A Haifa judge is calling for independent legal rights for animals. Judge Daniel Fisch made the statement after a ruling on an animal abuse case exposed the limits of the judicial system in prosecuting animal cruelty cases. The case centered around a man from Kafr Samia who is accused of tying his dog to the back of the car and dragging the dog, severely injuring the animal. Veterinarians were unable to save the dog, which had to be humanely euthanized due to the extent of his wounds. Fisch, who presided over the …More

PhD student Ethan Welty calls himself “the curator of the edible world.” As a co-founder of Falling Fruit, the young scientist has devised a program to map out locations of fruit trees to help users find produce ripe for gleaning. Using Google Maps, visitors to www.fallenfruit.org can pinpoint locations of the nearest edible fruit. Welty said his inspiration for the project came from a summer he spent living off the land. “One summer I foraged for all my fruit and had enough to make jams, …More

A type of mushroom found in the forests of Israel may hold promise as a treatment against one of the deadliest forms of cancer. Cyathus striatus, the scientific name for the wild mushroom, has proven effective in treating pancreatic cancer in early animal trials conducted at Haifa University. While medicinal mushrooms may seem a novelty in modern western medicine, mushrooms have become a standard line of defense against cancer in Japanese medicine as well as some natural and tradition medicine treatment …More

A Ben Gurion University delegation from the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research (BIDR) toured the Galapagos Islands in April. The delegation, led by Professor Ariel Novoplansky, signed a cooperation agreement with the Directorate of the National Park to promote the conservation of the endangered biological diversity of the islands. The Israeli delegation had been invited by the Ecuadorian Ministry of Environment and the Directorate of the Galapagos National Park. During their visit, the group …More

A new program aimed at teaching compassion towards animals will be implemented in the fall in 60 northern Arab schools. Hakol Chai, an Israeli nonprofit with a mission to stop animal suffering, developed the culturally specific program to help teach the children how to be humane towards animals. Hakol Chai founder, Nina Natelson, who lives in the United States, pointed out that Arab children often have a different experience with pets than children in the US or other parts of Israel, where well-cared for and …More

Economic woes in the United States and Europe may force one leading environmental group to shutter its doors. The Public Health Coalition, a 12-year-old green group located in Haifa, will be force to close this month if it cannot gather the emergency funding needed to keep afloat. The coalition issued a statement saying that fruitless fundraising efforts in the last year both in Israel and abroad have left the group in the red. “Over the last year, raising money from foundations has been very difficult to …More

Avner Meyrav and Anouk Lorie, NoCamels - Israel Innovation News Imagine a world where streetlamps no longer run on electricity. Or rather, they no longer exist, since they are replaced by trees that emit light. This alien-like scenario is not something out of sci-fi movie "Avatar"--it is actually a Kickstarter project by Israeli-American company Genome Compiler--and it’s well on its way to reality and way past its initial fundraising target. Using the company’s technology, Genome Compiler will …More

A stand of pine trees planted during the Jordanian occupation has been illegally cut down by developers to make room for a new housing complex. The 536 pine trees provided one of the last green areas in an otherwise rocky terrain in the Har Homa neighborhood of Jerusalem. Residents have been locked in a battle with the contractors since they noticed the trees were marked to be cut and decided to take their fight to court to prevent the destruction of the small forest. “I saw that all the trees were marked, …More

Just weeks before a shopping center development project paved over one of the last remaining winter ponds in Haifa, a team of ecologists launched a rescue mission to save some of the rare and endangered amphibians living in the seasonal pool slated for destruction. Researchers for Tel Aviv University rescued 800 Syrian spadefoot tadpoles as well as several other endangered species from the winter pond. The amphibians are now temporarily living in a special facility at TAU’s Garden for Zoological …More

Israel’s Environmental Protection Ministry has announced plans to create a new national service initiative. The program will employ 500 workers in a range of service posts aimed at teaching sustainable practices and cleaning up environmentally neglected areas of the nation. “This step will help the environment,” said Amir Peretz, the new Environmental Protection Minister. He added that the program will “also give those who serve the chance to find a rewarding job that will benefit local …More

War, water pollution and human land development have left critically endangered wildlife in the Middle East on the brink of extinction. At Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo, researchers are working hard at giving these native species a fighting chance through a unique breeding program. “One of the functions of a modern zoo is to act as a genetic ark for critically endangered species—particularly where their natural environment is disappearing—to ensure that they do not become lost to us …More

Water, sustainable food sourcing and Israel’s green innovations were all hot topics during Sunday’s panel discussions and speeches at JNF’s Sustainability Conference, held April 27-29 in Red Rock, Nevada. "The Summit with JNF ties together some of the key themes that inspire JNF's work in Israel: sustainability of water, food, and energy; innovation in preserving natural resources, and improving the quality of life for the people of Israel," said JNF CEO Russell F. Robinson. This year’s …More