Made in Rehovot Space Cameras Start Transmitting from Israel reconnaissance satellite

REHOVOT, Israel (20 June 2007) The Israeli OFEQ-7 satellite is transmitting high-quality images from onboard digital cameras produced by Elbit Systems Electro-Optics Elop Ltd. in Rehovot, Israel, company officials announced.

The specific mission of the Elop cameras on OFEQ-7 is classified, yet Elop's space systems can perform remote sensing, earth and agricultural resources monitoring, astronomy, and other, security-related tasks.

The OFEQ-7 satellite, launched 11 June, is an Israeli intelligence asset for war contingencies. Joining the 5-year old OFEQ-5 satellite, the new platform fills the gap in coverage of distant high-priority areas in the Middle East, including Iran.

The integration of Elop cameras in OFEQ-7 builds on previous space applications of Elop digital cameras. The OFEQ-3 camera, launched in 1995, has operated since its launch, as have Elop cameras aboard the OFEQ-5 satellite, which was launched in 2002.

Elop's space cameras and telescopes are used in several commercial programs, such as the EROS A and B programs and Kompsat2, as an overall payload developed and produced for the Korean space Agency (KARI).
Elop is also the designer and builder of the space super-spectral camera in the Venus program to be delivered in 2008 to the French Space Agency (CNES). For more information contact Elop online at www.el-op.com.

Source: Elop space cameras start transmitting from Israel reconnaissance satellite. Military and Aerospace electronics (20 June 2007) [FullText]

Amot Offers to Buy Reit Israel Share in Rehovot Mall

The offer was made in the framework of the Buy Me Buy You (BMBY) agreement between the parties.

"Amot Investments Ltd. (TASE:AMOT) announced Sunday that it had made an offer to its partner in the Rehovot Mall, Reit Asset Management Israel, to buy out its share of the mall. Amot offered NIS 465 million for Reit Israel's share, reflecting a value of NIS 875 million for the mall. The offer was made in the framework of the Buy Me Buy You (BMBY) agreement between the parties.

Last week the companies announced the signature of a BMBY agreement in relation to the entirety of the rights in the mall. Under such agreement, REIT Israel may respond by the 26th of June as to whether it accepts the buyout offer by Amot or whether it intends to acquire the share of Amot according to its proportionate share under the value of NIS 875 million for the mall."

Source: Michal Yoshay. Amot offers to buy Reit Israel share in Rehovot Mall. (18 June 2007) [FullText]

Rehovot Film Festival in the Name of Ma'ayan Sapir, a Violence Victim, Announced Winners

The Ma'ayan Sapir festival for short films ended this week with a ceremony in the Weizman Institute in Rehovot. The contest was initiated by the City of Rehovot, "Metsila", the Israel Anti Drug Abuse Foundation and the Sapir family, in memory of Ma'ayan Sapir, a local teenager who was brutally murdered by another teenager two years ago.

The Mayor of Rehovot, Shuki Forer spoke at the ceremony. "The murder of Ma'ayan Sapir reflects a society that has lost all control" he said, "We are all obligated to restraining youth violence".

All 34 films submitted to the contest had to do with violence and alcohol and drug abuse. They were produced by students and adults from various community film programs in Rehovot, Nazareth, Jerusalem, Gan Yavneh, Kochav Yair and Gedera. The young cinematographers took part in work shops on crime and violence prevention as well as film prior to executing their projects.

The panel consisted of representatives from "Metsila", the Israel Anti Drug Abuse Foundation, the community media program in Rehovot and the Sapir family.

First place in the children category: "The Travel Prayer" – Musical clip on life without violence, produced by the Ma'alot school in Rehovot

First place in the youth category: "Looking Back", violence among youth triggered by romance.

First place in the adult category: "View", a documentary on society's apathy towards violence, produced by Sa'ar Amit.

Best clip: "Sigapo", produced by Rehovot's Youth and Alcohol program

Best documentary: "Violence in Night Clubs", produced by the students in the Ort School in Gan Yavneh

Best overall film: "Human Weakness", about youth being dragged into violence at a moment of weakness, produced by the students of the Menachem Begin School in Rehovot.

My Rehovot welcomes films and clip teams to podcast their films at MyRehovot's Big Orange TV section. Please contact us for further details.

Source: The Ma'ayan Sapir Film Festival announces winners. Israel Ministry of Public Security Web Site (21 June 2007) [FullText]

Jerusalem Gay Parade: Rehovot Residents Attempted to Sabotase Traffic

"Gay Parade Aftermath: roughly 3,500 people marched Thursday evening in the much-contested Jerusalem Gay Pride parade, as some 1,500 ultra-Orthodox men, settlers and right-wing activists demonstrated against the event (more info)

Police will deploy more than 7,000 officers today in Jerusalem to protect an estimated crowd of 5,000 people expected to attend the Gay Pride parade. Ultra-Orthodox extremists staged violent protests yesterday, and police expect demonstrations to continue in several areas in the capital, following the High Court of Justice's ruling approving the event (see original text).

Jerusalem Police authorized the parade's organizers from the Jerusalem Open House gay rights organization to hold a procession along a stretch of several hundred yards. The parade will begin at King David and Moshe Hess Streets and end in the nearby Liberty Bell Park.

Police began scouring the route yesterday, to prevent the possibility of extremists planting explosives or other means of injuring the participants. Magen David Adom emergency service will deploy 45 ambulances and a total of 200 medical staff along the parade route.

The police are working under the assumption that protests against the parade will be held in several different neighborhoods and venues today. One of these will apparently be in the Jaffa Street and Sarei Yisrael junction, where police have permitted ultra-Orthodox demonstrators to hold a protest rally. It remains clear how many will participate.

The officers selected to participate in the operation have been preparing for a wide variety of scenarios, ranging from stabbing attempts to terrorist attacks with multiple casualties. Two years ago, an ultra-Orthodox demonstrator, Yishai Schlissel, leaped into the parade and stabbed three participants who sustained minor to moderate wounds.

So far, police have succeeded in foiling two plans to disrupt public order during the parade. In one instance, police arrested three men from Rehovot on suspicion of conspiring to throw spikes on the road to rupture the tires of passing traffic. In the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo, police also found a heap of 60 car tires, which they believe extremists had planned to set on fire.

The majority of ultra-Orthodox leaders, for their part, have ordered their followers not to participate in the demonstrations. Police believe this will help minimize protests..."

Source: Jonathan Lis and Yair Ettinger. Police to dispatch 7000 officers to J'lem Gay Pride parade. Haaretz.com (21 June 2007) [FullText]

Weizmann Institute Scientists Develop A General "Control Switch" for Protein Activity

The method may be used in biomedical research, and in the future in gene therapy and in genetic engineering of plants

Our bodies could not maintain their existence without thousands of proteins performing myriad vital tasks within cells. Since malfunctioning proteins can cause disease, the study of protein structure and function can lead to the development of drugs and treatments for numerous disorders. For example, the discovery of insulin’s role in diabetes paved the way for the development of a treatment based on insulin injections. Yet, despite enormous research efforts led by scientists worldwide, the cellular function of numerous proteins is still unknown. To reveal this function, scientists perform various genetic manipulations to increase or, conversely, decrease the production of a certain protein, but existing manipulations of this sort are complicated and do not fully meet the researchers’ needs.

Prof. Moti Liscovitch and graduate student Oran Erster of the Weizmann Institute’s Biological Regulation Department, together with Dr. Miri Eisenstein of Chemical Research Support, have recently developed a unique “switch” that can control the activity of any protein, raising it several-fold, or stopping it almost completely. The method provides researchers with a simple and effective tool for exploring the function of unknown proteins, and in the future the new technique may find many additional uses.

The “switch” has a genetic component and a chemical component: using genetic engineering, the scientists insert a short segment of amino acids into the amino acid sequence making up the protein. This segment is capable of binding strongly and selectively to a particular chemical drug, which affects the activity level of the engineered protein – increasing or reducing it. When the drug is no longer applied, or when it is removed from the system, the protein returns to its natural activity level.

As reported recently in the journal Nature Methods, the first stage of the method consists of preparing a set of genetically engineered proteins (called a “library” in scientific language) with the amino acid segment inserted in different places. In the second stage, the engineered proteins are screened to identify the ones that respond to the drug in a desired manner. The researchers have discovered that in some of the engineered proteins, the drug increased the activity level, while in others this activity was reduced. Says Prof. Liscovitch: “We were surprised by the effectiveness of the method – it turns out that a small set of engineered proteins is needed to find the ones that respond to the drug. With their greater resources, biotechnology companies will be able to create much larger sets of engineered proteins in order to find one that best meets their needs.”

The method developed by the Weizmann Institute scientists is ready for immediate use, both in basic biomedical research and in the pharmaceutical industry, in the search for proteins that can serve as targets for new drugs. Beyond offering a potent tool that can be applied to any protein, the method has an important advantage compared with other techniques: It allows the total and precise control over the activity of an engineered protein. Such activity can be brought to a desired level or returned to its natural level, at specific locations in the body and at specific times – all this by giving exact and well-timed doses of the same simple drug.

In addition, the method could be used one day in gene therapy. It may be possible to replace damaged proteins that cause severe diseases with genetically engineered proteins, and to control these proteins’ activity levels in a precise manner – by giving appropriate doses of the drug. Another potential future application is in agricultural genetic engineering. The method might make it possible, for example, to create genetically engineered plants in which the precise timing of fruit ripening would be controlled using a substance that increases the activity of proteins responsible for ripening. Moreover, numerous proteins are used in industrial processes, as biological sensors and in other applications. The possibility of controlling these applications – strengthening or slowing the rate of protein activity in an immediate and reversible manner – can be of great value.

Source: Weizmann Institute news release (19 June 2007) [FullText]

Crime Prevention Rehovot Film Festival Winners Announced

A local film festival was inaugurated in the City of Rehovot in the memory of Ma'ayan Sapir who was murdered a year ago. The festival was initiated by the Municipality of Rehovot, "Metzila" and the Israel Anti Drugs Abuse Foundation.

The film festival ended this week with a grand ceremony granting prizes to the winning films in the Weizman Institute of Science in Rehovot. The ceremony was held in the presence of the Mayor of Rehovot, Shuki Forer, the Sapir family, representatives from Israeli cinema and students.

Grand prize winners:

Grand prize in the category of adult productions was given to Alex Tipletski's documentary about the rehabilitation process of a drug addict.
Grand prize in the category of youth productions was given to the students of the Ort High School for their documentary on the Sapir family.
Grand prize in the category of children productions was given to the students of the 5th and 6th grade in the Ben Gurion Elementary school for their video clip on violence prevention.
Grand prize for best overall film was given to the 5th grade in Yavnieli School for their "Simply Say No" film.
Citation was given to the film produced by students with special needs.

While speaking at the ceremony, Mayor Forer called for promoting the cooperation in convincing youth not to surrender to violence. "I thank "Metzila" for this initiative. You ("Metsila") are our partners in the war against violence" said the Mayor.

Uziam Sapir, Ma'ayan's father, thanked everyone that helped put together the event. He expressed his hopes that the message of violence prevention will spread across all youth, including the ones who didn’t take part in the film festival.

21 short films were submitted to the film competition in memory of Ma'yan Sapir, all of which were produced by children and teenagers in Rehovot and adults who are involved in community broadcasts. Amongst the films were also films produced by former drug addicts. The competing films included dramas, documentaries and video clips. The judging committee consisted of professionals from the Israeli cinema, representatives of "Metsila" and the Israel Anti Drugs Abuse Foundation. The evening was hosted by the Israeli TV star, Tal Museri.

The winning films will be broadcasted in schools in Rehovot and the community channel.

Source: Crime Prevention Film Festival Winners Announced. Israel Ministry of Public Security Web site. (5 June 2006) [FullText & Photos]

Extremist Groups Worry Kohl, honorary doctorate degree holder from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot

News Archive 1999

Europe must unite in preparation for the new century, and Germany must learn the lessons of its ``dark history,'' former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said Monday. Receiving an honorary doctorate degree from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, Kohl said extremist groups emerging in Europe must be countered. Israel has reacted strongly to the re-emergence of far-right movements in Europe, threatening to sever diplomatic relations with Austria if...

Source: Extremist Groups Worry Kohl. Page 4A, St. Paul Pioneer Press (MN) (2 November 1999) [FullText]

Swimming Accidents Death Statistics include the name of Rehovot Resident

Swimming Season Death TollOne person drowned off the Atlit beach, one in Caesarea and two in Ashdod: Four people drowned this weekend at various beaches across the country.

The body of 61-year-old Michael Levine was pulled from the waters at the Ashdod port Saturday morning. His family had notified police he was missing after going swimming in the area. At Metsuda Beach in Ashdod the body of a 21-year-old Rehovot resident was pulled from the waters. The young man disappeared on Friday after being carried to sea while swimming with a friend.

Meanwhile, at Kashatot Beach in Caesarea, a beach that is not designated for recreational swimming, the body of 49-year-old Alexander Blau from Hadera was found adrift near the coast. Israel Radio reported that police were investigating the circumstances which led to his death.

At another beach near Atlit, also undesignated for swimming, Magen David Adom medics were called to treat a 50-year-old man who had been pulled ashore by bystanders. The man died after medics failed to resuscitate him.

As a result of the recent rash in swimming accidents, MDA has asked that all citizens take a first aid course to learn mouth-to-mouth resuscitation skills.

Source: Four drown at beaches across country Jpost.com (9 June 2007) [FullText]

Rehovot Criminal: 'Another murder over nothing' claims life of Rehovot teen, 17

"The Rehovot teen stabbed to death early Saturday morning by one of his peers was "another murder over nothing," said Shefela region police chief Commander Yifrach Duchovny.

Police said Adameh Tarikan, 17, was killed by a 16-year-old member of a rival group of young men from the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood of Rehovot, as the groups were wandering the city aimlessly, as they usually do on Friday nights.

Duchovny said about 10 days ago, one teen insulted another. The two met up on Friday night and began to fight, and Tarikan tried to separate them. The two groups continued to curse each other as they walked through the streets.

When the teens cut from Herzl Street, Rehovot's main street, toward Ben Yehuda Street, the conflict heated up again. According to the main suspect in the murder, Tarikan attacked a good friend of his. The suspect then pulled a switchblade from his pocket and allegedly stabbed Tarikan in the chest. He then fled the scene with two of his friends, hid the knife in an abandoned building and quickly changed clothes.

Tarikan, who was seriously injured, remained at the scene with his friends, who called the police. A large number of officers arrived quickly, since a unit had been patrolling nearby as part of regular Friday night procedures.

Tarikan was taken to Kaplan Hospital in Rehovot, where he died.

A special investigations team set up to apprehend the three suspects, whose identity was known, found them at around 8 A.M. During interrogation throughout the day they denied any connection to the murder.

However, at 1 P.M., Chief Inspector Ezra Goldstein told the main suspect "you have 30 second to confess to murder." The teen subsequently confessed, and he and the two alleged accomplices reenacted the murder for police.

The suspect is known to the police for vandalism, violence and possession of a knife. Like the two other suspects, he had dropped out of school.

The victim was a student at the ORT school in Rehovot and had no police record.

His neighbors described him as "a good boy and an excellent student."

Source: Roni Singer-Heruti. 'Another murder over nothing' claims life of Rehovot teen, 17. Haaretz.com (2 June 2007) [FullText]

Feminist Conference Held in Rehovot Says 70% of Public Would Support a Woman President

Survey: 70% of public would support a woman president

Some 70 percent of the public would support a woman for president, a poll recently conducted by The GeoCartographia Research Institute reveals. The poll was conducted for Women's Parliament - a forum for critical and feminist debates - whose sixth conference was held in Rehovot yesterday.

The survey shows that among women respondents, 71 percent would support a woman president compared to 65 percent of the men surveyed. The support for a woman president was found to be stronger the higher the interviewees' education and income.

The support was weaker among those who described themselves as religious and new immigrants.

Asked which woman they would support for prime minister, the majority - 33.5 percent - preferred Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni (Kadima). She was followed by former education minister Limor Livnat (Likud) at 11.2 percent, Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik (Kadima) at 9.3 percent and presidential candidate MK Colette Avital (Labor) garnered 4.2 percent.

Some 37 percent said they would not support any of these women for prime minister.

Source: Ruth Sinai. Survey: 70% of public would support a woman president. By Ruth Sinai Haaretz.com (5 June 2007) [FullText]

Rehovot Vicinity: Hulda Forest and Herzl House

HERZL HOUSE. Inside you can see agronomist Louis Barish's desk, and a fascinating display showing how potential donors were persuaded to contribute to the JNF.

AFTER HULDA kibbutzniks left the forest, and until the recent $2 million renovation, Herzl House stood alone and neglected.

WATCH OUT for oak, South American pepper, eucalyptus, Australian casuarinas, cypress trees and almond blossoms in the spring.

THE FOREST dates back to 1905, when a company called [Geula], or "Redemption," purchased 500 acres of land from the Arabs of [Hulda] village. The grave of Ephraim [Sara Chisik]. Chisik, whose sister was killed at Tel Hai, left the Galilee to help defend Hulda in 1929. A PAVED path lined with Washingtonia trees leads you to the gracious staircase of Herzl House.

OVER THE decades everything from the roof and the floor were stolen as vandals took all they could carry.

IF YOU WILL IT. A large photograph of the Zionist leader greets visitors at Herzl House. The visionary was never here; the house was built for the farm coordinator and the settlers. POT LUCK. Pictures of early Hulda pioneers, seen in the Herzl House exhibit...

Source: Aviva Bar-am. Hulda Forest and Herzl House (includes 9 photos) Jerusalem Post Weekend Edition (26 April 2007) [FullText]