Tag: General

The event showcases Israel’s pioneering role in defense innovation

Israel has long been recognized for its ability to transform challenges into opportunities, and its defense sector is a testament to this ingenuity. Reflecting this ethos, Tel Aviv University (TAU), in collaboration with the Directorate of Defense Research & Development (DDR&D), hosted the first-ever DefenseTech Summit. This two-day event, held on TAU’s campus, brought together government officials, industry leaders, academic experts, and sponsors to spotlight Israel’s advancements in defense technology. The Summit is set to become an annual event, further solidifying Israel’s position as a global leader in defense innovation.

Celebrating Israel’s Defense Prowess

The inaugural DefenseTech Summit was a platform to showcase Israel’s cutting-edge defense technologies and foster collaboration across sectors. With the country fighting over a year of war on several fronts and facing evolving security challenges, the Summit’s timing was particularly significant. It provided a forum for experts and stakeholders to discuss emerging trends and Israel’s unique ability to innovate under pressure.

TAU alumnus Maj. Gen (Res.) Eyal Zamir speaking at the Summit’s keynote address.

The event featured a distinguished lineup of keynote speakers, all of whom are alumni of Tel Aviv University and have played pivotal roles in shaping Israel’s defense landscape:

• Maj. Gen. (res.) Eyal Zamir, TAU political science alumnus and Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, delivered a forward-looking keynote. “We are at the beginning of a completely new era, and Israel has the ability to lead in defense tech and shape the future,” he stated, emphasizing the country’s role in shaping global security paradigms.
• Brig. Gen. (ret.) Dr. Danny Gold, a TAU double-PhD alumnus and head of the Israeli Directorate of Defense Research & Development, provided an overview of Israel’s defense tech ecosystem. Known as the “father of the Iron Dome,” Dr. Gold highlighted the critical role of stellar education and interdisciplinary collaboration as cornerstones of Israel’s defense innovation.
• Col. (ret.) Moshe Patel, TAU MBA alumnus and Director of the Israeli Missile Defense Organization, brought his expertise in missile defense systems, further underscoring the country’s commitment to pioneering solutions in complex security environments.

The Summit saw unprecedented attendance, with over 2,000 participants engaging across multiple events, including the Main Plenary Day, the Innovation Day, online sessions, the Youth Conference, and the Hackathon (which began two days ahead of the Summit).

Representatives from close to 60 countries participated, with dignitaries from 40 nations attending the exclusive, invite-only Ambassadors’ Briefing. This diverse representation underscored the global significance of Israel’s defense advancements and the Summit’s role as a hub for international collaboration.

Hackathon Highlights: Innovating for Battlefield Challenges

A major highlight of the Summit was the Hackathon, hosted by Tel Aviv University’s Entrepreneurship Center in collaboration with DDR&D. The event focused on solving three life-threatening battlefield challenges identified during the current war. Over 120 competitors on 28 teams worked tirelessly for 26 hours straight to develop innovative solutions. The hackathon was dedicated to the memory of four fallen soldiers—Eitan Oster z”l, Omri Tamari z”l, Shahar Cohen Mivtach z”l, and Adi Malik Harb z”l—and also honored Yiftach Yavetz z”l, whose father spoke about his bravery during the liberation of Kibbutz Nahal Oz on October 7th.

The winning teams and their groundbreaking solutions were announced during the Summit:

• Easy Extraction of Wounded Challenge: Combat Stretcher Straps (CSS), a set of adjustable, comfortable straps designed for carrying stretchers over rough terrain without jostling the wounded and allowing carriers to keep their hands free.
• Tourniquet Challenge: TourniCAT, a harness that can be easily applied to the shoulder or hip, cutting off circulation at a major artery to address life-threatening bleeding.
• Cleaning System for Armed Vehicle Cameras Challenge: Adi, a rolling transparent film that continuously cleans lenses, enabling soldiers to maintain visibility without leaving their vehicles in dangerous situations. This solution was innovated by students of Druze heritage, who proudly represented their community during the hackathon.

Bridging Academia, Government, and Industry

The DefenseTech Summit exemplified the power of collaboration between academia, government, and industry. With TAU at the helm, the event underscored the importance of education as a foundation for technological advancements. By bringing together leading minds from diverse sectors, the Summit fostered discussions on innovative strategies to address current and future security challenges.

Summit attendees at the DefenseTech Summit’s Start-up Exhibit.

As Israel continues to face evolving threats, the DefenseTech Summit highlighted its resilience and adaptability. With Tel Aviv University’s commitment to advancing education and fostering collaboration, the annual Summit promises to be a cornerstone for the defense community, both in Israel and globally. By leveraging its unique ecosystem of talent, resources, and vision, Israel is poised to remain at the forefront of defense innovation for years to come.

TAU study finds Arab citizens feel a growing bond with Jewish Israelis.

A new study by the Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation at TAU’s Moshe Dayan Center, reveals encouraging data regarding coexistence in Israel. According to the survey, 57.8% believe that the ongoing war has fostered a sense of shared destiny between Arabs and Jews in Israel. 

The researchers emphasize that this is a statistically significant shift in the attitude of Arab Israelis towards the war. In a similar study conducted a year ago (November 2023), the majority of the Arab public (69.8%) said that the war had harmed solidarity between Arabs and Jews. Moreover, when compared to the results of a survey conducted in June 2024, the current study indicates a positive trend: at the time, only 51.6% of the respondents felt that a sense of shared destiny had arisen between Arabs and Jews, and the current figure represents a statistically significant increase in this metric. 

Additional findings include: 

• The personal identity of Israel’s Arab citizens incorporates three dominant elements: Israeli citizenship (33.9%), religious affiliation (29.2%), and Arab identity (26.9%). A smaller portion of respondents (9%) regard their Palestinian identity as the dominant component of their identity. The researchers note: “It cannot be ignored that a significant segment of Arab Israelis define their Israeli citizenship as the most important element in their personal identity. Moreover, the current survey suggests that – possibly as a result of the continuing war, the instrumental Israeli citizenship has become more important than the Arab identity – which carries deeper meanings such as religion, nationality, culture, tradition, language, and values”.
• Opinions in the Arab populace are divided regarding the desirable post-war governance in Gaza: 20.7% believe the Palestinian Authority should take control, 20.1% prefer a multinational force, 17.9% suggest Israel, and 15.8% favor local Gazan entities. Only 6.7% think Hamas should continue governing the Gaza Strip after the war. 
• Half of the respondents (53.4%) believe a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia could signal a positive regional development. At the same time, half (49.2%) feel that resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should not be a precondition for such an agreement. 
• A large majority of respondents (71.8%) support the inclusion of an Arab party in the Israeli government after the next elections. Half of the Arab public (47.8%) support joining any government, not just a center-left coalition.
• A majority of the Arab public (65.8%) report a weak sense of personal security. The primary reason cited is the high incidence of violence in Arab communities (63.1%), with the ongoing war also contributing to this feeling (24.6%). At the same time, 65.1% of respondents report a relatively good economic situation, and 57.8% believe the war has fostered a sense of shared destiny between Arabs and Jews in Israel. 

The Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation conducted the survey under the auspices of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation at TAU’s Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies (see full study here). 

Dr. Arik Rudnitzky, Project Manager of the Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation at the Dayan Center:  “The war between Israel and Hamas is the longest in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, this external conflict has affected attitudes and views within the Arab public, as well as relations between Arabs and Jews in Israel.  It appears, however, that under the dark shadow cast by the war over all citizens of Israel, both Arabs and Jews, meaningful bright spots are emerging, that could redefine the rules of the game in the post-war era. An unprecedented majority of the Arab public – almost 72% – support the inclusion of an Arab party in the government formed after the next elections. Moreover, the upheavals and turbulence in the Middle East in recent months – resulting not only from the direct war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon but also from the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria – have boosted the Arab citizens’ appreciation for their Israeli citizenship. This explains the prominence of Israeli citizenship in the personal identity of Arab citizens, as well as the notion that, over the past year, a sense of shared destiny has sprouted between Arabs and Jews in Israel. This does not mean that Arabs in Israel now ignore their Arab and Palestinian national identity, but it does form a clear statement from Arab citizens, signaling to both the authorities and the Jewish majority that they will willingly collaborate in the rebuilding of Israeli society and politics in the post-war era”.

The prestigious prize recognizes TAU innovations in statistical science.

On Dec. 3 the King Baudouin Foundation in Belgium awarded the prestigious Rousseeuw Prize in Statistics to Prof. Yoav Benjamini, Prof. Daniel Yekutieli, and Prof. Ruth Heller from the Department of Statistics and Operations Research at Tel Aviv University for their pioneering work on the False Discovery Rate (FDR). The $1 million prize, established as an equivalent of the Nobel Prize which does not include mathematical disciplines, recognizes outstanding contributions in statistics that profoundly impact science and society.

The ceremony was held at the Catholic University of Leuven, where protests by students and faculty members have called for a full academic boycott of Israeli universities. Outside the building where the ceremony took place, students distributed flyers advocating for a comprehensive boycott, similar to the policies adopted by other Belgian universities. Prof. Benjamini delivered a speech at the ceremony, emphasizing the importance of science as a bridge between societies. He called for the preservation of scientific collaborations, avoidance of boycotts, and protection of science from political interference. He also shared the story of the brutal kidnapping and murder of family friend Carmel Gat, noting the ongoing protests in support of a deal to release hostages and end the war, so far to no avail.

The prize was awarded to the researchers for their work enabling the scanning of numerous experimental results to identify meaningful findings while limiting the number of false discoveries.  In their groundbreaking paper, Prof. Yoav Benjamini and the late Prof. Yosef Hochberg introduced the False Discovery Rate criterion. They expressed it mathematically, proposing a method to maximize the number of identified discoveries while maintaining a desirable FDR. Initially clashing with prevailing criteria, their paper remained unpublished for years, but today it is among the most cited papers in science. Prof. Yekutieli and Prof. Heller, former students of Prof. Benjamini, have continued to innovate and expand the FDR methodology independently and collaboratively. Their work has extended the applicability of the Benjamini-Hochberg FDR approach beyond the original paper, enabling its use for challenges in genomics and neuroscience and proposing methods to assess the reproducibility of scientific findings.

Prof. Yoav Benjamini commented: “The idea of the FDR originated from the need of medical researchers to examine numerous factors indicating treatment success. However, in statistics, once a new method is established in one research area, its impact can expand to others. Indeed, FDR methods are now widely applied in diverse fields such as genomics—where relations between tens of thousands of genetic markers of a specific disease are examined; neuroscience – testing which regions in the brain are activated when a certain task, such as face recognition, is performed; agriculture, economics, behavioral sciences, astronomy, and more. What these fields share is the need to scan massive amounts of possible results within mountains of data to identify significant discoveries”.

TAU researcher receives top honor for innovation.

Prof. Dan Peer Vice President of R&D at Tel Aviv University was elected as a Fellow of the United States National Academy of Inventors (NAI). The appointment to the rank of NAI Fellow is the highest recognition given by the Academy, awarded to innovators whose inventions have had a decisive impact on quality of life, economic development, and social welfare.

The National Academy of Inventors counts over 1850 Fellows in 260 different institutions globally. The National Academy of Inventors was established in 2010 to recognize and encourage inventions covered by US patents.

Prof. Peer is a trailblazing scientist and a pioneer in harnessing RNA molecules as molecular drugs. His groundbreaking research focuses on developing RNA-based therapies to treat a wide range of diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease, cancers of the blood, brain, and ovaries, and rare genetic disorders. Prof. Peer also explores the potential of RNA molecules as vaccines for infectious diseases and designs nanometric drug carriers capable of selectively targeting specific cells.

Among his many achievements, Prof. Peer and his lab were the first in the world to demonstrate systemic delivery of mRNA molecules in animals, as well as the use of short RNA sequences to silence genes in immune cells. Recently, his lab became the first to develop an mRNA vaccine against bacteria. Additionally, his team was the first to demonstrate efficient, systemic, and cell-specific gene delivery in cancer.

Prof. Dan Peer.

In addition to his innovative research, Prof. Peer serves in several leading positions: TAU’s VP of R&D, a member of the National Academy of Engineering (USA) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Over the years, he has contributed to numerous groundbreaking inventions, with over 145 patents filed. Many of these have been commercialized through Ramot and licensed to various companies, some of which are currently in clinical trials. He has also founded several startups in Israel, the UK, and the USA.

NAI Fellow Selection Committee: “This prestigious honor recognizes Prof. Peer’s exceptional achievements as an inventor — his contributions have made a significant impact on innovation, economic development, and society’s welfare. Prof. Dan Peer’s election to the rank of Fellow reflects not only his accomplishments but also his dedication to advancing technology and fostering invention for the benefit of society”.

Prof. Peer: “I am very touched by the recognition of my work. The United States National Academy of Inventors is one of the most prominent bodies dedicated to encouraging inventors in academia, which gathers under its roof the best inventors, and the decision to choose me as a fellow is a great honor for me”.

Encouraging independent learning through an AI songwriting competition.

The Jaime and Joan Constantiner School of Education at Tel Aviv University recently hosted the SRL-VISION Competition, a groundbreaking event focused on creating songs using generative AI to explore innovative ways of fostering independent learning in education. This unique initiative was part of a course led by Prof. Anat Cohen, aiming to merge self-regulated learning (SRL) with the creative potential of generative AI tools. Students delved into research literature, developed practical ideas, and transformed them into imaginative songs.

And the Winner Is: “Positive Reinforcement”

The winning song, “Positive Reinforcement,” was chosen by a majority vote among the students. It emphasizes the importance of providing positive reinforcement in independent learning—benefiting both learners and educators.

This creative competition was part of the EffecTive Project, a collaborative initiative involving European universities to design programs that strengthen digital skills for teachers and teaching students. Guy Cohen, a PhD candidate assisting with the course, highlighted its purpose: “Our goal is to equip teachers and students with the tools they need to thrive in today’s digital world”.

Prof. Cohen elaborated: “The primary aim of this course is to promote meaningful and innovative learning through critical thinking and AI-driven tools. Students actively engage in exploring the strengths and challenges of these technologies while developing creative approaches to teaching and learning.”

The first-ever SRL-VISION competition.

For research on electromagnetic impacts in molecular systems under strong light-matter coupling.

The European Research Council (ERC) has announced the results of the 2024 ERC Synergy Grant Call. Among the funded projects is an international collaboration, coordinated by Tel Aviv University researchers and titled “Unravelling the Mysteries of Vibrational Strong Coupling” (UNMYST). The prestigious ERC Synergy grants are awarded to leading researchers in their fields across all areas of science, and it is intended to promote groundbreaking interdisciplinary research.

The UNMYST project is an international collaboration between leading experimental and theoretical groups, including Dr. Tal Schwartz and Prof. Sharly Fleisher from the School of Chemistry at Tel Aviv University, Prof. Abraham Nitzan, an emeritus of the School of Chemistry at Tel Aviv University and a Donner Professor of Physical Sciences in University of Pennsylvania, Prof. Thomas Ebbesen and Cyriaque Genet from the University of Strasbourg, France, Prof. Angel Rubio and Dr. Michael Ruggenthaler from the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Germany, and Dr. Dominik Sidler from the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland.

According to the project coordinator Dr. Tal Schwartz, the UNMYST project will explore how tailoring the electromagnetic environment influences chemical and physical processes in molecular systems in the so-called “strong light-matter coupling” regime. The researchers anticipate that the results of the project will establish fundamental insights into such novel phenomena, which will lead to future breakthroughs with far-reaching implications for chemistry and materials sciences.

“May the hostages come back, the wounded heal, and the displaced return to their homes”.

This week, we begin the 2024-5 academic year, against the backdrop of the bloody war that rages on, and while we still lack a clear sense of how this war will unfold, particularly in relation to Iran.

The anguish over the hostages weighs heavily on us all. It’s hard to believe that over a year after the horrific disaster of October 7, many hostages are still languishing in the hellish tunnels of Gaza, with the bodies of many others held there as bargaining chips. We cannot win this war without bringing everyone home. Added to this is the daily sorrow and mourning for our soldiers, including members of our university community, who have fallen or been injured while defending us, as well as for the civilians who have fallen victim to terrorist acts across Israel. Our concern for the soldiers on the front lines and the tens of thousands of Israelis in the South and North–who either remain vulnerably in their homes or were displaced by circumstances–is unrelenting.

Yet, we have no other country, and fight for it we must. This is what the parents and grandparents of many of us did even before the establishment of Israel, and now it’s our turn. Our extraordinary young generation, with so many risking their lives on the battlefield, places a weighty responsibility on us, the older generation. What are we doing, as a university, and what more must we do in this crucial period?

One of our primary tasks, both last year and this year, is to do everything in our power to ensure that the reservist soldiers studying with us, as well as students who are spouses of soldiers, can complete the academic year successfully. Last year, we provided financial, academic, and emotional support and we will continue to do so this year as well. The emergency fund we established with the help of friends of the university in Israel and around the world has greatly assisted us in this endeavor.

Second, we succeeded last year in containing tensions on campus triggered by the war while maintaining a democratic space and protecting the human and civil rights of everyone. Members of our university community, Jews and Arabs, left-leaning and right-leaning, are equally dear to us. Open and free discussion on any topic is the essence of academia, and we will uphold this principle this year as well.

Third, a primary mission we are focused on is bringing as many Israeli researchers studying abroad back to Tel Aviv University as we have done in previous years. These researchers represent the next generation of academia; they embody the scientific and humanistic pursuits without which we have no future. Israel may seem less attractive to some of them at present, but I am confident that we will weather this crisis and emerge stronger.

Fourth, the growing boycott of Israeli academia worldwide (BDS) affects us all. Universities across the country have united and are working collaboratively to mitigate the impact of the boycott through legal and other means. We’ve had some successes, but there is still a long way to go.

Fifth, from October 7 to this day, the university–as an institution and as a community–has been involved in numerous volunteer activities. Days after October 7, our community members volunteered in the South and North, both in their areas of expertise and in agriculture and other manual work. We will continue to do so this coming year, hopefully in collaboration with local authorities in the South and North. A few months after the war broke out, we established the Post-Trauma Center, treating hundreds of people, both civilians and soldiers. Here, too, the generous financial support of our friends in Israel and abroad has been invaluable.

Sixth, we will continue to defend academic freedom and the autonomy of universities in Israel against those who seek to harm them. Academic freedom is essential for free thought, intellectually challenging education, and groundbreaking research. Without these, we will become a third-world country. I assure you that I will protect our academic freedom as one of my most cherished values.

These are the special missions that characterize this period. But equally important:  last year, we carried on teaching and doing research as if – or almost as if – there were no war. We, the university and Israel as a whole, do not have the privilege to stop “producing” doctors, engineers, psychologists, social workers, scientists, and humanist intellectuals. Nor do we have the privilege to stop advancing research. This is the source of our resilience, the safeguard of our future, and we cannot forsake it, not in times of peace and certainly not in times of war.

I thank you all – academic and administrative staff – for your hard work this past year to meet the challenges we set for ourselves, and our friends in Israel and abroad – for your generous support of the University and Israel.  And to you, our students – thank you for your patience with us. We are doing our utmost so that you derive the maximum benefit, and hopefully some enjoyment, from studying at Tel Aviv University.

I wish you a successful year, and may peace and tranquility return to our land. May the hostages come back, the wounded heal, and the displaced return to their homes.

Yours always,

Ariel Porat

TAU President

Congratulations to Prof. Magaloni on winning the esteemed 2024 BMI prize.

The Faculty of Social Sciences at Tel Aviv University has announced that it is awarding the 2024 BMI Prize to Prof. Beatriz Magaloni from Stanford University, in recognition of her significant contributions to the study of authoritarianism. This esteemed prize is presented annually by the The Boris Mints Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions to Global Challenges and highlights the impact of a senior researcher’s work in specific academic fields.

Prof. Beatriz Magaloni is a distinguished scholar in political science, renowned for her groundbreaking research on autocratic regimes and their electoral processes. She holds the position of Graham H. Stuart Professor of International Relations and is a Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. Her work has become foundational in understanding multi-party autocracies, which are increasingly prevalent forms of governance globally.

Prof. Magaloni’s research addresses critical questions regarding why autocratic regimes opt for multi-party elections and the implications of these elections for democracy. She elucidates the nuanced threats posed by civilian leaders who ascend to power through electoral means rather than military coups, offering vital insights into electoral behavior and regime stability.

Throughout her career, Prof. Magaloni has published extensively in leading journals, including the American Political Science Review and World Development. Her work is widely assigned in graduate and undergraduate courses, shaping the academic agenda for studies in comparative politics.

The award will be presented to Prof. Magaloni at the joint BMI-University of Donja Gorica Conference in Podgorica, Montenegro, on November 25th.

For further information about Prof. Beatriz Magaloni and her research, visit her profiles on Stanford University and the Carnegie Endowment.

Congratulations to Prof. Yoav Benjamini, Prof. Daniel Yekutieli, and Prof. Ruth Heller for winning the prestigious Rousseeuw Prize for Statistics

The King Baudouin Foundation has awarded the prestigious Rousseeuw Prize for Statistics to Prof. Yoav Benjamini, Prof. Daniel Yekutieli, and Prof. Ruth Heller from the Department of Statistics and Operations Research at Tel Aviv University for their pioneering work on False Discovery Rate (FDR). The biennial $1m prize, inaugurated in 2022 and awarded in even years, honors outstanding innovations in statistical research that profoundly impact society.

The Prize was awarded to this year’s laureates for work that enables scanning large numbers of experimental results and selecting real discoveries while limiting the number of false discoveries. In their groundbreaking paper, Prof. Yoav Benjamini and the late Prof. Yosef Hochberg first presented the FDR criterion, expressed it mathematically, and proposed a method for identifying a maximum number of discoveries while maintaining a desirable FDR. At the time, this paper conflicted with widely accepted criteria, and consequently, its publication was delayed for years. Today, however, it is one of the most highly cited papers in the scientific world.

Prof. Benjamini was joined by his students Profs. Yekutieli and Heller who continued in his footsteps both together and separately, adding further innovations to the theory of FDR. Their work has enabled the extension of the Benjamini-Hochberg method’s uses beyond the original paper, applying it to challenges in genomics and neuroscience and proposing methods for assessing the reproducibility of scientific findings.

Prof. Yoav Benjamini: “The concept of FDR was born from a need in medical research, specifically studies examining large numbers of success parameters to evaluate new treatments. However, in statistics, a new approach established in one field of research can also impact other areas. Today FDR methods are applied in a wide variety of fields, such as genomics – where researchers investigate tens of thousands of genetic indicators for certain diseases; neuroscience – where studies look for parts of the brain activated by specific tasks, such as face recognition; and also agriculture, economics, behavioral sciences, astronomy and more. All these fields share a need to scan enormous quantities of possible results and ultimately find real discoveries in mountains of data”.

“I am pleased about the expressed appreciation for our research. Winning the Rousseeuw Prize is the outcome of a long process, planted and cultivated in Israel for many years, in a fertile academic substrate, that grew into the global world of science. I hope that even in these difficult times for Israel and the region, our societies will allow academia to sustain an open and healthy environment, enabling continued scientific growth that benefits mankind with no borders” – Prof. Benjamini

As published in “Haaretz” in Hebrew on July 6th, 2024. By Prof. Ariel Porat.

Today, the Ministerial Committee for Legislation will discuss a bill to amend the Council for Higher Education Law. This bill would enable the Council for Higher Education to instruct academic institutions in Israel to fire professors for making statements that, in its opinion, constitute incitement to terrorism or support for a terrorist organization. Any institution that does not comply, will be exposed to budget cuts. The bill makes apparent sense: incitement to terrorism or support for a terrorist organization are already punishable criminal offenses. The bill adds another punishment in the form of dismissal from work. Why, then, do the academic institutions in Israel, every single one of them, see it as an unprecedented threat to Israeli academia? What is all the fuss about? We are all against terrorism, aren’t we?

The bill may seem innocent enough, but two main features reveal its fascistic character and its aim to subjugate academia to government control.

First, the bill requires imposing severe punishment without a trial. In a democratic state, even murderers or rapists are not punished before they receive their day in court. But according to the proposed bill, an administrative body (the Council for Higher Education), which is often controlled by the Minister of Education, will be able to force an academic institution to punish professors by dismissing them because of a statement they made. This means a person might lose their livelihood without a trial!

Second, the person who will interpret and implement the law in practice is a politician, the Minister of Education, who is the Chair of the Council for Higher Education. The Minister of Education may suppose, for example, that a professor who expresses empathy towards the residents of Gaza or severely criticizes the IDF and its commanders is inciting terrorism. Although that is not the case, the Minister may instruct the head of the academic institution to fire the professor. (There are indeed ministers and members of the Knesset who are quick to define completely legitimate statements as incitement to terrorism.) The head of the institution will have to choose between a bankruptcy of values – firing a professor who did nothing wrong – and financial bankruptcy due to the expected budget cut that would be imposed on the institution for disobeying the Minister. Although it would be possible to apply to the court with a request to reverse the decision, the trial might take years, and in the meantime, the institution would suffer serious damage and may even collapse financially (since there may be several such cases). I know what my choice would be if I faced this dilemma.

There are two reasons why it is difficult to understand what has led to the initiation of this unfortunate bill. First, the bill deals with a problem that does not exist. There is not a single case in Israeli academia of a professor who incited terrorism (for a statement to constitute incitement to terrorism it needs to generate a substantial risk that a terrorist act might be committed; it is not enough for the statement to be outrageous, infuriating, or hurtful). And even if there were such cases, we have criminal law and the Minister of National Security who can launch a police investigation in response to incitement. Why then impose the role of the punisher on universities that do not have investigative bodies or the ability to weigh evidence as the police and the courts of law do?

The second reason is that the State of Israel is now facing its most difficult hour. The Prime Minister has recently claimed that Israel is at war on seven fronts. Just a few days ago, Iran has threatened to declare a war of annihilation upon Israel if we attack to the north; in the south and north of Israel, entire communities have been uprooted and need to return to their homes; the war is still raging in the south, and many hostages have not yet returned from Gaza. How is it, then, that amid all this, the Knesset and Israeli government see fit to handle the “urgent” problem of incitement to terrorism by university professors, a problem that does not actually exist?

There is no other option but to conclude that someone up there decided that now is the right time to deal with academia. It is from the academia that critics of the government emerge; it is from the academia that criticism of the legal reform came; and it is now time to settle the score. This is the eighth front that needs to be opened.

Members of the Knesset, coalition and opposition, I urge you: do not follow this legislation initiative blindly. It pretends to be innocent, but it will become a fatal blow to the independence of Israeli academia. Surely you don’t wish for an obedient academia that is subservient to the government, such as those found in totalitarian countries. Surely you don’t wish for an academia in which professors hold back their opinions, fearing to be misinterpreted. Surely you do not wish for an academia plagued by McCarthyism. Universities are not the enemy. Without an independent academia, we will not be the same, whether in the humanities, in science, or in the strength of our security. I ask that you to deal with the truly acute and existential problems that we face, rather than with those that someone has fabricated out of thin air.