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.
'.... 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"
"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
'....[It is] bestowed by the President of Israel in the national parliament, the Knesset. These are leaders of Israel who were responsible for colonial actions that have resulted in illegal territorial expansion, mass killings and horrific urban destruction in wars and war crimes against the Palestinians under Israeli occupation. This violence is pursued against the surrounding states such as Lebanon, and recently in two horrific and murderous assaults on Gaza, in acts of wanton killing and urbicide, using advanced weaponry. It is ironic that Israel is awarding a prize for the practice of architecture, which is being used in its own country as an instrument of war, apartheid, oppression, humiliation, expropriation and ethnic cleansing, all totally at odds with our humane profession....
The statement that the prize is awarded “independently regardless of gender, sex or political attitudes” is disingenuous, since ironically, Israel’s racist institutional discrimination against the Palestinian people, both as its own citizens, and in the illegally occupied territories has been condemned repeatedly by the UN and human rights organizations. These awards are used as cover to project an image of a modern, democratic state, and to divert attention away from its ethnocratic apartheid policies towards the Palestinians under its control, which they have pursued with impunity for 65 years....
Rejecting this prize would indicate a much needed moral stand against the escalating war crimes and injustices pursued with complete impunity by the Israeli state while awarding this prize. It would be a powerful statement of support for justice, freedom and dignity of the oppressed and would be an achievement of greater honour, a courageous affirmation of the humanity of our profession.'The petition is only one of several demands that Mr Souto de Moura refuse the Prize. Another document, dated 17 February, spoke of "Israel’s barbaric and colonial Occupation of the West Bank, on stolen Palestinian land," "ethnic cleansing and erasure of Palestinian presence on their historic homeland, including their culture, heritage, history and memory," "Israel’s brutal military and political agenda," and so forth, and asserted that
"Israel is anxious to appear as a modern, high tech and advanced Western style democracy, but despite its racist segregation, and virtual imprisonment of the Palestinian people in the OPTs, it is keen to offer prizes such as the Wolf Prize and other accolades to whitewash its dark practices that continue with impunity against international law and human rights .The awarding of prizes to artists, writers, scientists and those who excel in their field, are used to re-brand the Israeli state, as a cover to the crimes being committed in the Occupied Territories and the discrimination in land and housing within Israel. We urge you not to allow your name to be used to further the Israeli propaganda agenda.
The people who will be handing you the prize have been leaders of Israel who were responsible for actions that have resulted in illegal territorial expansion, mass killings and horrific urban destruction in wars against surrounding states such as in Syria, Lebanon and recently in two murderous assaults on Gaza, in acts of wanton killing and urbicide, using advanced weaponry.
To accept the Wolf Prize would be giving credibility and respectability to such a state. We urge you, in solidarity with the besieged Palestinians, to reject this prize, which will give you much greater prestige as a supporter of human rights. You would be hearing the call of Palestinian civil society to boycott such events and awards offered by Israel. This will send a clear signal to Israel as a rejection of its apartheid policies and crimes against the Palestinian people, and will perhaps bring home their need to change their inhuman and destructive course, until there is a true peace with justice for all in Israel/Palestine."(Read more here)
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| Not the Anglican General Synod |
"nothing but an insidious front for a pro-Palestinian campaign to propagate the partisan lie that, while Israel is besieged by child killers, infiltrated by suicide bombers, surrounded by Islamist propagandists and endures almost daily missiles launched at civilian areas, she is the aggressor, the terroriser, the occupying force.
The declared vision of the EAPPI is to bring ‘internationals to the West Bank to experience life under occupation’. Its mission is to ‘accompany Palestinians and Israelis in their non-violent actions and to carry out concerted advocacy efforts to end the occupation’. They ‘support acts of non-violent resistance’ in order to achieve this and, since Israel is the ‘occupying force’, it stands to reason that the EAPPI’s raison d’ĂȘtre is to criticise and delegitimise Israel, a country which contends daily with concerted efforts to wipe its people off the face of the earth.
The EAPPI creed is very simple: Palestinians are victims; Israelis are aggressors; Zionists are evil; the IDF are terrorists. It was spawned by the World Council of Churches which, over the years, has passed motions calling for ‘an international boycott of goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied territories’; lauded Yassir Arafat as a hero for ‘bringing the Palestinian people together’; and called for ‘the right of return of Palestinian refugees’, despite this posing an existential threat to the Jewish homeland. The WCC unashamedly declares: ‘The EAPPI is a central element of the Ecumenical Campaign to End the Illegal Occupation of Palestine.’
Notably absent from their statements on the Middle [East] is explicit condemnation of Palestinian incitement to hatred of Israel and Jews, much of it directed at Palestinian children. Neither is any blame for Palestinian suffering laid at the door of Palestinian leaders who have squandered $billions of aid on bribes and terrorism over decades. Nor do human rights abuses by the Palestinian Authority, including the rights of Palestinian Christians, attract much WCC attention.
No, the EAPPI ascribes Palestinian misery to apartheid Israel alone, consistently turning a blind eye to Palestinian aggression, corruption, rejectionism and incitement (not to mention Islamism, homophobia, racism and the oppression of women). The EAPPI is blind to anti-Semitism and deaf to the numerous overtures to peace which have been offered. They are ignorant of Israel’s need for security, and oblivious to the fact that she alone in the entire region is a vibrant, tolerant, multiracial, multi-faith society.
Islamist persecution, widespread throughout the Middle East, is the primary cause of the haemorrhage of Christians from the region. Yet the Church of England myopically concerns itself with Israel. There was no Synod motion to discuss the human rights violations of North Korea, Iran or the Sudan." (Read the entire impressive and compelling post here)Recently, as reported here, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Justin Welby, who'd abstained, expressed regret that he had not voted against the motion:
'...."I wasn't quite up to speed when I went into that vote. I think the situation in the Holy Land is so complicated . . . and I don't think the motion adequately reflected the complexity."
He said that he would have added to the motion that Israel had the right to "live in security and peace within internationally agreed bor- ders, and the people of the region have the right to justice, peace, and security, whoever they are."....'
"We write as representatives of organisations and as individuals who are deeply involved in the search for peace with justice in the Holy Land to express our deep concern over the remarks that have been attributed to you in a recent interview with the newspaper “Jewish News”. Amongst the aspects of the interview with which we were most saddened were that you regretted not voting against the General Synod decision to support EAPPI ....
We welcome the news that you are to visit the Holy Land in June. In hoping that you get the opportunity for a comprehensive view of the conflict, we encourage you to visit Israelis from all sides of the spectrum of opinion, including those who are risking so much in the campaign to end the occupation. We also encourage you to visit Palestinians who are suffering behind the walls, including the Christian community in Bethlehem, the people of the Jordan Valley, those living in refugee camps such as Aida and Balata as well as the people of Gaza who are so often marginalised and forgotten. We also encourage you to visit with international lawyers, who can provide vital background on the legal obligations, such as in the 4th Geneva Convention, that a situation of Occupation imposes...."Signatories to date (a vigorous campaign to solicit further signatories is underway) include Anne Clayton, who coordinates Friends of Sabeel UK, Jew-turned-Christian Miranda Pinch, and Professor Mary Grey, a Catholic theologian University of Wales, who is one of the principal enthusiasts for Sizer's sinister so-called Balfour Project (about which I wrote here), Stephen Leah, and, needless to say, Sizer himself.
"There was no appeal for reflection; no pause to consider the hurt which may be caused if the motion were passed, as there was over the Synod vote on women bishops. There was no apprehension; no consideration of how the Jewish minority might feel alienated or offended, as there was over black and Asian minorities over the Synod vote to proscribe the BNP.....
So, there you have it. In today’s Church of England, the equal right of women to be bishops is worthy of serious reflection; the equal rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and the transgendered are to be respected; the equal rights of black, Asian and minority ethnic groups are to be advanced.
But sod the Jews. They can be ‘dismayed’, ‘completely dismissed’, and ‘ridden roughshod over’. Even after they have ‘suffered harassment and abuse at EAPPI meetings’ and have many ‘legitimate concerns’, the General Synod doesn’t give a damn.
As long as they’re happy about their progress on matters of gender and sexuality, and are secure in the eradication of BNP-sympathising vicars, Anglican-Jewish relations are of no consequence at all."With a little adjustment, His Grace's words are not inappropriate in the present context.
"We write as academics, members of staff, students, alumni and friends of the University of New South Wales....
We ask that you follow the example of universities worldwide who have taken a stand against companies that profit from or support a state and military that violates international law. For example, in late 2011, Chicago’s DePaul University removed Sabra hummus, also owned by the Strauss Group, from campus shelves and replaced it with an ethical alternative. Last year, the University of Toronto, Carleton University, the University of Regina and York University in Canada passed resolutions in support of withdrawing investments with companies connected to Israel’s international human rights law and humanitarian law violations, which included Hewlett Packard, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin. The London School of Economics (LSE) cancelled its contract with Eden Springs in 2011, a major water supply company, because of the company’s business dealings in the illegally occupied Golan Heights. LSE joined other UK universities in the United Kingdom, including Edinburgh and Strathclyde, in the boycott of apartheid. Sussex University and the University of London Union, Europe’s largest student union, heeded the call to withdraw support for Israeli goods.
Instead of voting for the Strauss Group and the Golani and Givati brigades, we prefer to vote for a local, Australian business that does not fund and support a military, responsible for severe breaches of international human rights and humanitarian law against the indigenous [sic] Palestinian population."(Hat tip: reader Shirlee)
"Anti-Israel college campus activists have turned free speech into hate speech.
They spread anti-Israel propaganda that ignores facts and context, and their strong-arm methods prevent the informed, rational discussion expected at an institution of higher learning. They deceive campus communities about their real goals. They want to instill hostility about Israel's very existence, not champion the Palestinian people or peace. If they were genuinely concerned about the Palestinian people, they would be more honest and more invested in eliminating Palestinian terrorist groups like Hamas and eliminating the anti-Israel/anti-Jewish hatred that young Palestinians are indoctrinated with by religious, educational, and governmental officials as well as their media. They would be more concerned about Hamas’ use of human shields (including children and women) and its launching rockets into Israel from Palestinian schools.
We call for an end to harassment and extremism.
We call for responsible, knowledgeable debate on campuses and for constructive dialogue and actions. We support both Palestinians and Israelis and know that peace takes two. After 1,900 years of discrimination and persecution in the Middle East and Europe, the Jewish people restored their ancestral homeland and built one of the most successful nations of the post-World War II period. Our goal should be to learn from and support this extraordinary accomplishment and to support Palestinians who accept Israel as their Jewish neighbor and wish to establish the first Palestinian state in history, one that would exist alongside the Jewish state in peace and security. We advocate working together to educate our campuses about the facts and to help bring understanding about what is needed for peaceful coexistence in the troubled region."
"Rawan Yaghi is a bookish 19 year old who, appropriately for a student of literature, arrives to meet me in Gaza with a text tucked under her arm.
It is a well-thumbed copy of Catch 22, Joseph Heller's classic satirical novel on the absurdities of war; not an inappropriate choice for somebody who's spent her entire life amid one of the Middle East's most intractable conflicts.
But Rawan's life is about to take a different direction. Currently a student at Gaza's Islamic University, she has just won a scholarship to Oxford University to study linguistics and Italian...."And he quotes her as saying:
"Most people think it's like a war zone here and that everyone here is really depressed and involved in politics. But it's not always about war. It's also about families, friends and love. It's not only about the conflict with Israel."However, as Hadar Sela has demonstrated over at BBCWatch, there's more to Ms Yaghi than Donnison's account is willing to reveal.
"In 2011, the students at Jesus College Oxford, headed by undergraduate, Emily Dreyfus, led an initiative to establish a full undergraduate scholarship for a student from a university in Gaza. Future scholars will be chosen from other regions where access to higher education is limited. Applications for the first scholar will open in September 2011 for courses beginning in 2012.
A significant portion of the costs of the Scholarship will be funded by the students themselves. In response to this pledge of student support, the University of Oxford will waive 60% of the tuition fees. Further external funding for the first scholar has been pledged by the Hoping Foundation, the Hani Qaddumi Scholarship Foundation, and the A.M. Qattan Foundation. Jesus College has also agreed to waive the College fee...."I don't begrudge Ms Yaghi her opportunity to study at Oxford. But what I find disturbing, yet oh-so-woefully-instructive, oh-so-typical of our times, is that it took tiny beleaguered Israel's defensive response to continuing Hamas terrorism towards Israeli civilians to rouse the student body out of its apathy towards poltical issues: not Darfur, not Sri Lanka, not abuses of human rights in Iran and Saudi Arabia, not oppression, slave-trading and women-trafficking in Burma, nor the subjugation of women in Afghanistan, Pakistan and whole swathes of the Middle East, not Iranian persecution of the Bahai, nor the Islamic persecution of Christians:
'Around the UK, thousands of students have occupied lecture theatres, offices and other buildings at more than 20 universities in sit-down protests. It seems that the spirit of 1968 has returned to the campus.
While it was the situation in Gaza that triggered this mass protest, the beginnings of political enthusiasm have already spread to other issues....
Beginning with a 24-hour occupation at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) on 13 January, the sit-ins spread across the country. Now occupations have been held at the LSE, Essex, King's College London, Birmingham, Sussex, Warwick, Manchester Metropolitan, Oxford, Leeds, Cambridge, Sheffield Hallam, Bradford, Nottingham, Queen Mary, Manchester, Strathclyde, Newcastle, Kingston, Goldsmiths and Glasgow.
Among the demands of students are disinvestment in the arms trade; the promise to provide scholarships for Palestinian students; a pledge to send books and unused computers to Palestine; and to condemn Israeli attacks on Gaza....
Emily Dreyfus, a 21-year-old political activist in her third year of reading classics at Oxford, was one of around 80 students to occupy the historic Bodleian library building in the city and demand that the university issue a statement condemning the Gaza attacks and disinvest from the arms trade. She said: "I found Oxford politically very dead when I arrived, but it's completely different now. There seem to be more and more people talking about politics, which is so exciting. It's really been aided by the communication tools we've got, things like Facebook."....' [Emphasis added] Read more here
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| A Phial Of The Venom |
"TUI demand that ICTU step up its campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against the apartheid state of Israel until it lifts its illegal siege of Gaza and its illegal occupation of the West Bank, and agrees to abide by international law and all UN resolutions against it.
Congress instructs the Executive Committee to:
(a) Conduct an awareness campaign amongst TUI members on the need for BDS
(b) Request all members to cease all cultural and academic collaboration with Israel, including the exchange of scientists, students and academic personalities, as well as all co-operation in research programmes."The TUI, reflecting the vicious Israel (and Jew)-obsession of the Far Left and its cohorts, becomes the first teaching union in Europe to do so.
"BDS is a noble, non-violent method of resisting Israeli militarism, occupation and apartheid, and there is no question that Israel is implementing apartheid policies against the Palestinians"Read more here
