Nicky Blackburn
January 9, 2011, Updated September 13, 2012

From summer in the city, to electric cars, happiness surveys and biometric keys – ISRAEL21c brings you its top 10 YouTube stories of the year.

Another busy year on ISRAEL21c’s YouTube channel has seen our viewing figures rise to nearly two million with a wide range of stories about life in Israel, covering anything from health, to technology, environment, culture and lifestyle.

We started the year with a piece on the Haiti earthquake and continued with a video on how Israeli Elvis fans celebrate The King’s birthday every year, and a spotlight on a new male birth control pill being developed in Israel. We also took a look at a unique bird sanctuary just a stone’s throw from the Knesset – Israel’s Parliament, the Israeli breakdancing scene, and ran a feature on 3DTV, a high-tech company that has created 3D television, which can be enjoyed without 3D glasses.

During the year we produced some 55 videos and continued to be the number one most subscribed and most viewed non-profit organization in Israel on all of YouTube.

Here we bring together our top 10 most-popular YouTube videos of 2010.

1. Top 10 things to do in Tel Aviv during the summer

Tel-Aviv-Summer


It’s got beaches, parks, restaurants, culture and a wild party scene, it’s no wonder Tel Aviv has been called one of the coolest cities in the world.

ISRAEL21c takes you on a video tour of the top 10 ways to enjoy Tel Aviv in the summer.

2. Better Place electric cars to debut in Israel

Better-Place=Charging-Station

Photo courtesy Roni Schutzer/Flash90.

This year Israel will become the first country in the world to install the cutting edge network for electric cars developed by Shai Agassi’s Better Place.

The company, which is located in California but founded by Israeli Agassi, intends the Israeli pilot to be a model for a worldwide electric car grid. Next stop Denmark, followed by Europe and the US.

3. Israelis come high in the happiness survey

Happy people

Picture by Kobi Gideon/Flash90.

According to a Gallup World Poll to determine the happiest countries in the world, which appeared recently in Forbes Magazine, Israel is in eighth place – along with Canada, Australia and Switzerland.

ISRAEL21c’s Harvey Stein took to the streets with his camera to check out the local reaction to the news.

4. Contemporary designs on a museum

Holon-Design-Museum

The Design Museum of Holon will be the first museum for contemporary design in Israel and one of just a few in the world.

Created by internationally renowned Israeli architect Ron Arad, the building will house exhibits of contemporary design, and is a work of art all by itself.

5. SafeRise – where your voice is the key

FST21 Founder and CEO Maj. General Aharon Zeevi Farkash

Picture by Flash90.

The days of fumbling for your house keys as you reach home could soon be over with a new keyless biometric security system called SafeRise that was developed in Israel and is now in use in residential buildings, offices and even a Florida police station.

Developed by a former Major General in the Israel Defense Force, the technology is a fusion of hardware and software that uses face and voice recognition to recognize an individual as they enter a building.

6. There’s no place like Jerusalem in the summer

Jerusalem summer acivities

Picture by Miriam Alster/Flash90.

What is there to do in Jerusalem in the summer? ISRAEL21c took to the streets to find out, and discovered a non-stop party.

From downtown Jerusalem to the Mamilla Mall, the International Arts and Crafts Fair, and the wine festival at the Israel Museum, the city has something for everyone.

7. The Etrog Man

Jerusalem-Etrog-Man

Photo courtesy of Jerusalemite.net

He’s one of the most famous faces in Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market. Uzi-Eli Chezi claims his etrog-based juice, soaps and creams can cure any ill.

Chezi is the third generation of his Yemenite family to sell “medicine from nature”, and the famous local character claims his juices can do anything, from keeping you young, to improving your virility.

8. A Bridge of trust in Israel’s hospitals

Gazan-Medical-Treatment

Photo by Roni Schutzer/Flash90.

When a young Palestinian from the Gaza Strip was shot in the leg last year by Hamas during the ongoing conflict between the two main Palestinian political parties, Hamas and Fatah, he was offered treatment in both Egypt and Jordan, but instead he chose to go to Israel.

He isn’t unique. Every year, thousands of Palestinian patients from Gaza and the West Bank are treated in Israeli hospitals up and down the country. Patients and doctors regard these vital surgeries as more than just medical treatment. Instead they see them as a unique way to help the peace process progress, by building an important “bridge of trust”

9. Is there a mermaid in Kiryat Yam?

Disney-Princesses-As-Mermaids

It’s a wild and whacky thought, but several residents of the seaside town of Kiryat Yam report seeing a mermaid on their shores.

Now the city’s mayor, Shmuel Sisso, has offered a million dollar reward to anyone supplying unshakeable proof of the mermaid’s existence.

10. The Potato Guy

Potato-growers-in-hot-dry-climate

Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90.

Hebrew University professor researches the humble potato.

After nearly 30 years of research, Professor David Levy has developed a strain of potato that can be grown in hot, dry climates, and irrigated by saline water sources.

His development will have a huge impact on potato production in hot, desert regions like the Middle East, where temperatures are scorching, and water resources scarce.

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