City Elections 2008: Shuki Forer to become New Mayor, My Rehovot publisher says

Also, please listen to the soundtrack of Mr. Shuki Forer Campaign Gala of 30 August 2008 (mp3, 1 hour 15 min). Soundtrack is a copyright by My Rehovot. Download and (re)distribution is strictly prohibited. Allowed is an online playback using the media player provided below.

Shuki Forer Election Campaign Gala

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Rehovot biotech firm to collaborate with a US Department of Veterans Affairs Institution

Rehovot based Dermipsor Ltd. said it signed a cooperative research and development agreement with the Department of Veterans Affairs Boston Research Institute Inc. The collaboration's framework under the agreement covers the advancement of Phase II and III trials. The agreement initially will focus on implementing a scalp psoriasis Phase II study with Dermipsor's DPS-102, a nonsteroidal synergistic combination topical treatment, which is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter. The company said it also is continuing preparations for its plaque psoriasis Phase III trial with its leading drug DPS-101.

tmcnet.com

Israel's police chief David (Dudi) Cohen talks on Violence and Rehovot

Israel's police chief David (Dudi) Cohen talks on Violence and Rehovot. See his interview full text at Haaretz.com]

...But there is youth violence and there is night violence, and the protection racket has become a national problem.

"The police force is the country's emergency room. In a large number of cases involving a social or educational failure, we are the ones who finally arrive to pick up the pieces. Our ER receives the ailments of the Israeli society. On Friday night you will find hundreds of drunk kids from a certain ethnic background on Herzl Street in Rehovot. Hundreds. That is their culture. I cannot deal with their culture. I get them at 2 A.M., drunk, threatening one another with broken bottles. So what do I do? I transfer six Border Police companies from the seam line [the boundary line between Israel and the West Bank] to the city centers. I create more Border Police companies. I station a company in Acre and a company in Carmiel and a company in Hadera and two companies in Tel Aviv. And I send people from offices to the stations, to the front line. And I formulate a multi-year plan that will give me a larger budget and more policemen every year. But when you have 2.7 policemen per 1,000 inhabitants in Israel, compared with 5 per 1,000 in Europe, there is a problem. You cannot expect a relatively small and poorly budgeted police force to cope with all the problems that arise in Israeli society."

You said nothing about the protection racket. Herzl Street in Rehovot, which you mentioned, is said to be tainted with protection. As are main streets in other major cities.

"It is impossible to say that there is no protection money phenomenon in the country. There is such a phenomenon. But I don't think that protection is a national problem. I admit that it is hard for us to gauge the scale of the phenomenon. With drugs I can tell you how much is coming in: 100 tons of marijuana from Egypt, two-thirds of a ton of heroin from Jordan, and the same with Lebanon. But when it comes to protection money, people do not file complaints. It is hard to uncover because there are no complainants, there is no evidence and no case. But it is clear to us that the protection money phenomenon has worsened in the past few years."

And the "crime families"? It looks as though the crime families have simply taken over the street. They are everywhere. Whole cities are within their sphere of crime.

"I don't like the term 'crime family.' A family is a normal thing. These are crime organizations that have sprung up in the past decade and grown stronger over the years. Each such organization has a hierarchical structure. It has a chief, an intermediate level and 'soldiers.' Each such organization numbers between dozens and hundreds of people. The structure is almost military, but the capability extends to the economic sphere, too. The organizations are involved in drugs, protection money, taking over businesses, smuggling and gambling. They also penetrate local governments and the legitimate economy."

How many organizations do the police know of?

"Currently we have identified about 20 local crime organizations and six national crime organizations: Abutbul, Abergil, Jarushi, Domrani, Molner and Shirazi. We know that there are others as well..."

Source: Ari Shavit. The shield. Haaretz.com (3 October 2008) [FullText]

Rehovot men who gouged cab driver's eye with screwdriver jailed for 8 years

"A Petach Tikvah court on Sunday convicted two defendants in the brutal robbery of a cab driver in which they stabbed him in the eye before taking off with NIS 100.

The two defendants, Ofer Finko, 21 and Gara Morositz, 19, both from Rehovot, pled guilty to aggravated robbery and conspiracy to commit a crime.

The indictment states that the two defendants were searching for a car to break into in Rehovot and when they didn't find a suitable target, they called a taxi station nearby and ordered a cab to take them to Kibbutz Palmahim.

The two then rode with the cab driver, Yaakov Mizrachi towards Palmahim, and when they got to a junction near the kibbutz the two defendants began beating Mizrachi. When Mizrachi tried to protect himself against the attackers, they stabbed him in the eye with the screwdriver, causing him to lose his left eye.

Despite the severity of the crime, the two were given only 8 years in prison due to their agreement to sign a plea bargain"

Source: Ofra Edelman, Haaretz Correspondent. Men who gouged cab driver's eye with screwdriver jailed for 8 years. Haaretz.com (5 October 2008) [FullText]

Two Rehovot bandits convicted of violent robbery on taxi driver

"Two Rehovot men were convicted Sunday of committing a violent robbery on a taxi driver as a result of which he lost one of his eyes.

The two - Ophir Pinko, 21, and Gera Morosich, 19 - were found guilty as part of a plea bargain on charges of robbery, grievous bodily harm and conspiracy to commit a crime for the February attack on 72-year-old Yaakov Mizrahi, in which they used a screwdriver.

The prosecution was expected to ask the Petah Tikva District Court to sentence the two to eight years in jail."

JPost.com staff. Two Rehovot men convicted of violent robbery on taxi driver JPost.com (7 Oct 2008) [FullText]

Rabbi of Rehovot Simcha Hakohen Kook voted out of the council

Which restaurants and food products are kosher and which are not? Who is allowed to get married and who is not? Who can be a rabbi and who cannot?

Last week, elections took place to choose the state-empowered body - the Chief Rabbinate Council - that is supposed to answer these questions.

The elections were an upset. The non-hassidic, Lithuanian-haredi rabbinic leadership, which gradually has been gaining more power within the Chief Rabbinate, suffered a major setback. Two of its veteran members, Rabbi of Rehovot Simcha Hakohen Kook and chairman of the Neighborhood Rabbis Council Moshe Rauchverger, who is also a neighborhood rabbi in the Haifa area, were voted out of the council.

Rauchverger and Kook, both connected to the Degel Hatorah party and adamantly backed by Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, the supreme halachic authority of the haredi Ashkenazi community, were replaced by two rabbis who do not necessarily adhere to his decisions...

Source: Matthew Wagner. Religious Affairs: Honor, haredi-style. JPost.com (3 October 2008) [FullText]