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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Academic freedom with love

The Ahava cosmetics company is being targeted in England again. This time, it is only indirect. The London Museum of Natural History has come under fire for partnering with Ahava to study nanoparticles.
More than a dozen scientists, some from leading British universities, wrote an open letter with film-makers Mike Leigh and Ken Loach calling on the Natural History Museum in London to stop working with Israel's Ahava, which makes skincare products from Dead Sea minerals.

The group said Ahava works on Israeli-occupied land on the West Bank, "where it extracts, processes and exports Palestinian resources to generate profits that fund an illegal settlement."

The company denies that claim and says it takes minerals from Israeli waters.

Ahava is based in Israel but has a center in Mitzpe Shalem, an Israeli settlement close to the shores of the Dead Sea.

...

London's Natural History Museum is a lead partner in the four-year study, funded by the European Commission, into nanomaterials, substances at the atomic scale which are used in a range of industries.

The project, called NanoReTox, aims to identify potential risks to the environment and human health posed by the tiny man-made materials.

Ahava and nine other research bodies are also taking part, including the United States Geological Survey, Kings College London and Imperial College London.

Pro-Palestinian campaigners have previously targeted shops around the world that sell Ahava's skin products.

The Natural History Museum's Director of Science Professor Ian Owens said Ahava were experts in the analysis of nano-particles and had been approved as a partner by the European Commission.

"We work within the legal and policy boundaries established by politicians and policymakers, and would not participate in any academic or educational boycotts that could restrict academic freedom," Owens said in a statement.
These people seem to be willing to kill themselves to avoid working with Israeli companies. Sometimes, I wish they would.

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5 Comments:

At 11:30 PM, Blogger Juniper in the Desert said...

Mike Leigh, the bloated self-hating jooo, and Ken Loach, the anti-semite and IRA terrorist lover: what a lovely pair!!

 
At 12:09 AM, Blogger Red Tulips said...

This is ridiculous. Palestinians themselves work in Ahava factories and sell Ahava products. The BDS crowd is more anti-Israel than Palestinians!

 
At 12:20 AM, Blogger Empress Trudy said...

As I've said over and over - Israel needs to increase the royalty licenses for all research and intellectual property going to all institutions, academic entities, and nations by a factor of 10 or 20. They are free to boycott they are free to condemn. Do whatever they like. But if they want any benefit to flow from that work they should pay through the nose until they bleed. All engineering, all medicine, all drugs, all IT. All of it. This way the wonderful noble morally better people of the UK can burn all the Israeli flags they like. If they need medical help after that, they can get that too. They just have to pay obscenely for it. And then of course they can scream about how the Jews bilked them which is what they do anyway.

 
At 1:04 AM, Blogger Findalis said...

I have been boycotting all British products. Whatever they are.

 
At 2:09 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I actually forgot Ken loach and Mike Leigh were different people. The only time I hear about either is when criticising Israel. I actually was surprised they were two different individuals.

 

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