Jun 30 2009
Researchers from the Department of Science Education-Biology at the University of Haifa-Oranim have managed to make out the “self-irrigating” mechanism of the desert rhubarb, which enables it to harvest 16 times the amount of water than otherwise expected for a plant in this region based on the quantities of rain in the desert. This is the first example of a self-irrigating plant worldwide. Continue Reading »
Jun 29 2009
The University of Haifa congratulates its 1,596 M.A. graduates and 2,412 B.A. graduates for 2009. The graduation ceremonies will take place this week on the lawn of the Multipurpose Building. Continue Reading »
Jun 28 2009
The Department of International Relations at the University hosted Prof. William C. Wolhforth, Chair of the Department of Government at Dartmouth College. Prof. Wohlforth gave a talk on “Obama’s Foreign Policy” and focused on the degree to which we should expect major changes in the US’s approach to its strategy.
Prof. Wohlforth has held fellowships at the Institute of Strategic Studies at Yale, the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford, and the Hoover Institution. He is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and has served as a consultant for the National Intelligence Council and the National Bureau of Asian Research.
Jun 28 2009
June 26, 2009 San Diego Jewish News
We were met at the entrance of Moshav Naama, situated 16 kilometers north of Jericho by Professor Adam Zertal, who is an archeologist and professor from the Haifa University. He gathered all the media, then conducted the group to a point about a kilometer east of the moshav. With the bare eye you do not notice anything out of the ordinary.
…Researchers found a big hole in the ground, some three miles northeast of Jericho. Bedouins living in the area warned the researchers against entering the hole, telling them it was a cursed cave, visited by evil spirits and inhabited by jackals and wolves.
Jun 28 2009
June 26, 2009 Associated Press
The anger felt by many Arabs manifested itself in the recent poll carried out by Haifa University sociologist Sammy Smooha. In Smooha’s first annual survey in 2003, 81 percent of Israeli Arabs said they supported Israel’s right to exist.
In this year’s poll, with an error margin of 3.7 percentage points, it dropped to 54 percent, a sign of protest, he said.
Jun 28 2009
June 28, 2009 Chicago Tribune
A man stands in an underground cave that was recently discovered near Jericho. The cave, which is about 330 feet long and 131 feet wide, dates to the 1st Century, said Haifa University Professor Adam Zertal. It originally was a quarry during the Roman and Byzantine eras, then later could have been a monastery and hiding place. It is supported by 22 stone pillars, many of which are engraved with Byzantine crucifixes and other symbols.
Jun 25 2009
June 22, 2009 The Jerusalem Post
Israel lags some 15 years behind the US in its public attitudes, awareness and treatment of people with mental disabilities and intellectual challenges, according to Prof. Arie Rimmerman, a leading local expert from the University of Haifa’s School of Social Work.
Jun 25 2009
June 22, 2009 Los Angeles Times
Demonstrators in Iran are clamoring for stronger statements from the West, in particular from the U.S. Netanyahu has said he doesn’t intend to second-guess the U.S. president, but others in Israel are critical of President Obama’s comments, which so far have been reserved. Obviously this reservation doesn’t serve the maybe-revolutionaries, but it doesn’t serve U.S. interests either, says Soli Shahvar, the Iranian-born director of Haifa University’s Ezri Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies.
Jun 25 2009
June 24, 2009 National Geographic
A 2,000-year-old underground chamber has been discovered in Israel’s Jordan Valley.
The archaeologists peered into a huge hall lined with 22 thick pillars—giving the “impression of a palace,” added Zertal, of the University of Haifa in Israel. “We didn’t have much light—it was complete darkness,” he said. But “even with the torches, we saw how glorious it looks.”
Jun 25 2009
June 24, 2009 The Epoch Times
Discovered in the Jordan Valley, Israel, as part of an ongoing archaeological survey since 1978, excavators from the University of Haifa have uncovered the largest artificial underground cave ever built in Israel.