Friday, December 3, 2010

Emergency Update from the JNF



Worst Fire in Israel's History

UPDATE:

The mood is not optimistic after more than 35 hours battling what is the worst fire in Israel’s
history, reports Hezy Levi, a Haifa region fire fighter who is on the scene.

“We are working around the clock,” said Levi, “and are receiving help from Greece, Cyprus,
Russia, Britain and Turkey, but we are short on supplies—firetrucks, hoses, extinguishing agents,
airplanes, you name it.”

Levi reported that 2 firefighters have died in addition to the 41 prison guards, more than 25,000
people have been evacuated, residential homes have been lost and more than 7,000 acres of forests
are on fire – about ½ of the Carmel Forest. Many people are being treated for burns and smoke inhalation.
“We have deployed all of Israel’s firefighters, from Eilat all the way up, but right now there is no end in
sight.”

They need your help. Israel’s firefighters are desperately short on supplies. JNF is the U.S. fundraising
arm of Friends of Israel Firefighters. To donate to the relief effort, and arm the firefighters with the protective
gear and equipment they need, go to www.jnf.org/fifdonate.



Donate Now Fire Button

To donate to the relief effort, and to arm the firefighters with the protective gear
and equipment they need, go to www.jnf.org/fifdonate.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Speech from Human Rights Watch Founder Robert Bernstein

Human Rights Watch's founder Robert Bernstein gave a fantastic speech at the University of Nebraska where he highlighted the growing hypocrisy of many human rights organizations and their treatment of issues related to Israel. Read it here.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

From our Friends at Canadian Friends of Peace Now

STATEMENT OF NOBEL LAUREATES ON ACADEMIC BOYCOTTS, DIVESTMENTS AND SANCTIONS (BDS)

STATEMENT OF NOBEL LAUREATES ON ACADEMIC BOYCOTTS, DIVESTMENTS AND SANCTIONS (BDS) ACTIONS AGAINST ISRAELI ACADEMICS, ISRAELI ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS AND ACADEMIC CENTERS AND INSTITUTES OF RESEARCH AND TRAINING WITH AFFILIATIONS IN ISRAEL
November 1, 2010


STATEMENT OF NOBEL LAUREATES ON ACADEMIC BOYCOTTS, DIVESTMENTS AND SANCTIONS (BDS) ACTIONS AGAINST ISRAELI ACADEMICS, ISRAELI ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS AND ACADEMIC CENTERS AND INSTITUTES OF RESEARCH AND TRAINING WITH AFFILIATIONS IN ISRAEL

Led by Nobel Laureates, Roger Kornberg, Stanford University, and Steven Weinberg, University of Texas at Austin, 38 Nobel colleagues have endorsed the following statement written under the auspices of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) regarding worldwide attempts to boycott, divest from or sanction Israeli academics, institutions, and research and training centers.

Of special concern are the continued threat of a boycott by the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, of Ben Gurion University in Israel, student government divestment efforts in the University of California system, an attempt to get signatures for the California Initiative to divest pension funds from companies doing business with Israel or Israeli companies, as well as the initiative to shut down the Georgia Law Enforcement and Education Center at Georgia State University which has training and research connections with similar institutions in Israel.

A central theme of the Nobel Laureates’ statement is:

“Academic and cultural boycotts, divestments and sanctions in the academy are:

* antithetical to principles of academic and scientific freedom,
* antithetical to principles of freedom of expression and inquiry, and
* may well constitute discrimination by virtue of national origin.”

Instead of fostering peace, these boycott and divestment efforts are likely to be counterproductive to the dynamics of reconciliation that lead to peace.

Professors Kornberg and Weinberg, with Professor Ed Beck, Walden University, President Emeritus of SPME and Chair of the SPME BDS Task force, have worked successfully together in the past with Nobel Laureates to fight and defeat BDS campaigns against Israeli academic institutions in the UK, the USA, and around the world.

Scholars for Peace in the Middle East is a grass roots network of more than 60,000 faculty and scholars on 4000 campuses all over the world. SPME envisions and strives for peace in the Middle East, and a world in which Israel exists within secure borders, and is at peace with her neighbors as they achieve their legitimate peaceful aspirations.

For Further Information Contact: Professor Edward S. Beck, ScholarsforPeace@aol.com  or 717.576.5038, Professor Sam Edelman, Executive Director, SPME, spmeexecdir@gmail.com  or 530.570.8137, Professor Peter Haas, President, SPME, pjh7@case.edu 
STATEMENT OF NOBEL LAUREATES ON ACADEMIC BDS ACTIONS AGAINST ISRAELI ACADEMICS, ISRAELI ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS AND ACADEMIC CENTERS AND INSTITUTES OF RESEARCH AND TRAINING WITH AFFILIATIONS IN ISRAEL
By Roger Kornberg, Stanford University and Steven Weinberg, University of Texas at Austin
Published in: A Project of the Scholars for Peace in the Middle East Task Force on Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions October 28, 2010

Statement of Nobel Laureates on Academic BDS Actions against Israeli Academics, Israeli Academic Institutions and Academic Centers and Institutes of Research and Training With Affiliations in Israel 

Believing that academic and cultural boycotts, divestments and sanctions in the academy are:

* antithetical to principles of academic and scientific freedom,
* antithetical to principles of freedom of expression and inquiry, and
* may well constitute discrimination by virtue of national origin,

We, the undersigned Nobel Laureates, appeal to students, faculty colleagues and university officials to defeat and denounce calls and campaigns for boycotting, divestment and sanctions against Israeli academics, academic institutions and university-based centers and institutes for training and research, affiliated with Israel.
Furthermore, we encourage students, faculty colleagues and university officials to promote and provide opportunities for civil academic discourse where parties can engage in the search for resolution to conflicts and problems rather than serve as incubators for polemics, propaganda, incitement and further misunderstanding and mistrust.
We, and many like us, have dedicated ourselves to improving the human condition by doing the often difficult and elusive work to understand complex and seemingly unsolvable phenomena. We believe that the university should serve as an open, tolerant and respectful, cooperative and collaborative community engaged in practices of resolving complex problems.


Sidney Altman
Yale University
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1989

Lawrence Klein
University of Pennsylvania
Nobel Prize in Economics, 1980

Kenneth Arrow
Stanford University
Nobel Prize in Economics, 1972
Walter Kohn
University of California Santa Barbara
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1998

Robert J. Aumann
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Nobel Prize in Economics, 2005
Roger D. Kornberg
Stanford University
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2006

Mario Capecchi
University of Utah
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2007
Harold Kroto
Florida State University
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1996

Aaron Ciechanover
Technion
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2004
Finn Kydland
University of California Santa Barbara
Nobel Prize in Economics, 2004

Claude Cohen-Tannoudji
École Normale Supérieure
Nobel Prize in Physics, 1997
Leon Lederman
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Nobel Prize in Physics, 1988

Robert Curl
Rice University
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1996
Tony Leggett
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Nobel Prize in Physics, 2003

Edmond H. Fischer
University of Washington
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1992
Robert Lucas, Jr.
University of Chicago
Nobel Prize in Economics, 1995

Jerome Friedman
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Nobel Prize in Physics, 1990
Rudolph A. Marcus
California Institute of Technology
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1992

Andre Geim
Manchester University
Nobel Prize in Physics, 2010
Roger Myerson
University of Chicago
Nobel Prize in Economics, 2007

Sheldon Glashow
Boston University
Nobel Prize in Physics, 1979
George A. Olah
University of Southern California
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1994

David Gross
University of California Santa Barbara
Nobel Prize in Physics, 2004
Douglas Osheroff
Stanford University
Nobel Prize in Physics, 1996

James Heckman
University of Chicago
Nobel Prize in Economics, 2000
Martin L. Perl
Stanford University
Nobel Prize in Physics, 1995

Avram Hershko
Technion
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2004
Andrew V. Schally
University of Miami
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1977

Roald Hoffman
Cornell University
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1981
Richard R. Schrock
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2005

Russell Hulse
University of Texas Dallas
Nobel Prize in Physics, 1993
Phillip A. Sharp
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1993

Tim Hunt
London Research Institute
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2001
Steven Weinberg
University of Texas at Austin
Nobel Prize in Physics, 1979

Daniel Kahneman
Princeton University
Nobel Prize in Economics, 2002
Elie Wiesel
Nobel Peace Prize, 1986

Eric Kandel
Columbia University
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2000
Torsten Wiesel
Rockefeller University
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1981

Sunday, October 31, 2010

An Night with Phillipe Karsenty

A Night with Philippe Karsenty
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Library and Archives Canada 
Main Auditorium
7:00 PM
Philippe KarsentyPhilippe Karsenty, internationally known media analyst and founder of Media-Ratings, a media watchdog which monitors the media in France and who exposed the false allegations that Israeli soldiers killed a 12-year old Palestinian, Mohammed al-Dura during a gun battle in Gaza in 2000.

Following Mr. Karsenty’s reporting that France 2, a French television network, had broadcast staged footage of the alleged killing, Mr. Karsenty was sued for libel by the network. He succeeded in having a lower court judgment overturned by the Paris Court of Appeal in May 2008.

Karsenty was born in France. When he was 26, he set up a share-trading company on the Paris Bourse and continued to work as a broker until 1997.  In 1996, he set up a business consultancy, and in 2002, ran for Parliament on a center-right ticket, losing to Nicolas Sarkozy. In 2008, he was elected Deputy Mayor of Neuilly.

Please join us for this M. Karsenty’s incredible presentation. Q&A session will follow his presentation, and then please join us for a reception outside the main auditorium.


Thursday, October 28, 2010

A Special Lecture from 'Engage' Founder David Hirsh

Engage was created to arm people with arguments and facts that they could use to counter the propaganda of the boycott campaign within the British Association of University Teachers. Engage grew from a being a resource for that particular campaign into being a resource that aims to help people counter the boycott Israel campaign in general, as well as the the assumptions and misrepresentations that lie behind it.


David Hirsh, the founder, will be giving the Israel Affairs Committee an exclusive look at the trends and patterns in the BDS movement, as well as teaching some of his best tools to respond. 


Please email israelaffairs@hillelottawa.ca if you are interested in attending.


This exclusive session is sponsored by the CIJA University Outreach Committee and is a part of the Israel Awareness Committee's Israel Awareness Month.

Israeli-Palestinan Relations: What's Next? with Asaf Romirowsky

Asaf Romirowsky

Middle East analyst Asaf Romirowsky will be discussing the future of Israeli-Palestinian relations, with a focus on the contrast between the bilateral and unilateral actions taken by each side to achieve the ever elusive dream: peace.




Location: Carleton U, Southam Hall (SA) 515
Date: Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010
Time: 6pm
Cost: Free to students, faculty and community members

Cameralogo.jpg
A part of the Israel Awareness Committee's Israel Awareness Month

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Ottawa IAC Does Movember

November is Israel Awareness Month, but it's also "Movember!" 


The 'Stache of David    




Movember is an annual month-long event that raises money for prostate cancer research and spreads awareness about men's health issues. The "Mo" in Movember is for moustache, which we all grow for the duration of November.

Can't grow a moustache? Doesn't matter! You can sign up and join your teammates in raising money for Prostate Cancer Canada.

While this campaign hasn't made it to Israel, Israel has made great contributions to the fight against cancer. Israel is a world-renowned technological innovator, and this is especially true in the development of cancer-fighting technologies and pharmaceuticals. The Israel Cancer Research Fund is one example thereof, and throughout the month, we'll be highlighting Israeli organizations and innovations making the difference in the fight against cancer.

Click HERE to register to be a part of our team or to donate to IAC's team, "Stache of David." Once you've done that, join the facebook group here.




Israel in the Media with Neil Lazarus at U of O

A part of the Israel Awareness Committee's Israel Awareness Month.

Israel in the Media with Neil Lazarus at Carleton

A part of the Ottawa Israel Awareness Committee's Israel Awareness Month.

ISRAEL AWARENESS MONTH

Israel Awareness Month is almost here, and more details will be posted soon!