A 22-year-old patient who has spent the past nine years attached to a respirator at Jerusalem’s Alyn Hospital started breathing on his own for the first time following a breakthrough surgery at Hadassah University Medical Center. “This is an important breakthrough that gives hope to spinal cord victims,” Dr....
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The European Union has hired London-based Saladin Security to train an 80-man police force to be deployed in east Jerusalem, the Ynet news portal reported Tuesday. Essentially operating as commandos, said the report, the Palestinians will be tasked with guarding EU facilities on the eastern side of the city. But according...
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Martin Rapaport, chairman of the Rapaport Group, held a three-day fast outside the Kimberley Process meetings in Tel Aviv last week to protest blood diamond trading. Israel, a leader in the international diamond-cutting and processing industry, was selected to chair the group this year and the other participants – governments,...
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Jerusalem hotel stays were up 52% in May – a positive sign for Israel’s hotel industry as it heads into the peak summer months – according to a report released last week by the Israel Hotel Association (IHA). The report showed 335,000 hotel guests stayed in the capital last month,...
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Hundreds of Gilad Shalit supporters joined the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations on the “True Freedom Flotilla” to raise awareness that Gilad Shalit remains in captivity, demand that his rights are respected and call for his immediate release. Two large boats...
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Professor Gerald Steinberg, president of Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, addressed a hearing of the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights last week in Brussels, briefing the subcommittee on EU funding for Israeli and Palestinian non-governmental organizations. “NGO Monitor’s detailed research during the past eight years demonstrates that EU support for NGOs...
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Despite the Gaza flotilla incident, both Israelis and Palestinians are showing a greater willingness to compromise, though on both sides two-thirds remain pessimistic about the future of the peace process, according to a joint Israeli-Palestinian poll. Following the Gaza flotilla incident, 63% of Palestinians believe they...
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Three Nobel Prize laureates in economics – Prof. Kenneth Arrow, Prof. Eric Maskin and Prof. Roger Myerson – as well as Governor of the Bank of Israel, Prof. Stanley Fischer, will participate in the 21st summer school on political economy at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the Hebrew...
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Herod’s Gate was rededicated today at a ceremony attended by Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat. The gate and adjacent parts of the Old City wall were rehabilitated during the course of 2009 as part of the Jerusalem City Walls Conservation and Rehabilitation Project, which is funded by the Prime Minister’s Office,...
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Mayor Nir Barkat sent a stiff letter in response to a statement by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calling the Jerusalem Municipality's plans for an archeological part in the neighborhood of Silwan illegal. Jerusalem Dispatch presents the full text of Mayor Barkat's letter to Ki-moon.
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An American-born Jewish-Israeli reflects on how she has been able to weave the multicultural fabric of Jerusalem into her daily life. As a senior lecturer in a college with a mixed Jewish and Arab student body and staff, she highlights the opportunities for inspiring exchanges amongst the students and...
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