The judicial reform in Israel poses danger to democracy and academic freedom
The Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) shares the concerns of many other scientific organizations that the planned judicial reforms in Israel may restrict academic freedom within Israel and its scientific collaborations with other countries. Freedom is indeed the major achievement of human civilization, and democracy and science are certainly their main pillars.
Science has recently acquired an extra value, which is more political in nature, and has emerged to be a key instrument for the integration of countries in a single, modern world. FEBS firmly believes that scientists from all its Constituent Societies should be able to collaborate and support each other in the pursuit of science for the benefit of humankind, without any barriers, and endorses the crucial need for an inclusive, multidisciplinary and unified voice from the entire scientific community.
FEBS was privileged to have this important problem brought up during its very recent 47th Congress in Tours, France, and strongly supports the importance of preserving academic freedom in Israel. FEBS had hosted its 42nd Congress in Jerusalem in 2017, which illustrated Israel’s well-established reputation and stand in life sciences research.
Founded in 1964, the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) has become one of Europe’s largest organizations in the molecular life sciences, with over 30,000 members across 39 biochemistry and molecular biology societies in different countries of Europe and its neighbouring regions, including the Israel Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ISBMB) – a member society of FEBS since 1965. FEBS as a grass-roots organization provides a voice to a major part of the academic research and teaching community in Europe and beyond, including Israel.
Find out more about FEBS’ organization and governance.
