalawy, who can be heard telling her that she is “not allowed to talk about [the] temple here. You’re at a mosque.”

“I’m not allowed to say that there was a temple here?” she responded.

“Exactly,” the guard of the Islamic authority that oversees the site said, also claiming that she was also not allowed to livestream her visit.

The two proceeded to argue over whether Jewish temples had once stood at the compound, with Sanjalawy insisting that there “had been a mosque [there] since [the time of] Adam.”

He went on to claim that Zionists “picked a land [around] 1940… and they said, this is the place we’re going to send the Jews because they were killed everywhere.”

Sanjalawy then detained Hirsch for questioning.

Zoom participant photo-bombs Channel 13 broadcast with Nazi swastika

During Sunday morning's workout class on Israel's Channel 13, a viewer participating in the Zoom instructional course photo-bombed the broadcast to display a Nazi swastika and flag behind the instructors.

The class, which takes place on the broadcast floor of Channel 13's studio, displayed a grid of participating viewers in the background of the class to give a more connected feel to those following along at home during the coronavirus.

Within that display, one of the chosen Zoom viewers decided to display the Nazi swastika, unbeknownst to the production staff and broadcast team.

Channel 13 stated that there are looking into how to prevent such situations from happening in the future.

A swastika in the Morning Network program aired through the Zoom of one of the training participants," said Israel Hayom's Entertainment and Media Reporter Eran Swissa.

"These days, we are looking at how to prevent invasive information from being transmitted through the Zoom app," Channel 13 said, according to Swissa.

צלב קרס בתוכנית הבוקר של רשת שודר באמצעות הזום של אחד המשתתפים באימון.
מרשת 13 נמסר בתגובה: ״בימים אלו בוחנים כיצד ניתן למנוע פלישה של מידע מביש לשידור באמצעות אפליקצית הזום״ pic.twitter.com/VOW99SfK5r
— Eran Swissa (@EranSwissa) June 14, 2020

Khaled Abu Toameh: Will a Palestinian 'popular resistance' lead to an Intifada?

The Palestinian Authority won’t allow scenes of anarchy and lawlessness, if and when Israel implements its plan to extend sovereignty to parts of the West Bank, PA officials in Ramallah said on Sunday.

On the other hand, the PA won’t stop Palestinians from holding mass demonstrations against the annexation, although it’s aware that the protests could lead to another intifada against Israel, the officials said.

“We’re not calling for a third intifada,” a senior PA official told The Jerusalem Post. “We are just warning that Israel’s actions and measures could lead to a new intifada and destabilize security in the region.”

The official said that the policy of the PA and the ruling Fatah faction was to encourage a “peaceful and popular resistance” in the West Bank, while discouraging “armed attacks that would play into the hands of the Israeli government and the Israeli right-wing parties.”

Although the PA has suspended security coordination with Israel, the official noted, “we remain opposed to armed attacks because they would cause huge damage to the Palestinian issue.”

Last week, PA officials confirmed that there was increased cooperation between the PA security forces and Fatah armed groups, including the Tanzim and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, especially since the outbreak of the coronavirus in PA-controlled areas in March. The cooperation increased after PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s May 18 decision to renounce all agreements and understandings with Israel and the US, including security cooperation, the officials revealed.

Despite PA objections, UN still hoping to get UAE virus aid to West Bank, Gaza

Despite objections from the Palestinian Authority, the United Nations hopes to transfer two large shipments of coronavirus-related medical supplies, both flown from the United Arab Emirates to Israel, to both the West Bank and Gaza in the coming days, a UN official told The Times of Israel on Sunday.

The UAE-donated aid has not been shipped from Israel to the Gaza Strip, contrary to Hebrew media reports. The first shipment, which arrived on the first-ever direct flight from Abu Dhabi to Tel Aviv on May 19, is currently sitting in a holding facility in the southern coastal city of Ashdod. The second shipment, which arrived last Tuesday, was still clearing customs at Ben Gurion Airport, the UN official said. Once it joins the first shipment at Ashdod, they will be sent out to the Gaza Strip and West Bank, “hopefully in the coming days,” he added.

Officials from the office of the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process will be meeting with local representatives from the World Health Organization to discuss how the nearly two dozen tons of medical supplies will be distributed.

While the intention is to send the medical supplies — including 15 ventilators — to both Palestinian territories, a UN official made clear last month that there was a much greater need for it in the Gaza Strip.

The UN conducted an assessment of the ongoing medical situations in both territories, where it operates extensively, and determined that roughly 65 percent of the UAE shipment should go to Gaza while the remainder could go to the West Bank, the official said at the time.

Khaled Abu Toameh: PA alarmed by UAE intervention in Palestinian internal affairs

Unlike many Palestinian parties, the Palestinian Authority has avoided commenting on an article published last week by United Arab Emirates Ambassador to the US, Yousef Al-Otaibi, in Yediot Aharonot.

The PA’s silence, however, does not mean that it condones the ambassador’s statements. In the past few years, PA officials have privately accused the UAE of meddling in Palestinian internal affairs and acting contrary to Arab League resolutions by advancing normalization with Israel.

Referring to Israeli intentions to apply sovereignty to parts of the West Bank, Al-Otaibi warned that the move would harm efforts to normalize relations between Israel and the Arab world.

“Annexation will certainly and immediately upend Israeli aspirations for improved security, economic and cultural ties with the Arab world and with UAE,” he wrote. “Normal is not annexation. Instead, annexation is a misguided provocation of another order. And continued talk of normalization would be just mistaken hope for better relations with the Arab states.”

Several Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, strongly condemned the UAE ambassador’s statements, accusing him of “beseeching” Israel to normalize its relations with the Arab states.

Refusing tax revenues and loans from Israel, PA on brink of major fiscal crisis

Despite major cuts in spending, the Palestinian Authority ran a deficit of NIS 863 million ($248 million) in May, the Palestinian Finance Ministry in Ramallah announced on Friday on its Facebook page.

In response to the coronavirus crisis, the PA announced new austerity policies and sent out a call for foreign donations in late March. PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh announced that it would have to cut up to 50 percent of its planned yearly budget to compensate for lost revenue. Even so, the PA’s new emergency budget, passed in early April, projected the deficit to increase to $1.4 billion in 2020.

Ramallah received NIS 237 million ($68 million) in May, with NIS 137 million ($39.4 million) from local tax revenues and NIS 100 million ($28.8 million) in foreign aid, according to PA Finance Ministry numbers.

The World Bank announced last Monday that the Palestinian economy was projected to contract by as much as 11% as a result of the global economic recession sparked by the coronavirus pandemic.

But as grim as the World Bank’s assessment was, it may have been optimistic.

In the last week, the PA’s fiscal crisis has only deepened. The World Bank’s projections were made before Ramallah announced that it would no longer accept the $170 million in import and export taxes which Israel transfers to the PA on a monthly basis. Senior PA officials said the move was part of efforts to void agreements and end coordination with Israel over its plans to annex parts of the West Bank.

PMW: Israel is foreign ruler to be defeated by Muslim conqueror - in PA music video

The PA is yet again pretending it is the Jewish people. A music video broadcast on PA TV misrepresents 2000 years of Jewish struggle against foreign rulers who occupied the land of Israel which ended with the State of Israel being reestablished last century, as 2000 years of Palestinian struggle against foreign rulers. Israel is presented as the last “foreign ruler,” and will be defeated by Muslim forces, represented by Muslim conqueror Saladin. Jewish presence in the land of Israel is presented as the last in the chain of foreign rulers who will be removed when the land is liberated by Muslims.

The music video shows a woman dressed in white who represents "the Palestinians" experiencing the history of the land - replacing the Jewish people's actual history. The story begins in a period predating the Roman conquest of Judea and the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. The woman runs away from four foreign invaders: an ancient Roman soldier, a Crusader, a British soldier, and finally a Jew.
In the final scene, the woman stops fleeing when a man on a horse - the "new" Muslim conqueror Saladin who defeated the Crusaders - extends his hand and helps her to the top of the hill. He represents the coming Muslim savior who will "liberate Palestine" from Jewish-Israeli rule.

Although, there was no Arab or Muslim people who ever identified as “Palestinians” until recently, the PA in its desperation to create a history in the land, often misrepresents Jewish history as Palestinian history. For example, although Jesus was a Jew living in Judea, a fundamental of PA ideology is that Jesus was a Palestinian who taught Islam. In this video, the Palestinians are presented as part of a continuous 2000 year struggle against different foreign occupiers that have taken over their “Palestine.” The message to Palestinians is that eventually they will be victorious and defeat the last foreign ruler – Israel.

This is not the first time that the PA has broadcast this video. PMW originally exposed this in 2012 and it has been broadcast hundreds of times since then.

This video echoes another of the PA’s core messages; that all of Israel is “Palestine” and will be defeated and “return to us.”

Hamas said threatening to resume Gaza protests unless Qatari funds arrive

If Israel does not allow Qatari aid money to reach the Gaza Strip, Hamas could soon act to end the calm which has prevailed in recent months and renew nightly operations as soon as next Friday, Palestinian sources told Kan news on Saturday.

The source further told Kan that if the condition was not met in two weeks, Hamas would start sending units to “penetrate” the Gaza border fence and potentially enter Israeli territory.

Hamas has not yet officially commented on the story, nor has the terrorist movement issued a public ultimatum to Israel.

It was not immediately clear why Hamas was blaming Israel for the delay in the funds’ arrival.

Mohammed al-Emadi, the head of the Qatari Gaza Reconstruction Committee, had been anticipated in the Gaza Strip this week to distribute $150 million in financial aid, Ynet reported last week. Al-Emadi had not traveled to the Strip since late February, citing health concerns linked to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Kan subsequently reported this week that al-Emadi was not expected to come this month either. Qatar’s Emadi, who has frequently visited Gaza, the West Bank and Israel, maintains contacts with the Palestinian Authority, the Strip’s Hamas rulers and the Israeli government.

Some of the funding, however, may arrive in the Strip soon even without al-Emadi visiting in person. Hamas announced earlier this week that government salaries for April would finally be dispensed to public sector workers on Sunday, following several delays.

It would not be the first time that al-Emadi sent along funds in absentia. When the first Qatari grants arrived at the end of March, the transfer of funds coincided with a small private plane traveling from Israel to Doha via Cyprus, returning the same way, according to Flightradar. There was speculation that Israel had thus facilitated transfer of the funds.

This is Ghazal Hakimifard, a renowned Iranian chess player. Ghazal has recently decided to no longer represent Iran, which imposes compulsory hijab on her. She will now play for Switzerland.

Iran keeps losing its brightest minds due to mediaeval laws. Ghazal isn't the first one pic.twitter.com/mmE1wb9vRB
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) June 13, 2020

Tehran Hosts “I Can’t Breathe” Cartoon Exhibition: America, Trump, Police Depicted with Nazi, KKK Imagery; Star of David Shown Crushing the Neck of a Dove pic.twitter.com/2YEbsfXaHo
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) June 14, 2020

Insight Partners to Acquire Senior Israeli Venture Fund Gemini V for $500 Million

New York-based venture capital and private equity firm Insight Partners is set to acquire the fifth fund of Israeli venture firm Gemini Israel Ventures for around $500 million by the end of the week, one person familiar with the deal told Calcalist on condition of anonymity.

Gemini is one of Israel’s most senior venture capital firms, active since 1993. The firm has raised five funds to date, the last one raised $150 million in 2008. In 2014 Gemini announced it will not raise additional funds, choosing instead to concentrate on maintaining its existing portfolio.

Gemini V’s portfolio includes website usability company WalkMe; code management startup JFrog, which was valued at $1.5 billion in October 2019; Tel Aviv-based team management and productivity startup Monday.com Labs, valued at nearly $3 billion as of last month; and public transportation trip-planning app developer Moovit App Global that was acquired by Intel for $1 billion last month.

This is one in a string of local deals, both completed and nearing closure, linked to Insight Partners. Last month, Insight Partners led a $40 million round in Israeli-American cybersecurity startup Semperis. In February, Calcalist reported that the venture fund led a $200 million investment in Israel-linked cybersecurity company SentinelOne, incorporated as Sentinel Labs. A month earlier, Insight Partners acquired, together with Google’s CapitalG and Israeli IoT security company Armis, according to a company valuation of $1.1 billion. Also in January, Insight Partners bought a 10% stake in Israeli gaming company Moon Active according to a company valuation of $1.25 billion.

Taiwan tech firm i2i creates $70m program for Israeli startups to enter Asia

Taiwan’s largest innovation company, Innovation to Industry (i2i), has set up a $70 million program to create tech collaborations between Israeli startups and the East Asian country’s industry and academia, in order to pave their way to sell their products in Asia.

The program, called IP2 LaunchPad, will enable Israeli firms to test out their technologies and create partnerships with local manufacturers, the health care system, academic researchers and potential investors.

“We are working on three main pillars,” said Rani Shifron, who will manage the program from Israel. The launchpad will create opportunity for startups to validate their technologies, and find distribution and investment partners. Shifron heads the Israeli consulting firm Healthier Globe, which assists startups and organizations to enter developing global markets.

Twenty-five Israeli startups have already been selected for the program, eight of which have signed cooperation agreements to pilot their technologies, conduct feasibility studies or clinically validate their technologies, the statement said. The startups are from the fields of digital health, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence internet of things (AIOT).

Among the companies chosen for the program:
EZMEMS, a developer of smart plastic sensors designed to allow the integration of high-performance sensors needed in internet of things systems.
Cybord, which develops technologies that stop counterfeit, defective and malicious electronic components from getting assembled into products during the manufacturing process.
Tenuto, which has created a liquid biopsy test for the early detection of cancers
ReSymmetry, which is developing an AI-based robotic seating system that continuously evaluates the quality of sitting, collecting data from sensors embedded in chairs, from office to wheelchairs, and adjusting sitting positions to match each person’s personal posture needs to avoid damage caused by prolonged sitting.

The Israeli start-up turning harmful wastewater into renewable energy

Major industries may be quickly striding into a technologically-advanced and smarter future, but waste disposal solutions often remain stuck in the past.

Particularly harmful and complicated-to-treat wastewater streams, produced by municipalities and food processing factories worldwide, are often disposed of via land spreading or, in some cases, dumped into aquifers and rivers.

Seeking to bring the field of wastewater treatment into the 21st century, and to embrace the popularity of circular economy technologies, Shfar’am-based AgRobics has developed a new “bio-stabilizer” technology that both improves wastewater treatment and collects biogas for energy production from the microorganism-rich waste.

“Wastewater is a worldwide challenge, in developed and developing countries, and treating it requires copious amounts of energy and chemicals,” said AgRobics co-founder Prof. Isam Sabbah, head of the Biotechnology Engineering Department at Braude College in Karmiel.

“[Wastewater] is therefore seen as a nuisance requiring two to five percent of a nation’s energy production. AgRobics sees this ‘nuisance’ as an opportunity, turning a waste stream into clean water and energy thus enabling the reuse of the water with the nutrients and stored energy therein.”

Israeli start-up develops ultra-portable oxygen generator

An Israeli start-up has developed an ultra-portable oxygen generator that could offer a solution for the increasing need for oxygen supply for COVID-19 patients, as well as for many other emergency situations.

As explained to The Jerusalem Post by the CEO of the company, Oded Weiss, Oxygenium was established about three years ago by a group of Israeli partners inspired by their medical but also military experience to tackle a life-or-death challenge: bringing oxygen to the battlefield.

“Oxygen tanks are not allowed in the battlefield because they risk exploding and are therefore considered too dangerous,” he said. “However, we have seen that in wars that Israel has fought, the complications related to the evacuation of injured soldiers without the possibility of providing them with oxygen in the meantime has caused several fatalities.”

The group started to work on a solution that would not only eliminate the dangers related to traditional oxygen tanks, but would also make it easier for the oxygen to be carried around.

African American basketball legend says Israel safer than US

Former Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball star, Derrick Sharp, praised Israel over its treatment of people of African descent compared to the United States.

Sharp, who is African American and an Israeli citizen, appeared in late May at an event hosted by the Israeli Consulate in New York.

"Today it is safer to be in Israel more than anywhere else, especially for a black person," Sharp said at the event according to a translated version of the comments. He was referring to the recent wave of protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd, an African American man who died after an officer put his knee on him during his arrest in Minneapolis.

"We saw what happened in Minnesota and the rest of the world with the violence," he continued. "I lived in Israel for 20 years, and I never got mugged. In the US I was."

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