23.02.23
Editorial Note
The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) will hold a workshop in Israel between 11 to 14 March 2023. Titled “Mechanisms of Neuronal Remodeling,” it will take place in Kibbutz Nahsholim. According to the invitation, the workshop is “essential for establishing functional nervous systems across species. Remodeling involves specific elimination of existing connections, typically followed by strengthening of surviving synapses or even axon regrowth to develop new, adult-specific connections. While altered remodeling has long been suspected of contributing to neuropsychiatric conditions, such as autism, schizophrenia, and ADHD, studies only recently established firm molecular similarities between such disorders and developmental remodeling. Moreover, the mechanisms involved in developmental remodeling appear to be reiterated in neurodegeneration and during regeneration. Despite these significant advances in the field, many important questions remain open and will be discussed.”
The workshop will also discuss topics such as “Cell biological mechanisms and signaling pathways that control remodeling. Pathways activated in different paradigms and across species. Types of remodeling in circuit formation and its impact on learning and memory. Contributions of non-neuronal cells during remodeling. Neuron-neuron and tissue-neuron interactions during remodeling. Mechanisms of regrowth during development remodeling and post-traumatic regeneration?
The published list of speakers includes: Aakanksha Singhvi Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center | US; Andrew Chisholm UC San Diego | US; Asya Rolls Technion | IL; Avraham Yaron Weizmann Institute of Science | IL; Cagla Eroglu Duke University | US; Claude Desplan New York University | US; Debra Silver Duke University | US; Elly Tanaka Institute of Molecular Pathology | AT; Guillermina López-Bendito Instituto de Neurociencias UMH-CSIC | ES; Hongyan Wang Duke–NUS Medical School | SG; Jaeda Coutinho-Budd University of Virginia | US; Laura Andreae Kings College London | UK; Laura Cancedda Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia | IT; Laurent Nguyen University of Liege | BE; Lora Sweeney Institute of Science and Technology Austria | AT; Marco Terenzio Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology | JP; Oliver Hobert Columbia University | US; Oren Schuldiner Weizmann Institute of Science | IL; Peri Kurshan Albert Einstein College of Medicine | US; Stefanie Schirmeier Technische Universität Dresden | DE; Susana Cohen-Cory UC Irvine | US; Thomas Misgeld TUM/DZNE | DE; Timothy Mosca Jefferson University | US; Dietmar Schmucker Universität Bonn | DE.
However, the Palestinian BDS Movement is trying to sabotage the workshop. A letter was circulated by the Palestine Academy for Science and Technology (PalAST) calling on the EMBO to refrain from “holding workshops in Israel until its apartheid regime has been dismantled” and to uphold its “moral obligation to end its complicity in whitewashing Israel’s crimes.”
Particularly egregious are the Palestinians’ claims that the workshop’s location is “particularly offensive to us as Palestinians.” Because it is close to “the site of a massacre and a mass grave.” According to the Palestinians, “In May 1948, during the ethnic cleansing of Indigenous Palestinians from our homeland, the Israeli army attacked the Palestinian village of Tantura. After seizing the village, Israeli soldiers gunned down as many as 200 unarmed captive Palestinian civilians. The testimony of Israeli soldiers present at the massacre, which was featured in a recent documentary, shows the savagery with which the soldiers acted. ‘They put them into a barrel and shot them in the barrel.’ Following the massacre, the bodies of the slaughtered Palestinians were buried in a mass grave. In June 1948, just weeks after the massacre and after expelling the remaining Palestinians from Tantura, Zionist settlers took over Palestinian homes, renaming the village Nahsholim. Today, the mass grave is located under the beach parking lot. This is where EMBO plans to hold its “Mechanisms of neuronal remodeling” workshop. Neither Tantura is the only site of a massacre committed by the Israeli regime, nor are massacres relegated to history.”
To those unfamiliar with the history, the fighting in Tantura was part of the 1948 war when the Palestinians and their Arab allies were confident they could win after rejecting the 1947 UN Partition Plan. In the ensuing fighting, large Arab and Palestinian forces were deployed against the small Jewish army. Tantura, located on the main road between Haifa and Tel Aviv, was the scene of a fierce battle between the two sides. The Palestinian “Nakba” was self-inflicted and caused the Jewish Yishuv to lose one percent of its population. This tragic act of war that the Palestinians and their Arab allies instigated harmed both people, Israelis and Palestinians.
The gross misrepresentation of the Tantura battle is just one example of the continuous misinformation used by the Palestinians to push their BDS campaign.
The Palestinian letter to the EMBO also states, “In just the past year and a half, Israel has carried out two extensive military assaults on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, killing hundreds, including more than 80 children, injuring thousands, and destroying vital infrastructure. Gaza, with its 2 million Palestinian residents, has been under a brutal 15-year illegal Israeli siege. EMBO’s partners in these workshops are deeply complicit in Israel’s ongoing crimes against Palestinians.”
The BDS movement represents the decades-old fixation with victimhood that prevented the Palestinians from solving the conflict, even when the Oslo Accords and Camp David II presented a fair solution. The BDS rhetoric obscures that Iran, the main supporter of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), has cardinally opposed ending the conflict. In the eschatology of the Islamist regime, liberating Jerusalem is thought to be the prelude to the return of the Hidden Imam. Theology aside, by aligning itself with the Palestinians, the Shiite regime has bolstered its bona fides in a Sunni region. The Quds Force (QF), the foreign division of the Revolutionary Guards, had trained and equipped Palestinian jihadist suicide bombers to undermine the Oslo Accords. When Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2006, QF helped to turn the area into a heavily armed proxy against the so-called “Little Satan,” the Iranian name for the Jewish State.
Hamas and the PIJ have run a brutal and corrupt regime that subjugates its people. “Whispered in Gaza,” a recently clandestinely produced documentary, uncovers the lives of Palestinians under their Iranian-supported masters. The BDS would be well-advised to watch it to discover what real suffering means.
References:
https://meetings.embo.org/event/23-neuronal-remodelling
EMBO Workshop
Mechanisms of neuronal remodelling
11 – 14 March 2023 | Kibbuz Nahsholim, Israel
About the Workshop
Developmental neuronal remodelling is essential for establishing functional nervous systems across species. Remodelling involves specific elimination of existing connections, typically followed by strengthening of surviving synapses or even axon regrowth to develop new, adult-specific connections. While altered remodeling has long been suspected of contributing to neuropsychiatric conditions, such as autism, schizophrenia, and ADHD, studies only recently established firm molecular similarities between such disorders and developmental remodeling. Moreover, the mechanisms involved in developmental remodelling appear to be reiterated in neurodegeneration and during regeneration. Despite these significant advances in the field, many important questions remain open and will be discussed at this meeting.
Specific topics that will be covered in this workshop include:
- Cell biological mechanisms and signaling pathways that control remodelling.
- Pathways activated in different paradigms and across species.
- Types of remodelling in circuit formation and its impact on learning and memory.
- Contributions of non-neuronal cells during remodelling.
- Neuron-neuron and tissue-neuron interactions during remodelling.
- Mechanisms of regrowth during developmental remodelling and post-traumatic regeneration?
About EMBO Courses and Workshops
EMBO Courses and Workshops are selected for their excellent scientific quality and timelines, provision of good networking activities for all participants and speaker gender diversity (at least 40% of speakers must be from the underrepresented gender).
Organisers are encouraged to implement measures to make the meeting environmentally more sustainable.
Speakers
Aakanksha SinghviFred Hutchinson Cancer Center | US
Andrew ChisholmUC San Diego | US
Asya RollsTechnion | IL
Avraham YaronWeizmann Institute of Science | IL
Cagla ErogluDuke University | US
Claude DesplanNew York University | US
Debra SilverDuke University | US
Elly TanakaInstitute of Molecular Pathology | AT
Guillermina López-BenditoInstituto de Neurociencias UMH-CSIC | ES
Hongyan WangDuke–NUS Medical School | SG
Jaeda Coutinho-BuddUniversity of Virginia | US
Laura AndreaeKings College London | UK
Laura CanceddaIstituto Italiano di Tecnologia | IT
Laurent NguyenUniversity of Liege | BE
Lora SweeneyInstitute of Science and Technology Austria | AT
Marco TerenzioOkinawa Institute of Science and Technology | JP
Oliver HobertColumbia University | US
Oren SchuldinerWeizmann Institute of Science | IL
Peri KurshanAlbert Einstein College of Medicine | US
Stefanie SchirmeierTechnische Universität Dresden | DE
Susana Cohen-CoryUC Irvine | US
Thomas MisgeldTUM/DZNE | DE
Timothy MoscaJefferson University | US
Dietmar SchmuckerUniversität Bonn | DE
Programme
Day 1 | 11 March 2023
Day 2 | 12 March 2023
Day 3 | 13 March 2023
Day 4 | 14 March 2023
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https://www.palast.ps/en/news/palestinian-scientists-urge-embo-relocate-workshops-apartheid-israel-including-site-tantura-masscare
https://bdsmovement.net/news/palestinian-scientists-urge-embo-relocate-workshops-from-apartheid-israel-including-site
Palestinian Scientists Urge EMBO to Relocate Workshops from Apartheid Israel, Including at Site of Tantura Massacre
February 16, 2023 / By Palestine Academy for Science and Technology (PalAST) /The Palestine Academy for Science and Technology (PalAST) calls on the European Molecular Biology Organization to uphold its “moral obligation to end its complicity in whitewashing Israel’s crimes” by refraining “from holding workshops in Israel until its apartheid regime has been dismantled.”
On the 19th of January 2023 and after finding out that the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) was organizing multiple workshops in Apartheid Israel, Palestine Academy for Science and Technology (PalAST) sent the following letter to the organizing board:
As Palestinian scientific and academic societies and unions, we note with grave concern that the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) is planning three workshops in apartheid Israel. We urge EMBO to immediately relocate these workshops to any other country that is not committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Israel’s illegal settlement regime in the occupied Palestinian territory is considered a war crime under international law.
The EMBO workshops include “Bacterial cell biophysics: DNA replication, growth, division, size and shape” (11–15 December 2022), “The 20S proteasome degradation pathway” (8–12 January 2023), and “Mechanisms of neuronal remodelling” (11–14 March 2023).
Holding any of the EMBO workshops in apartheid Israel as it continues to deny the fundamental rights of millions of Palestinians will, regardless of intentions, contribute to prolonging Israel’s well-documented crimes against Palestinians.
Prominent human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Israeli NGO B’Tselem, have all found Israel guilty of the crime against humanity of apartheid, as have UN experts.
The last workshop’s scheduled location is particularly offensive to us as Palestinians. While whitewashed as “beautiful” and “secluded” on “Israel’s most beautiful stretches of beach” in an area of “serenity and tranquility,” it is in fact the site of a massacre and a mass grave.
In May 1948, during the ethnic cleansing of Indigenous Palestinians from our homeland, the Israeli army attacked the Palestinian village of Tantura. After seizing the village, Israeli soldiers gunned down as many as 200 unarmed captive Palestinian civilians. The testimony of Israeli soldiers present at the massacre, which was featured in a recent documentary, shows the savagery with which the soldiers acted. “They put them into a barrel and shot them in the barrel.”
Following the massacre, the bodies of the slaughtered Palestinians were buried in a mass grave. In June 1948, just weeks after the massacre and after expelling the remaining Palestinians from Tantura, Zionist settlers took over Palestinian homes, renaming the village Nahsholim. Today, the mass grave is located under the beach parking lot. This is where EMBO plans to hold its “Mechanisms of neuronal remodelling” workshop.
Neither Tantura is the only site of a massacre committed by the Israeli regime, nor are massacres relegated to history. They are our everyday lived experience. In just the past year and a half, Israel has carried out two extensive military assaults on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, killing hundreds, including more than 80 children, injuring thousands, and destroying vital infrastructure. Gaza, with its 2 million Palestinian residents, has been under a brutal 15-year illegal Israeli siege.
EMBO’s partners in these workshops are deeply complicit in Israel’s ongoing crimes against Palestinians. Ben-Gurion University (BGU), for example, hosts the Homeland Security Institute whose partnerships include Israel’s top weapons companies and the Ministry of Defense.
The Weizmann Institute offers an MA program tailored specifically for active duty soldiers and recently opened a pre-military academy that will prepare high school seniors for “meaningful military service.”
The US-Israel Binational Science Foundation funds research in illegal Israeli settlements built on militarily occupied Palestinian land in violation of international law.
This past March, EMBO endorsed a statement by seven national science academies just days into Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, defining it as “an assault on the fundamental principles of freedom, democracy and self-determination, which provide the basis for academic freedom and opportunities for scientific exchange and cooperation.”
By the same standard, EMBO must also recognize Israel’s decades-long regime of military occupation and apartheid as an assault on Palestinian freedoms and right to self-determination, and refrain from holding workshops in Israel until its apartheid regime has been dismantled, as was South Africa’s.
EMBO has a moral obligation to end its complicity in whitewashing Israel’s crimes. We urge EMBO to respect this obligation by relocating the upcoming workshops. We further call on speakers not to participate, if the workshops go ahead as planned.
There is no “serenity and tranquility” atop a massacre’s mass grave.
(PalAST will keep its fellow academics updated regarding any replies from EMBO)
An initial posting of this letter mistakenly included an incorrect image. PalAST took immediate steps to remove it and apologize for any offense that it has caused.
This does not take away from the well-documented case of the Tantura massacre as mentioned in our letter.
israel-academia-monitor.com 