A

new Israeli app that
works on devices using
the Android operat-
ing system allows the users of
streaming services to receive
on-screen alerts on their screen
in real-time.
Nir Vaknin, a 15-year-old
Sderot resident, is one of the
two developers behind the app.
He told Israeli news site Mako
that when using streaming
devices, he usually received
rocket alarms 30 seconds too
late. Israelis in Sderot only have
an average of 15 seconds from
the moment the alarm sounds
until rockets can crash into their
community. As a result, delays in
rocket alerts make the difference
between life and death.
Vaknin explained that the app

is also crucial in situations in
which people would not be able
to hear the alarms from outside
due to loud music or large gath-
erings.
Vaknin and his developer Itai
Goli, a resident of Ness Ziona,
spent several months developing
the app, receiving assistance
from the IDF’
s Home Front
Command.
While Home Front
Command urges Israelis to use
its official app, it stated that
new apps could serve as poten-
tial additions, helping keep
Israelis safe.
Unlike the Home Front
Command’
s TV alerts, the new
app can be programmed to dis-
play alerts only for specific cities
or regions.

The young tech pioneers
are currently in talks with the
Transportation Ministry and the
National Road Safety Authority,
hoping to have their app
installed on buses to alert drivers
should they enter an area under
rocket fire, Vaknin told Mako.
He described living under
the constant threat of rocket
fire as an “unbearable reality,
”

but added, “I am not a military
man, nor the chief of staff and of
course I am not the prime min-
ister. I cannot present a solution,
so I made an app to better deal
with the situation.
“Who wouldn’
t want to know
that what they’
re doing helps
save lives?” the 15-year-old
concluded.

Eretz

SIVEN BESA, IDF

Israeli Teen Creates
Cutting-Edge Rocket
Alert App

A kindergarten in central Israel during a rocket alarm in 2014

BENJAMIN BROWN, TPS UNITEDWITHISRAEL.ORG

The Jerusalem City Council
approved a plan “to construct
an educational campus for
Education Ministry schools
near the city’
s Arab Shuafat and
Anata neighborhoods … out-
side the pre-1967 borders but
within Jerusalem’
s municipal
borders,
” reports Arutz 7.
“These schools will be an
alternative to the UNRWA
(United Nations Relief and
Works Agency) schools that
currently dominate the area,
”
says the news website, adding
that the project will cost about
$2 million.
“UNRWA in Jerusalem

represents the only UNRWA
entity under full Israeli control,
”
says David Bedein, the Center
for Near East Policy Research,
author of Roadblock to Peace
— How the UN Perpetuates the
Arab-Israeli Conflict and an
active voice in efforts to reform
UNRWA.
“Given the fact that Israel
can act to assert its control
over UNRWA policies in
Jerusalem, the previous Mayor
of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, in his
final few months in office in
2018, suggested that Israel ter-
minate UNRWA
’
s operations in
Jerusalem,
” Bedein said.

“Picking up where Barkat left
off,
” he added, “Jerusalem’
s new
Deputy Mayor, Fleur Hassan-
Nahoum, now serving Arab
communities in Jerusalem, has
embarked on an ambitious pro-
gram to counter the influence
of the Palestinian Authority
and UNRWA in Jerusalem’
s
schools.
”
Hassan-Nahoum wrote on
Facebook last week, “
As the
holder of the Foreign Relations
Portfolio in the Jerusalem
Municipality, it is my respon-
sibility to inform the donor
countries about UNRWA [and]
the lack of proper education in
their schools.
”
She says the main issue to
be addressed must be “how we
need to change the UNRWA
curriculum for the sake of the

children growing up in eastern
Jerusalem. The curriculum does
not have proper Hebrew or
secular studies lessons and per-
petuates terrorism. The lessons
in the UNRWA textbooks are
about incitement against Israel
and anti-Semitism. The chil-
dren graduate UNRWA schools
not knowing Hebrew, English
and math at the level that makes
it possible for them to work in
and integrate into the modern
world.
”
The Jerusalem deputy mayor
says that her “plan is to replace
the UNRWA curriculum with
a curriculum of opportunity in
order to provide the necessary
skills for children to become
high-level workers and mem-
bers of society.
”

Jerusalem Plans Alternative
to UNRWA-Run Schools

UNITED WITH ISRAEL STAFF

JANUARY 16 • 2020 | 31