"Empty Symbolism & Immature Spite": Sydney Student Lynch Mob Votes To Boycott Technion

Now in its 101st year, the Haifa Technion is at the cutting edge of scientific, technical, and medical research.  Its work in such areas has achieved notable breakthroughs, the impact of which is felt around the world.

Its achievements over the past decade alone have been impressive, as its website indicates:

 In 2004 the Nobel committee awarded two Technion professors the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation.

 In 2007 Prof. Abraham Lempel, a Technion computer science professor, received the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal "For pioneering work in data compression, especially the Lempel-Ziv algorithm."

Dr. Shulamit Levenberg of the Technion’s Biomedical Engineering Faculty, was chosen by the prestigious journal Scientific American as one of the 50 leading scientists of 2006 as a result of her development of a system for creating tissue that the body does not reject.

Technion researchers succeeded in creating in the laboratory new organic semiconductors based on a peptide structure (artificial proteins).

Technion students designed, built and launched one of the smallest satellites in the world. The satellite is built in the shape of a cube, with 45 cm-long arms. It weighs only 48 kg and has an extremely low electric consumption. It carries an ozone detector, a miniature computer and a navigation and control system.

 Rasagiline, effective in the treatment of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, was developed by a Technion professor.

 A professor fromthe Materials Engineering Faculty became the first to discover “quasicrystals,” which are structural forms that display a five-fold symmetry. Five-fold symmetry was considered impossible in crystals up to this point.

Seven Technion scientists were among the 300 most promising scientists of the European Union for 2008. Each received a research grant of 1 million Euros. This is the largest number of researchers from a single Israeli academic institute that has made this prestigious list.

Technion researchers found genetic proof that all Jews belonging to the Jewish priestly caste known as Kohanim are descended from the same father, apparently the Biblical priest, Aaron.

 Scientists in the Technion’s Nano-technology Research Center developed the nano-Bible, printed on an area the size of a pinhead.

Last Wednesday evening, in a debate which reportedly turned vitriolic at times, the Student Representative Council at the University of Sydney passed resolutions passed a motion demanding that all cooperation on the part of the university with the Technion be severed.

This latest abominable descent into the mire of anti-Israel activity on campus has delighted the likes of pro-BDS campaigner Professor Jake Lynch, director of the university's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, his admirers, and the fanatical anti-Israel Green Left, which reports:

'.... NSW Labor MP Lynda Voltz said it is appropriate for the SRC, given its strong tradition of supporting oppressed people and justice, to support academic staff in calling for an end to ties with Technion.

“Israel continues to ignore the United Nations. It builds illegal settlements on the land of the Palestinian people, destroys their houses, builds a wall around their homes and blockades the port of Gaza to punish the 1.6 million men, women and children who live there,” she said.

“Israel does not listen to words or motions and continues to abuse human rights and to act in violation of international laws. As in South Africa, it is only through the peaceful actions of campaigns such as the BDS that any change will happen.”

The statement has been endorsed by [former SBS newsreader]Mary Kostakidis, the convener of the Sydney Peace Prize jury and co-winner of the University of Sydney Alumni Award for Community Achievement, and Emeritus Professor Stuart Rees who is the chair of the Sydney Peace Foundation.

Australian Students for Justice in Palestine executive Jennine Abdul Khalik said she commended the SRC for choosing to stand on the right side of history.

“Australian universities, including the University of Sydney, need to condemn Israeli apartheid and follow the example of academic institutions and student unions throughout North America, Europe, and South Africa that have endorsed BDS and boycotted and divested from Israel.”'

 But as University Senate fellow and SRC member Patrick Massarani, who opposed the motion, told The Australian newspaper:

"... it was our duty to cherish academic freedom"

And as Vic Aldahoff of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies told the paper, the move is

"an exercise in empty symbolism and immature spite. It will do nothing to advance Palestinian statehood. Trying to shut down collaborative research between universities in the areas of science and medicine is immoral. It can only exacerbate the conflict."

 Read more here and here 
Update: there's a petition here