Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and the values of science
DOI: 10.1063/PT.4.0353
Consider the international physics project SESAME —Synchrotron light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East—and consider the future of the region cited in its name.
But first, consider what Ismail Serageldin, director of Egypt’s Library of Alexandria , offered at the end of his commentary in last week’s Science under the headline “The Values of Science.”
At the end, Serageldin emphasized that science “is open to all, regardless of nationality, race, religion, or sex.” He stressed that the “values of science are universal values worth defending, not just to promote the pursuit of science but to produce a better and more humane society.” And he finished by declaring: “Together, all armed with these values, we can think of the unborn, remember the forgotten, give hope to the forlorn, include the excluded, reach out to the unreached, and by our actions from this day onward lay the foundation for better tomorrows.”
Great stuff. But as with the Web site Nature Middle East , his geographical and cultural frame of reference—the Arab countries—excluded Israel.
Maybe that makes all the more encouraging this blurb from “The week in science ” in the 16 June issue of Nature:
A US$110-million synchrotron seems to be on track for construction in Amman, Jordan—surviving a global recession, political upheaval and the assassinations of two members of the project’s Iranian delegation. The Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East (SESAME) project has received commitments from Israel, Iran, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority to provide funding as long as two further nations commit funds—as Egypt and Turkey are expected to do. Chris Llewellyn Smith, a physicist at the University of Oxford, UK, and president of the SESAME council, says that he is ‘confident’ that the project will deliver its first three beamlines by 2015.
Israel and the Palestinian Authority collaborating in a major science project?
SESAME says of itself that it’s “modeled institutionally on CERN,” the multinational European accelerator laboratory, that it’s intended to “foster scientific and technological excellence in the Middle East and neighboring countries,” and that it will “build scientific and cultural bridges between neighboring countries and foster mutual understanding and tolerance through international cooperation.” It includes Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan, the Palestinian Authority and Turkey.
Israel and the Palestinian Authority collaborating in a major science project? Salman M. Salman of the Palestinian Authority chairs SESAME’s finance committee. The authority reportedly plans an in-kind contribution of up to $2 million. Israel is providing $1 million this year and in each of the next four.
Smith, closed a recent SESAME council meeting with this statement: “It is a remarkable tribute to the spirit of cooperation in pursuit of a common goal which underwrites the project, that SESAME is progressing so well during a time of external turbulence.”