EXCLUDE THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY FROM ALL EU GRANTS, PRIZES AND FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS (The Hebrew University has strong links to the Israeli armament industry and the military.)
Please urge Carlos Moedas, EU Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation to respect the EU guidelines and rescind present grants and exclude the Hebrew University from all future grants, prizes and financial instruments.
TAKE ACTION HERE (read appeal letter following): http://www.palestinematters.com/Exclude-the-Hebrew-University-from-all-EU-grants-prizes-and-financial-instruments_Appeal_3137.aspx
APPEAL
H.E. Carlos Moedas,
EU Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation
Your Excellency
RE: Excluding the Hebrew University from EU grants, prizes and financial instruments
As you are aware, in 2013, the EU established legal guidelines “on the eligibility of Israeli entities and their activities in the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967 for grants, prizes and financial instruments funded by the EU from 2014 onwards”…
Their aim is to ensure the respect of EU positions and commitments in conformity with international law on the non-recognition by the EU of Israel”s sovereignty over the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967…
by not providing said grants, prizes and financial instruments to Israeli entities and their activities in the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967.
Reprehensibly, your predecessor, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, displayed a laissez faire flexibility to the Israeli violations of the Geneva Conventions in Palestine allowing grants to arms manufactures Elbit and Israel Aerospace Industries that profit from Israel”s monstrous wars on trapped Palestinian families in Gaza.
The Hebrew University has taken “part in 237 projects under an EU multi-annual scientific research program, which ran from 2007 to 2013″.
In your speech, Addressing shared challenges through Science Diplomacy” in Jordan on 13 April 2015, you discuss science diplomacy:
Science diplomacy is as much about innovation in economic policy, as it is about neighbourhood policy, or even foreign policy. We no longer live in a world where one country can stand alone.
There are a number of scientific and research areas where the EU and the Middle East can, and must, work together:
“¢ Conflict prevention and resolution,
“¢ Regional stability and security,
“¢ Cultural and religious understanding,
“¢ Energy and food security,
“¢ Water security, health and climate change.
In everyday survival in Palestine, Israel has perpetrated war crimes, under the Geneva Conventions, in each of the 5 areas you mentioned with the aid of R & D in Israeli Universities and particularly the Hebrew University that has expanded its Mount Scopus property over the illegal 1967 territory.
“”In 1968, Israel ordered the confiscation of 3,345 dunums of Palestinian land in the environs of Mount Scopus (a dunum is 1,000 square meters or a quarter of an acre). Hebrew University has expanded into that land.
The EU”s position ignores how a large part of Issawiyeh, a Palestinian village neighboring Mount Scopus, has been expropriated in order to host dormitories and other facilities for students at Hebrew University.” Electronic Intifada
The Hebrew University has strong links to the Israeli armament industry and the military.
“Hebrew University has kept on lending its support to Israel”s acts of genocide.
When Israel attacked Gaza in the summer of 2014, the university undertook a fundraising drive so that soldiers taking part in the offensive could be offered scholarships.” Electronic Intifada
Michael Federman is chairman of the Hebrew University and chairman of the Federman Group which owns Elbit, Israel”s largest private arms manufacturer. Elbit”s complicity in the destruction of Gaza has been documented,
Use of Elbit’s equipment in Gaza
Elbit Hermes drones were one of the two main unpiloted aircraft used to attack people in Gaza during Israel’s 2009 Operation Cast Lead attack which killed over 1,400 Palestinians, According to Human Rights Watch (HRW).. “The Hermes can stay aloft for up to 24 hours at altitudes of up to 18,000 feet and has an array of optical, infra-red, and laser sensors that allow the operator to identify and track targets as well as to guide munitions in flight. The Hermes carries two Spike-MR (medium range) missiles.”
Further, HRW reports that the Hermes drone is equipped with a camera system which allows the drone pilot to see if a person is armed or if they are a child or an adult. The drone’s missiles are also equipped with cameras and can be diverted up to the last second. This means that Israel’s drone pilots and their commanders would have known that they were targeting civilians and are culpable for war crimes carried out by Elbit drones. HRW has also called for the disclosure of camera footage shot by Hermes drones, to assist in the investigation of war crimes.iii Needless to say, this request has not been granted.
The assassination of Hamas commander Ahmed Jabari, which precipitated Israel’s 2012 Pillar of Cloud assault on Gaza, was carried out by an Elbit Hermes 450 drone according to Defence Today.v
Elbit’s 7.5 Skylark mini-UAV, operational in the Israeli Army since 2008, was heavily used for support of ground military actions in Israel’s 2014 attack on Gaza, Operation Protective Edge, which killed 2,191 Palestinians. The Hermes 450s and 900s were also used throughout this attack.
I strongly urge you to respect the EU guidelines and rescind present grants and exclude the Hebrew University from all future grants, prizes and financial instruments including Horizon 2020- the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with nearly €80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020).
Sincerely
