Barel Hadaria Shmueli, 21, a Border Police officer was shot in the head at point-blank range and critically wounded during clashes with Palestinians on the Gaza Strip border on August 21. Video footage showed a man with a pistol running up to a small hole in the concrete wall along the Gaza border and fired a number of shots through it, hitting Shmueli. The Border Police said in a statement that Shmueli, a sniper in an elite undercover unit, underwent a lifesaving operation at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba.
Investigators believe that a massive fire that broke out in the Jerusalem Hills in mid-August was caused by arson, according to a report on Kan news. The huge blaze, believed to have started in the Beit Meir area, burned some 25,000 dunams (6,200 acres) of forests outside Jerusalem and caused the evacuation of more than 2,000 people in communities in the area from August 15 to 18. The Fire and Rescue Service said that during a 52-hour battle, some 1,500 firefighters had participated in efforts to contain the blaze.
Dani Dayan, a former Israeli consul-general in New York and chairman of the Yesha Council, was appointed by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton on August 22 to be chairman of Yad Vashem. “As time passes, our work becomes more challenging, albeit more vital, than ever before,” Dayan said. “I am determined to succeed in fulfilling our shared commitment, together with the dedicated staff of Yad Vashem.”
Ra’am MK Said al-Harumi, the chairman of the Knesset Interior Committee who lived in Segev Shalom, a Bedouin village south of Beersheba, died of a heart attack at the age of 49 on August 25. “He was a young, energetic and intelligent politician,” said Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas. “This is a huge loss.” Iman Khatib-Yasin, who was fifth on Ra’am list for the March election, replaced al-Harumi, setting a new record of 36 women in the Knesset.
Muslim Arab swimmer Iyad Shalabi, 34, won Israel’s first gold medal in the 100-meter backstroke at the Paralympics on August 25. Shalabi, who grew up in Shfaram, was born deaf and was paralyzed following an accident at the age of 13. He is the first Israeli Arab to win an Olympics medal. Also at the Paralympics, Israeli swimmer Mark Malyar won two gold medals and set two world records in the men’s 200-meter medley and 400-meter freestyle.
Rabbi Richard (Dick) Hirsch, a longtime leader of the Progressive Movement, died on August 17 at a retirement home in Boca Raton, Florida at the age of 95. Born in Cleveland, Hirsch was founding director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington, DC from 1962-73, was close to Martin Luther King. Jr and served as a champion for civil rights legislation. After advocating for the relocation of the World Union for Progressive Judaism headquarters from New York to Jerusalem in 1973, he made aliyah to serve as executive director of its international center. He and his late wife Bella returned to the US to be closer to their four children and grandchildren.
