Early in the morning of July 13, from the launch site at Cape Canaveral in Florida, the Israeli communication satellite “Dror-1” was launched into space — the first fully national telecommunications satellite in the history of the State of Israel.

The Department for the promotion of Aliyah of the World Zionist Organization has established a special “Olim B-Ivrit” programme together with KKL-JNF .

Jewish communities in the Middle East and North Africa, which existed for more than two thousand years, virtually disappeared in the 20th century.