Press Release From 2020

Australians plan to revolutionize waste management to deal with the economic crisis. And what about Israel? Prof. Ofira Ayalon says: "we should leverage the crisis to an opportunity and make lemonade from lemons"

Peter Dirman, developed an energy storage system based on freezing liquid air. "This development combines two energy storage technologies: air compression and cold storage. The innovation is the compression and transfer of air to a liquid state through its cooling", explains Idan Liebes, an energy policy and smart transportation researcher at the Samuel Neaman Institute. "The essence of the development is in the storage solution and less in the energy source. The electricity can come from any source that has a surplus - in this case it is wind turbines."

The “2018 Personal Security Index: Violence, Crime and Policing in Arab Towns” report, by Dr Nohad Ali from the Abraham Initiatives, the Samuel Neaman Institute for National Policy Research, Technion, found that 61% of all murder and manslaughter victims in Israel in 2018 were Arab citizens, despite Arabs constituting only 20% of the Israeli population

The following are the words of Dr. Reuven Gal, Shmuel Ne'eman Institute, Head of the ‘Ultra-Orthodox Integration’ Project: If the characteristics of the ultra-Orthodox public do not change significantly, the State of Israel is expected to reach within about two decades an ultra-Orthodox majority that will be poor, mostly unproductive, relying on government support and not involved in Israeli society and economy.

Government Ministries 'Expenditure on Civilian R&D in the Health Sector amounted to less than 1% of total government ministries' expenditure on civilian R&D "The government should intervene in places where the private market fails to operate alone"

One of the first decisions of Gila Gamliel, Minister of Environmental Protection, was to delay the implementation of the waste master plan to establish energy recovery facilities from waste and the establishment of a new advisory team on the issue, only a few weeks after her predecessor decided to promote the issue.

"Energy recovery from waste is a suitable solution that is implemented in many countries around the world, but it has to be done in a sustainable manner. Energy production must meet all environmental regulations, economic and social standards," explains Prof. Ofira Ayalon of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management at the University of Haifa and the head of the environment cluster at the Samuel Neaman Institute.

Even before the COVID‑19 pandemic, forecasts predicted that about half of the 2,800 higher education institutions in the U.S. would close or merge within the next decade; tuition is high and students are no longer willing to pay; universities must adapt to the new reality.

The expansion of the supply of electric car models in Israel announced by car importers led the Ministry of Energy to formulate a preparation guide for the big municipalities to upgrade the car charging infrastructure, which indicates that each city will be required to build hundreds of charging stations in the next five years. The guide, authored by the Samuel Neaman Institute and the Fuel Choices and Smart Mobility Initiative in the Prime Minister's Office, was finalized last week and is scheduled to be sent to all municipalities as early as this week.

Prof. Rachelle Alterman, Senior Researcher at the Samuel Neaman Institute for National Policy Research at the Technion, recommends requiring that developers install green energy facilities on rooftops or windowsof new residential buildings and "as a first step that is also educational" to require government offices to set up such facilities on their roofs

Comprehensive work needs to be done - including an examination of alternatives and a comprehensive economic analysis, "said Prof. Ofira Ayalon, who has been involved in waste management research for many years at the Samuel Neaman Institute and the University of Haifa."

The solutions that fit Be'er Sheva may not be suitable for Kiryat Shmona. It may be that in Be'er Sheva, the solution that currently fits is a landfill solution, as opposed to a completely different situation in Kiryat Shmona, where it may be appropriate to promote waste to energy plant or small anaerobic facility.

The array of technologies exists, we don't have to invent it. The Ministry of the Environmental Protection, in its strategic plan, suggested 1,500 tons per day incineration plants - these are very large facilities, while 500-700 tpd facilities are mostly used in the world. It's unclear why these large facilities are preferred"

The potential for social unrest is large – but management of economic policy reflected ongoing failure. 

Prof. Manuel Trajtenberg (senior research fellow  at the Samuel Neaman Institute for National Policy Research, Technion) is deeply concerned about macroeconomic data, and the likelihood of additional social protest,

and despite everything, he believes that we have stood the test in managing the public health aspects of the pandemic.

Professor Shlomo Meital conducts an interview with colleague Dr. Reuven Gal on the question - How do we Israelis recover from the crisis?

Professor Shlomo Maital examines the dilemma facing the Israeli government – saving lives, saving jobs: and reviews the economic bailout program.   

 "There is no doubt that the Corona epidemic is a wake-up call," says Prof. Ofira Ayalon, head of environmental affairs at the Samuel Neaman Institute at the Technion and the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources at the University of Haifa,

"But it is important to say that while it is a crisis that threatens all countries in the same way, the climate crisis will hit different countries in different ways - in one flood and another in the form of fires, heat or cold waves. So it will be difficult to learn from the Corona lesson how to work together as one global world, but we can learn from it how to prepare the health system for disasters, and how to be more communal because central government's ability to help is limited and the real safety-net is the community".

Senior planning officials are thinking about how to learn from the Corona outbreak

Prof. Rachelle Alterman is a senior researcher at the Samuel Neaman Institute for Policy Studies at the Technion, who believes the Corona crisis but illustrates how problematic are tower buildings, especially residential ones: "Towers could be a contagious trap. You shun the elevator because the virus might be in this small area and on its surfaces. You can’t bring in a stretcher. Even if you want to go down the hundreds of stairs, there is a problem because they are a small closed space.

For the past decade, the electric and hybrid segment has been considered the ugly duckling of the automotive market.

According to the Samuel Neaman Institute for National Policy Research, by 2025 the number of these vehicles in Israel is expected to reach around 190,000 and constitute about 23% of new private vehicle sales in Israel.

The challenge, as well as the problem: to reach this goal, approximately 150,000 private charging stations and 13,000 public charging stations will be needed.

A report published by the Samuel Neaman Institute deals with the activities of river rehabilitation management and indicates improvement in the treatment of streams over the years, but also inconsistencies and a long line of barriers

A comprehensive report on the assessment of rivers administration in Israel was recently published by the Samuel Neaman Institute for National Policy Research. The report, prepared by Prof. Ofira Ayalon, Dr. Tamar trop, Dr. Tzipi Eshet and Naama Shapira examines the achievements and challenges of rivers restoration administrations from their inception in 1993 to present times with respect to regulation, management, execution, economics and maintenance.

According to the report, there has been a positive change over the years in Israel when it comes to river management, with an emphasis on moving to River Basin Management, through river rehabilitation administrations that focused on runoff, drainage and erosion management, considering the environmental and drainage functions of the streams. Yet, split authorities, lack of budget, differences in priorities among the various entities, and a complex legal system - makes it difficult to plan and execute the restoration of rivers in Israel. Despite billions of NIS invested and some improvements are marked, there is not even a single river restored in Israel.

Trajtenberg, formerly a Member of the Knesset on behalf of the Zionist Union political party, resigned from political life in 2017, in order to devote himself to studying economic and social issues.  Clearly, the reforms he has proposed, as part of his 100 days project, carried out at the S. Neaman Institute for National Policy Research, are strongly influenced by his years in the Knesset (2015-2017).   The subtitle he has chosen for the proposed reform of the Knesset – ‘to restore past glory’ – is perhaps inspired by the worldview slogan of the Shas political party,  but Trajtenberg aspires to change the rules of the game in the Knesset, with his proposed reform, to modernize Israel’s parliament.

     The three main defects in the operations of the Knesset that Trajtenberg addresses are: a lack of real debate in the plenary,  acceptance of a small, minimal majority to pass laws without broad consensus, and the inflation in the number of private bills that plague the Knesset.

The new electricity arena in the world and in Israel will be very different in 5-10 years, and, therefore, it already requires today to prepare accordingly. Only a clear, consistent, and informed policy that will allow conceptual and operational flexibility, will provide electricity with adequate economic cost - taking into account proper social and environmental aspects.

The global automotive industry is making rapid strides towards the greatest change in its history: the abandonment of internal combustion engines used to propel vehicles since their invention in the late 19th century, and shifting towards driving vehicles using clean and efficient electric motors.

Idan Liebes, a senior researcher at the Samuel Neaman Institute at the Technion, says that the Israeli market is not large enough in the car manufacturers' considerations in their move to electric vehicles.

Gender gaps are slowly narrowing, according to Equity Gender Index, published by WIPS -  Center for the Advancement of Women in the Public Arena at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute.

The index is being published for the seventh time with the aim of being a tool for policy design and promotion, and presents a detailed picture of the state of inequalities in various spheres of life - work, education, poverty, political and economic power and more.

The new index will serve as the first comprehensive database of "SHE KNOWS"  - A new knowledge center on gender and women in Israel, initiated by the Ministry of Science and Technology, in collaboration with Van Leer Institute, the Samuel Neaman Institute at the Technion and the Public Knowledge Workshop.

In parallel with international developments in the field, in recent years research has also begun on the effects of artificial intelligence on different areas of life as well as policy-driven research. It is evident that research in Israel is relatively narrow and retarded in relation to Israeli transportation in the field of artificial intelligence, as is evident, for example, in the amount of companies and startups that deal with the subject. [6] Among the first of the policy studies is a study by the Knesset Research Center written in 2018 at the request of the then chairman of the Science and Technology Committee, MK Uri Maklev. The short document describes the field and seeks to point out areas where policy is needed (Goldschmidt, 2018).

Another study published in the field by the Samuel Neaman Institute for National Policy Studies following an invitation from the National Research and Development Council (MAMOP) examines Israeli activity in the fields of Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and Robotics. Research and extensive activity in the country in these areas (Getz, et al., 2018).

The masks that have stormed into our lives in the past year are manufactured in unimaginable quantities and became a huge threat to the environment. They are tossed away everywhere and pollute public space, reaching rivers and oceans and into the stomachs of animals. They cannot be recycled, and their mass production requires a great deal of environmental resources.

However, the damage that the Covid-19 causes to the environment is not limited to masks. The unprecedented increase in the number of shipments from the supermarkets is also giving its signals, "The issue of shipments is insane," says Prof. Ofira Ayalon of the Samuel Neaman Institute at the Technion. "and because of the law of carrier bags in the various supermarkets have switched to paper bags that we use for a quarter of an hour. This paper is no more environmentally friendly than the plastic bag."