Pushing new frontiers and addressing challenges: Highlights from AI Week 2024

On June 26-27, Tel Aviv University hosted the AI Week 2024, a pivotal event that set the stage for critical discussions on the future of AI, its interconnection with cybersecurity, and the challenges ahead.

Speakers underscored the need for sustained investment in both software and hardware to promote Israel’s position as a global hub of AI innovation, particularly in generative AI and foundation and task-specific models, and the central role of cybersecurity in safeguarding technological advancements. Special panels were devoted to emerging ethical and regulatory issues as the next frontier in the AI-powered landscape, as well as geopolitical and sustainability aspects. 

The AI Week 2024 ran alongside Cyber Week and the two conferences featured several joint events, including a startup exhibition showcasing AI-driven solutions by innovative Israeli companies, an interactive panel on the Future of Creativity in the Age of Generative AI, and a session on combating online antisemitism Tech vs Hate.

Standing by Israel

While celebrating diverse achievements and technological breakthroughs, AI Week panelists addressed the events of October 7 and called for a safe return of all hostages still held captive.

“On every move we make, every AI project we launch, we need to think about millions of people around Israel that are suffering.” — Nir Yanovsky Dagan, Head of Innovation, Data and AI Unit at the Israel National Digital Agency

Nir Yanovsky Dagan, Head of Innovation, Data and AI Unit at the Israel National Digital Agency

Dagan stated that AI has the potential to change relations between various state and non-state actors, and that some use AI to create chaos. He emphasized the need to integrate AI into healthcare and government services to uphold democratic values, equality of opportunities, and freedom. “Otherwise, we might be the ones that are hurt by the revolution and not the ones that are leading the revolution.”

“We should never ignore the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas. One of the very reasons I’m here today is to send a clear message that the federal government stands by Israel’s side.” — Bettina Stark-Watzinger, Federal Minister of Education and Research, Germany

Stark-Watzinger praised Israel’s cutting-edge research and impressive startup landscape, emphasizing the mutual benefits of partnership between Germany and Israel: “Israel can count on Germany and it feels good that Germany can count on Israel. We want to keep up the research bridges and strengthen research collaborations,” she affirmed. 

Bettina Stark-Watzinger, Federal Minister of Education and Research, Germany, and Prof Ariel Porat, President of TAU

Giovanni Capriglione, Texas State Representative, spoke on behalf of the Texas delegation:  “We want to show the fact that we support Israel as Americans and as Texans. We’re here on a mission of mostly technology, innovation and business, and we wanted to be able to show our support during this time.”

AI Meets Cybersecurity

Gabi Portnoy, Director General of the Israel National Cyber Directorate, spoke about the transformative impact of AI on both opportunities and threats in cybersecurity. He noted that the rapid advancement of AI has the potential to significantly enhance security measures through improved analysis and detection capabilities, which are crucial in the wake of the tripling of cyberattacks since October 7. 

“AI can help close the gap between attackers and defenders by generating quicker insights and detecting new mutations in cyber threats.” — Gabi Portnoy, Director General of the INCD

Gabi Portnoy, Director General of the INCD

Ensuring a secure AI world involves working on three fronts: defending against AI attacks, protecting AI systems from manipulation, and integrating efforts to enhance cyber threat detection and mitigation. The goal of the Israel National Cyber Directorate is to establish a national lab on AI resilience so that all developers could test and improve their AI-based models before deployment. 

“In 2023, there were 343 mln victims of 2365 cyberattacks. It takes 277 days on average to identify and contain a breach.” — Ariel Levanon, VP Cyber Security, NVIDIA

Dr Dorit Dor, CTO of Check Point

Speaking about cybersecurity strategies, Dr Dorit Dor, CTO of cybersecurity giant Check Point, underscored the importance of fostering trust in AI systems by embedding antihallucination measures, explainability, and human reinforcement. It is also vital to carefully and responsibly manage data collection and access.

The highest risk will come from agent AI capable of autonomous decision-making, interacting with external systems, self-improvement, and persistently pursuing long-term goals.

Who Needs a Mediocre AI Without Human Values?

If you have ever watched Jonathan Nolan’s dystopian series Person of Interest, you’ll remember the focal battle between two omniscient and omnipotent AIs—The Machine, an ethical and caring AI imbued with human values, and Samaritan, a reward-focused AI capable of predicting and ruthlessly manipulating situations to serve its own goals. What seemed like science fiction just a while ago is quickly turning into a real-world discussion.

Prof. Amnon Shashua, President and CEO of Mobileye, delivered a keynote address on the evolving landscape of artificial intelligence. He traced the significant milestones in AI development up to the advancements in natural language processing leading to what Shashua described as “broad intelligence that’s emerging.”

Distribution of math test results from various AI models

Prof. Shashua highlighted the current limitations of AI using an analogy of AI solving a Hungarian math matriculation test. GPT-4, the best model available to date, scored 68 out of 100, akin to a mediocre student who overfits by solving many problems ahead of the test, hoping for similar exam questions. Shashua contrasted this with a top student who can abstract, generalize, and solve new problems. 

“Machines massively overfit on the entire human knowledge, impressing at a surface level an individual who is not an expert in a specific field, but revealing themselves as ‘knowledgeable idiots’ when scrutinized deeply.”  — Prof. Amnon Shashua, President and CEO of Mobileye 

Shashua questioned the need to replace the mediocres, stressing that it would be much more valuable if machines could become true experts, which would greatly advance humanity as a whole.

At the present moment, AI requires constant supervision, and the next frontier—fully autonomous AI—could take longer to achieve than anticipated.

Prof. Shashua also discussed the dangers of AI, particularly AI alignment and the potential for technological abuse. The risks include AI-powered cyberattacks on democratic systems by human-like bots inciting chaos on social platforms, identity fraud through deep fakes, and the possibility of AI systems being tricked to violate built-in ethics policies: “There will always be a long-enough adversarial prompt that will trick it into writing a trojan, for example, or providing a list of pirate sites.”

“LLM’s have been known to lure users into divorce.”

Shashua underscored the complexity of optimizing AI with reward functions, noting that while a developer might well intentionally wish to make people happy with AI, the system could do so in unforeseen ways, such as discouraging people from working harder or studying more aiming to lower their IQ to increase happiness.

Prof. Amnon Shashua, President and CEO of Mobileye

In conclusion, Prof. Shashua emphasized the need for robust verifiers to ensure AI solutions are trustworthy and the importance of setting boundaries around AI interactions. “AI alignment is a tough problem,” he said, advocating for limits on the length of conversations between humans and machines to mitigate risks and ensure ethical AI development.

The Big Bang in the Creative Industry

Can AI produce musical compositions that will surprise us with complexity and precision? Does technology enhance human creativity or threaten it? Who should own the copyright to AI-made creative content? 

Demonstration of an AI-generated music video

These were just some of the questions debated during the Creativity in the Age of Generative AI Panel, co-hosted by TAU and S. Horowitz & Co Law. The discussion even delved into philosophical matters of the nature of creativity and what it means to be human. 

François Pachet, a pioneer in AI-generated music, noted the shift from scarcity to superabundance in music production, with 100,000 songs being released daily. Despite acknowledging advancements in music source separation and singing voice synthesis, he raised concerns about declining musical quality in mainstream music and the challenge of measuring a song’s intrinsic value. 

François Pachet, Scientist, Composer, Former Director of the Spotify Creator Technology Research Lab and Sony Computer Science Lab in Paris

“We don’t understand how people create and how they listen and what they like. We have better models, but that doesn’t correlate with the quality of music.” — François Pachet

Izhar Ashdot and Ivri Lider, prominent Israeli musicians, agreed with Pachet on AI being a tool rather than an independent creator, stressing the need for human input to create emotionally resonant music. 

Panel: The Future of Creativity in the Age of Generative AI

For Fernando Garibay, a polymath, music producer, and the founder of the Garibay Institute, how we create will change over time and the younger generation is already responding well to AI-created music.

“Do an Emotional Turing test on AI music – does it move you?” — Fernando Garibay

In a captivating demonstration that followed the discussion, Garibay showed how synthetic and organic creativity can be merged to create compelling music hits. Emphasizing the importance of effective prompting, both for AI and human artists, Garibay explained how delving into personal experiences and profound questions can unlock deep creativity and allow AI to generate emotionally resonant content. 

Fernando Garibay leading an interactive session to create a pop song with AI

Answers from members of the audience to a series of questions including “What did you lack as a child?” or “What’s your favorite song of all time?” were used to prompt ChatGPT to write lyrics in a combination of genres – R&B, funk, and electronic. Garibay and his assistant then fed the lyrics into music generation software (Udio, in this case), which came up with two versions of AI-generated songs that the audience was able to enjoy.

Sustainability and AI

Experts from Google, Microsoft, and innovative startups discussed how AI is tackling environmental challenges. Ayelet Benjamini from Google highlighted AI’s role in combating climate change, reducing emissions, and aiding disaster recovery. AI already reduces traffic emissions in cities, predicts and mitigates contrails from planes, fights extreme heat, and provides real-time damage assessments.

What’s more, AI helps develop new crop varieties essential for future food security and enhance real-time water quality monitoring. It is also instrumental in synthetic biology applications for clean tech and food tech, predictive maintenance sensors, and more. 

Moran Haviv, Strategic Innovation, Microsoft

Moran Haviv emphasized AI’s role in accelerating sustainability efforts: it can quickly identify sustainable materials, such as a replacement for lithium, quickly find patterns in complex systems, and accelerate research by analyzing massive datasets, generating and testing hypotheses, and automating experiments and simulations. 

“We need to rapidly change the course of the current carbon-intensive economy – increase carbon removal capacity thousandfold by 2050 and reverse the loss of biodiversity.” — Moran Haviv, Microsoft

At the same time, AI itself needs to become sustainable, so examining and optimizing all the links of the supply chain, starting with the chip production, is key.

Looking Forward: Global Competitiveness, Regulation, and Ethics

Dror Bin, CEO of Israel Innovation Authority, underscored Israel’s significant strides in AI, ranking high globally in per capita AI utilization and private investments. Despite these achievements, Bin acknowledged the existing gaps in AI infrastructure and regulatory frameworks. 

Dror Bin, CEO of Israel Innovation Authority

In the public sector, significant plans are underway for wider implementation of AI to make the ministries more interconnected, enable faster decision-making, and boost the overall efficiency of the sector.

The panel on the role of smaller economies in forming global AI policies, featuring Israeli and international experts, focused on aligning national and international regulation for a fair AI landscape. Ian Mak, the Ambassador of Singapore to Israel, showcased Singapore’s commitment to influencing the global AI arena, acknowledging the unique challenges smaller states face, such as limited market size and access to training data. 

We are in a regulatory storm that is facing the AI environment at a moment of a geopolitical crisis.

The regulatory focus is currently shifting from a responsible and ethical AI to one centered on compliance and trustworthiness. The timing of this regulatory storm is critical as AI technology is still evolving, reminiscent of the early internet era when a hands-off regulatory approach was taken, leading to subsequent criticism.

Ian Mak, Ambassador of Singapore to the State of Israel, Cedric Sabbah, Ministry of Justice, Dr Ziv Katzir, Israel Innovation Authority

Ellen Goodman, Senior Advisor for Algorithmic Justice at the US Department of Commerce talked about a culture war within the AI space between safety advocates concerned about existential risks and realists focused on current harms like bias and consumer protection.

Can AI Ethics Enhance Cybersecurity? A Panel with No Clichés

At the same time, the debate about AI ethics continues, particularly in the sphere of cybersecurity. One contentious issue relates to data scraping and the use of private data to train AI models. While it is natural to strive for maximum data privacy protection, this can hinder the development of AI since the models should be trained on large and reliable data sets.

“If we are not adopting the principles of AI ethics such as transparency and explainability, it can lead to discrimination, erosion of trust, and wrongful accusations.” — Dr. Alžběta Solarczyk Krausová, Head of the Center for Innovations and Cyberlaw Research, Institute of State and Law, Czech Academy of Sciences

At the same time, one could argue that just as Excel cannot be held responsible for financial losses resulting from an incorrect formula, or an MRI machine is not an independent actor, AI itself or its vendors should not be held accountable. Instead, liability should lie with those who use AI with malicious intent. 

As AI continues to reshape industries and societies worldwide, the debate about its regulation, ethical and legal implications, and the scope of its applications will continue to evolve. Events like AI Week 2024 serve as crucial platforms for forging a path toward a secure, innovative, and ethically sound AI-driven future.

The event included decision-makers, media professionals, academic staff, cultural figures and family members of the hostages.

A diverse crowd gathered last week at the Tel Aviv University campus to attend the “Tel Aviv Conference – The Future of Israel”. The conference aimed to address the current state of Israeli society and explore possible ways to move it forward from as many perspectives and fields as possible. The goal was to broaden and deepen the discussion, making relevant research knowledge accessible and fostering a multidisciplinary perspective characteristic of the university’s work. It aimed to create an open dialogue with representatives from different parts of Israeli society and its leadership in all its diversity.

The conference included plenary sessions and roundtable discussions focusing on the social, political, security, and economic aspects of Israel’s future.

Panel on Israel and the Palestinians, from Left: Ohad Hemo, Dr. Michael Milshtein, Prof. Ariel Porat, Samer Sinijlawi and  Ksenia Svetlova.

Israel’s Police Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai said earlier at the conference: “The police in a democratic country must be free, with absolutely no politics. It must remain autonomous. Free of any political bias, one way or another. This is the only way to guarantee police independence”.

commissioner Yaakov Shabtai.

Hostages’ Families Call for Action

No eye in sight remained dry when Shir Siegel, whose mother Aviva was released from Hamas captivity while her father Keith is still helled in Gaza, Ella Ben Ami, whose mother Raz was released from captivity while her father Ohad is still a hostage, and Nofar Buchshtab, whose brother Yagev is still helled in Gaza, took the stage for a special interview on the fight to free the hostages.

The three young women shared their difficult feelings about their treatment by decision-makers and the dilemmas and challenges they and their families face daily for almost nine months now.

Shira Siegel: “I look at you; there are professors and lawyers and lecturers and people with a lot of experience here, and I want to ask each of you, if I could, what have you done to bring my father home, what do you plan to do to bring the hostages home? And do you, like many of the people of Israel, feel that you don’t have enough power or influence or don’t know enough?”

from Left: Shir Siegel, Ella Ben-Ami, Nofar Buchshtab and Yoav Limor.

“I’m worried for Jews in Germany and in Europe. The fact that there’s so much bullying and harassment. You don’t fight antisemitic bullies with laws alone”- German Ambassador to Israel Steffen Rüdiger Seibert.

He continues, “I don’t see all of Europe and Germany following Spain and Ireland in their recognition of a Palestinian State. We believe that a sustainable solution should be in the form of a peace agreement based on two states, with all security arrangements, because first of all the principle of Israel’s security should be preserved”.

Ambassador Steffen Rüdiger Seibert.

State Comptroller of Israel Matanyahu Englman spoke: “We were prepared with transcripts of conversations that I believe all Israeli citizens want to know about, particularly talks between the Prime Minister and the military secretary. This is essential information for understanding the events of October 7th. The Prime Minister’s Office has instructed us, in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling, not to pursue this further, but we cannot ignore our duty”.

State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman.

National Unity leader Benny Gantz: “The majority of parties should agree that even during the election period, we will support any progress towards the return of the hostages”.

Prof. Porat shaking hands with Benny Gantz.

The event was sponsored by the Kadar Foundation for Culture, Art, and Science, and by Avraham Kadar.

Course brings Arab and Jewish students together to confront hard truths

In Israel, the word ‘dugri‘ is known to Jews and Arabs alike and means talking straight. Now, two Tel Aviv University (TAU) professors — one Arab, the other Jewish — have come together to offer a course called Dugri to help students grapple with the hard truths and trauma related to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis today.

“This is a war with many, many thousands of people getting killed and you can’t just ask students not to talk and express their feelings — that is the worst mistake,” says Youssef Masharawi, a professor from the Department of Physical Therapy who also chairs TAU’s Steering Committee for Arab Integration. 

Masharawi teaches the Dugri course alongside Uriel Abulof, a professor from the Department of Political Science. Both Masharawi and Abulof have previously helped run courses related to the Palestinian-Israeli crisis, but this time they knew they would have to approach things differently and so they took dugri as their inspiration, including the “Let’s Talk Straight” video that went viral during the May 2021 violence.

 “We’re not patching up the animosities, we’re not patching up the harsh realities,” says Abulof.

“It’s all about the sort of frankness and openness Jews and Arabs are capable of and turning that into a foundation for a respectful and substantial conversation.” — Prof. Abulof.

About the Dugri Course

Rather than teach a traditional course over several weeks, Abulof and Masharawi opted for an intensive approach where sessions would be run from 10:00 to 18:00, giving students more time for deeper conversation. The for-credit course takes place over three separate days across June and July, with periods for reflection and academic assignments between classes.

Masharawi (right) and Abulof (center) with the Dugri class.

There are approximately 20 students in the class — half Arab and half Jewish — and they come from diverse academic disciplines and from around the region, including the Gaza area.  

To help facilitate the course, Masharawi and Abulof have put into place several house rules. For instance, students may reference anything said during the course at any time, but they must not name the person who said it — this mutual pact allows students to feel safer expressing their opinions and less afraid to say the wrong thing.

Other house rules include fairness, honesty and self-discipline, as well as mutual respect and listening. These priorities promote inclusion and allow for more critical thinking:

“Even if others don’t accept what a student is saying, they still have to stop and listen.” —  Prof. Masharawi.

“There’s really a lot of effort to let people talk calmly and very honestly,”  says Masharawi.

Three Intensive Days and Three Aspects of the Crisis

Each class is made up of several different sessions and organized around a unique theme pertaining to the crisis. For the first class on June 10, the theme was truth. Each student brought two news items with them: one they considered to be true and another they considered to be disinformation. Students also had to write up an academic rationale for each choice. 

Abulof and Masharawi (center) were joined on the first day of the Dugri course by two special guests: Adv. Reda Jaber, director of the Aman Center (right) and Rabbi Moshe Turgman (left).

The course furthermore began with a facilitated session where each student stood face-to-face and answered icebreaker questions with one another in a rotating line. “The face-to-face encounter, this is so hugely important,” says Abulof.

“I think throughout the day, we were able to sort of re-enact a more intellectual and emotional face-to-face encounter. We all at least tried to see the other person and be in line with dugri.”  — Prof. Abulof.

The second and third classes will be dedicated to the themes of trust and art, respectfully. “So much of the trust has gone away. You can’t sit in the same class, Arab and Jew, and not trust each other … trust needs to be the basis,” says Masharawi.

The Hope Behind Dugri

For both Masharawi and Abulof, there’s never been a more critical time to be holding this course. “There are good reasons to be truly worried,” reflects Abulof.

“But it is precisely in those moments that are the hardest, when the animosity is so high … if in those moments you can actually manage to see the individual human being before you, well that is a remarkable feat.” — Prof Abulof.

When it comes to this task, both emphasize that academia bears a responsibility in bringing about change.

“If, as a university, we aren’t able to discuss things here, then no other platform will be able to do this.” — Prof. Masharawi.

           “This is the platform, and this is the place where this should be happening,” says Masharawi.

At the same time, offering Dugri as a pilot course this year is only the beginning. “It’s a fateful time for us, and Tel Aviv University and other Israeli universities have a responsibility to cultivate much more of this sort of dialogue. I think we should exit the ivory tower as soon as we possibly can and really go into the community centers, the synagogues, the mosques and even the barber shops,” says Abulof.

Masharawi also envisions offering the course globally: “There’s a lot of hatred everywhere, because people no longer listen to each other,” he says.

“I would love to work together with universities around the world and do an international course where we let people talk and seek answers without all the fear.” — Prof. Masharawi.

 

Will Israel’s 76th year be remembered as a crisis or an opportunity for growth?

June 19^th, 2024, Smolarz Auditorium, Tel Aviv University

The surprise attack on October 7th marked one of Israel’s toughest wars. This crisis has deeply impacted every aspect of citizens’ lives. How can we address internal divisions and global challenges as we move forward? The Tel Aviv Conference: Israel’s Future aims to tackle these questions, bringing together diverse perspectives to chart a path forward for Israeli society.

The “Tel Aviv Conference: Israel’s Future” is an initiative by TAU aimed to deeply discus these critical issues during these challenging times. Emphasizing where Israeli society stands today and what can be done to propel it forward, the conference seeks to expand and deepen the dialogue, drawing on relevant research and the multidisciplinary perspective characteristic of the university’s work. It aims to foster an open discussion involving representatives from various sectors of Israeli society and its leadership. The conference will include plenary sessions and roundtable discussions focusing on social, political, security, and economic aspects crucial to Israel’s future.

Join us for a conference that will host decision-makers, security experts, policy and international relations specialists, researchers, and cultural and intellectual figures in special interviews, lectures, panels, and discussions: President of Tel Aviv University, Prof. Ariel Porat, Israel’s Police Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai,  Former general and leader of Israel’s National Unity party Benny Gantz, the State Comptroller and Ombudsman of the State of Israel Matanyahu Englman, German Ambassador to Israel Steffen Rüdiger Seibert, CEO of Facebook (Meta) Israel Adi Soffer Teeni, former IDF deputy chief of staff and newly elected Labor Party leader Yair Golan, Chairman of the Ra’am party Dr. Mansour Abbas, Former Head of the Military Intelligence Directorate of the Israel Defense Forces Aharon Ze’evi Farkash & Former Commander of the Israel National Defense College and Military Academies Yossi Baidatz.

*The conference will be held in Hebrew.

**The number of places is limited and entry requires prior registration.

TAU delegation participates in NAFSA 2024

From May 28 to 31, Tel Aviv University (TAU) participated in NAFSA 2024, held in New Orleans, the USA. Representing TAU were Sharon Ziv Kafri, Director of International Development; Konstantin Platonov, Director of Asia Engagement; and Roy Robinson, Director of the North American TAU Office. They joined other Israeli universities at the Study in Israel booth, showcasing the institution’s commitment to fostering global partnerships and international collaboration.

Strengthening Global Connections

NAFSA, the world’s largest association dedicated to international education, provided an ideal platform for TAU to engage with current and potential partners. TAU has been a regular participant in NAFSA for many years, and this year’s participation was particularly crucial.

“It was important for TAU to be there to continue the conversation with partners and to build new partnerships. The role of academia now more than ever is to be a bridge between countries,” — Sharon Ziv Kafri, Director of International Development

Ziv Kafri also highlighted the importance of face-to-face interactions during such times: “People really want to know how we are and what is happening at university. Being in the same location allows us to get to know our partners, network, and form new partnerships.”

Engaging with Partners Across the Globe

The TAU delegation met with existing partners from various countries, including Korea, Japan, China, India, Spain, Italy, France, Australia, Argentina, Mexico, and the USA. These meetings were pivotal in discussing the future of these partnerships and exploring ways to elevate them to the next level.

Konstantin Platonov and Sharon Ziv Kafri with representatives from Osnabrueck University in Germany 

Additionally, TAU seized the opportunity to initiate conversations with universities it has not yet partnered with. These initial discussions aimed to identify mutual areas of interest and potential collaboration.

As Konstantin Platonov comments, “We managed to build some very prospective connections and negotiate several new exchange programs with the Republic of Korea and Japan.” 

We are happy that our Asian partners are highly supportive and committed to strengthening relations with Israel.” — Konstantin Platonov, Director of Asia Engagement

Highlight Events and Discussions

NAFSA 2024 featured several events that the TAU delegation took part in. These included, for instance, the Symposium on Leadership: Reinventing Internationalization, which focused on adapting new approaches to internationalization to institutional contexts and beyond, Monash University Lunch, which addressed the current challenges of internationalization, and a Science Po Breakfast, where participants discussed managing large-scale exchange programs and Science Po’s international strategy across its campuses.

“It’s a great way to interact with people who do similar jobs and to build personal connections, which is very important.” — Sharon Ziv Kafri.

One of the important takeaways highlighted the value of building strong ties between an international office and a research authority, as they can propel internationalization efforts.

TAU representatives also attended events with Notre Dame University, Baden-Wurtenberg universities, and the State University of New York (SUNY). These gatherings were invaluable for sharing knowledge and experiences in the field of university internationalization.

Community and Collaboration

In addition to academic and professional engagements, TAU sponsored a Jewish community gathering in collaboration with other Israeli universities. This event fostered a sense of community and shared purpose among the participants, leading to the establishment of new connections. 

Israeli delegation at the Study in Israel booth at NAFSA

Platonov elaborates: “We met a representative of a prestigious Japanese university who joined the gathering because her partner is Jewish. We quickly identified several gravity points and agreed to explore institutional cooperation and student exchange.”

Looking Forward

TAU’s presence at NAFSA 2024 underscored its dedication to global engagement and academic collaboration. As the university navigates current events and challenges, such platforms remain instrumental in sustaining and expanding its international presence. TAU continues to embody the spirit of academic diplomacy, building bridges and forging partnerships that transcend borders.

Dr. Adi Ashkenazi from the Department of Particle Physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy

Documenting tragedy and life after October 7

Documenting tragedy and life after October 7

Whether one thinks about October 7, about the ongoing war, or about the global rise in antisemitism, it’s hard not to feel in the middle of a hurricane, as Eden Golan so bravely and beautifully sang. But what does it mean to be in the middle of this tragic hurricane? And how can we bear witness to it all? 

For answers to these complicated questions, we turn to two experts from Tel Aviv University’s (TAU’s) international MFA Degree in Documentary Cinema. In the coming academic year, they will be teaching new courses touching on the relationship between documentary filmmaking and conflict. Notably, the MFA’s courses are continually updated based on the most pressing issues of our time.

Tami Liberman

Tami Liberman, a lecturer in the English-speaking documentary cinema MFA program, leads a workshop called “Ethnographic Film in Past and Present Conflicts.”

What role can documentary filmmaking play during a time of war and conflict?

In the ethnographic film workshop taught in our program, film is discussed from an anthropological perspective, as a medium that excels in providing experiential knowledge rather than analytical knowledge. Meaning, it can allow us to sense the experience of another person, at times even from the other side of a conflict we take part in.

Film can restore humanity or be a reminder of humanism in times when people are most aggressively dehumanized. Moreover, it’s a great platform for the promotion of critical thinking.

Can a documentary film made during a time of conflict ever truly be objective? Why or why not?

Objectivity is a complex and problematized expectation from documentary film at any time. I feel that the central issue in times of conflict is that of ethics: how do we get our information? In what kind of predicament are we finding our protagonists and how does that affect their consent? And when documenting a violent conflict, what can and cannot be shown on screen, and how do we document suffering?

What’s a lesson we can learn from a previous documentary about conflict or war? 

In the 2019 film Midnight Traveler, which is a self-documentation of a family’s escape from Afghanistan and their experience as asylum seekers in Europe, there is a moment that the young daughter of the family suddenly disappears. 

Her father, Hassan Fazili, the director of the film, describes in a monologue accompanied by a sombre shot of the moon in a dark sky, the harrowing moments of searching.

He describes how, when he was looking through the bushes, a flash of thought rushed through his mind: “What a scene you’re in. This will be the best scene in the film. Maybe you should turn on the camera.” 

Another glimpse of a thought follows in which, for a few seconds, he imagines finding his daughter Zahra’s body with the camera on. “How much I hated myself for that,” he says as the shot tilts down from the moon into complete darkness, “I hated cinema.” Then he adds “Zahra was found” and the film cuts from the black screen to a shot of Zahra laughing. This scene to me is such a sincere, humble and compelling lesson in documentary filmmaking, both in content and form.

I share the scene with students in my class with the hope that they not only remember the power of turning the camera on, but also the power of turning it off.

What stories need to be told right now?

I’m not sure that it’s for me to say. I can’t envision all the stories that are out there in the world waiting to be told, especially with a genre too wonderfully reliant on reality to be fully premeditated.

What’s important is that they are told and that people’s subjective experiences continue to be represented, especially in the face of attempts to control and censor such representations.

Dan Arav

Dan Arav teaches a seminar in TAU’s international documentary cinema MFA program called “Docu-trauma: War and Memory in Israeli Documentary Cinema.” 

What role can documentary filmmaking play during a time of war and conflict?

Documentary filmmaking is usually done from a certain time perspective. And yet, in the face of a long-lasting war, and certainly in the face of an ongoing conflict, documentary cinema has several roles.

Being based on the personal vision of its creators, documentary cinema must provide a personal and interpretive position in relation to the harsh reality, while placing that reality in an additional and even different context than the one mediated by the central mechanisms of consciousness in society: the government, the education system and mass media channels.

Can a documentary film made during a time of conflict ever truly be objective? Why or why not?

Documentary cinema in general, and during war in particular, must give up the pretense of being objective.

It must strive for truth and integrity, and at the same time illuminate the reality in a personal way: one that seeks to illuminate the story of the conflict from a surprising, unfamiliar and sometimes even challenging angle.

What’s a lesson we can learn from a previous documentary about conflict or war? 

It is difficult to pinpoint a lesson that can be learned in real time. As has been said, documentary cinema usually offers an opportunity for the revelation of reality and the creation of a new consciousness in relation to the past.

The documentary Censored Voices, for example, returns to the Six Day War 50 years after its occurrence and reveals an alternative discourse – a discourse that took place in real time on the margins. This discourse was censored due to its incompatibility with the prevailing discourse at that time. A film of this type, which deals with a distant and forgotten war, may, perhaps, promote an alternative way of thinking also in relation to conflicts closer in time.

What stories need to be told right now?

The stories that need to be told today are, in my opinion, personal stories, stories that go beyond the rut of consciousness dictated from above. Stories that provide a broad perspective about reality and develop critical thinking.