Letter to Ben Gurion University administration demands firing of professor who says IDF troops execute infants.

By World Israel News Staff

More than one thousand Israeli students at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba are calling for the firing of a professor, who claimed on social media that IDF soldiers murder infants.

Dr. Sebastian Ben-Daniel, a computer science lecturer who uses the moniker John Brown on X, has made a number of incendiary comments against the Israeli military in recent weeks.

Statements from Ben-Daniel’s account include “IDF soldiers are baby killers because they were raised to be baby killers,” and that “IDF soldiers are murderers” whom only “The Hague can hold the accountable.”

“We, the signatories of the attached letter, students at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, condemn and oppose the defamatory and unfounded statements that accuse us and our military comrades of infanticide,” read a letter demanding Ben-Daniel’s firing, written by the Zionist watchdog group Im Tirtzu.

The letter was signed by 1,153 students.

“On October 7, we enlisted to defend the State of Israel and its citizens after the terrible massacre carried out by the terrorist organization Hamas,” the letter continued.

“We will not agree to the continued employment of a lecturer who echoes anti-Semitic propaganda. We call on you, the university president, to dismiss him immediately.”

Ben-Gurion University President Professor Daniel Haimovitch responded to the letter on his Facebook page, stating that the school was taking the matter seriously.

“Unfortunately, in recent days the university has found itself at the heart of a public storm following the exposure of the offensive and false statements of an outside lecturer against IDF soldiers,” Haimovitch wrote.

“These are offensive, libelous statements that deeply hurt our students, our faculty and all members of our community/ We have forwarded the matter to the relevant authorities for further processing. From now on, the duty of responsibility for his actions and their meaning lies with him… We cannot – and will not – remain silent in the face of statements of this kind.”

Notably, the statement did not specify possible consequences for Ben-Daniel, including whether he would be fired.

“Dr. Ben Daniel is invited to move to teach at Berkeley or Columbia University in the U.S., where his antisemitic views will be accepted,” Ernest Ivanitzky, student coordinator for Im Tirtzu at Ben-Gurion University, said in a media statement.

“He has no place in Israeli academia, he should be fired immediately. His statements are a slap in the face of the students who are forced to study with him. A disgrace.”

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Researchers at Ben Gurion University look to the reversal of ‘desertification’ in the Negev, hoping to find the key to combating climate change.

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Apparently fearing negative publicity, especially with the attendance of an MK, BGU finally allowed the event to proceed.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

A newly sworn-in MK from the Religious Zionism party lit candles on the campus of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in memory of the victims of the deadly Ariel terror attack on Tuesday, less than a day after the university’s staff had deemed the commemoration a “political provocation.”

Hours after a Palestinian terrorist murdered three Israeli civilians in a stabbing and ramming attack, Im Tirtzu activist and Ben-Gurion University student Clara Bensoussan organized a candlelight vigil to honor the victims.

But university administrators said that Bensoussan’s memorial could not be held on campus, calling it a “political event” that must be cleared with staff at least two days in advance.

After Bensoussan told media about the university’s position, the educational institution released a statement charging that she was attempting to “take advantage of the attack to incite a provocation.”

MK Almog Cohen, of the Otzma Yehudit faction within the Religious Zionism party, joined Bensoussan and supporters at the campus on Wednesday morning. Apparently fearing negative publicity, BGU allowed the event to proceed.

Cohen, who was sworn into the Knesset on Tuesday, said “he took advantage” of his new immunity as an MK and was proud to light candles for “the uplifting of the souls of the martyrs from [yesterday’s] terrible attack in Ariel. May they rest in peace.”

In a statement Wednesday morning, Bensoussan slammed the university for suggesting that she had an ulterior motive for the vigil and expressed her offense at the claim that demonstrating solidarity for Jewish victims of terror is inherently provocative.

“We cannot be allowed to be slandered by the spokeswomen of the university,” she responded in a statement. “The attempt to claim that I tried to incite provocation, just because I wanted to light candles, indicates an emotional [ignorance]. I immigrated from France, I served in [the Border Police], and I did it proudly for the State of Israel.

“I dreamed of the moment when I could study at an academic institution in Israel without fear of expressing my national identity,” she said.

“It is not clear how, out of all people, the spokeswoman of the university chose to issue a statement that I tried to take advantage of the attack. Those who are afraid of any basic expression of national identification – need to hold themselves accountable.”

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The iGEM competition for university students showcases practical projects in synthetic biology that can help humanity.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Three Israeli teams are contending in a worldwide competition for university students that showcases projects that can help humanity via genetic engineering.

Over 350 teams are participating in the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Foundation’s “Grand Jamboree” being held Tuesday through Thursday in Paris, France.

The multidisciplinary group from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology has designed a new way to prevent hair loss caused by chemotherapy. In the project, called Angel Roots, the 12 synthetic biology students engineered a lab version of a molecule, Decursin, that appears in nature in the root extract of a rare seasonal flower that grow exclusively in China and Korea.

Decursin is known for having many beneficial properties, including the abilities to suppress inflammation, repress cancer, and prevent apoptosis – or programmed cell death, which includes hair cells. Until now, it has been produced in a low-yielding, polluting and overly expensive process.

The ability to generate Decursin economically in industrial quantities and add it to hair care products such as shampoos and creams could thus be a game-changer in improving the quality of life of cancer patients who often suffer from hair loss due to their treatments.

Ben Gurion University’s seven-strong group has developed a biosensor called Asensa for rapid and simple monitoring of amino acids among those suffering from a genetic, life-threatening illness called Maple Syrup Urine Disease (due to the odor emitted when the level of acids rises too high).

Diet helps control the illness, but the amino acid level must be constantly checked through blood tests. The team’s simple and accessible device, linked to a smartphone app, aims to measure their levels in a non-invasive way, through other bodily fluids such as urine, sweat or saliva.

Tel Aviv University’s 11 students will be presenting a tool they developed called Triggate, which can help design mRNA molecules through computational models and algorithms. This technology could help in developing novel vaccines and cancer therapies that one day could even be personalized for individual patients.

The prestigious iGEM competition was founded in 2004 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to give students, mainly undergraduates, a chance to experience scientific and applied research in the world of synthetic biology. In 2019, the Technion team won gold for developing an innovative technology for the production of honey without bees using a genetically engineered bacterium.

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The government’s decision was made in order to grow more local talent, as many are pushed out and go abroad to study, sometimes never to return.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

This coming academic year will mark the last class of new foreign medical school students who will graduate from Israeli universities, as the Ministry of Health has decided that its priority is to groom local talent from 2023 onwards.

“There was no choice,” Ben Gurion University (BGU) President Prof. Daniel Chamovitz told The Jerusalem Post. “We need more Israelis to study medicine here.”

The number of physicians trained has not kept up with the country’s population growth, with Israel ranking near the bottom of doctors per capita among OECD countries, especially in the periphery, the Post noted.

The move is not totally unexpected, given that the Council for Higher Education had recommended it already in 2018. A significant number of Israeli students who study abroad do not return.

The decision will open 130 more spaces annually in BGU, Tel Aviv University (TAU) and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, which have run English-language schools for decades, mainly filled with American and Canadian students.

The Health Ministry also intends to increase the number of classes over the next three years to 300, which would mean 1,200 new Israeli doctors will graduate per year rather than the current 900.

The decision poses a challenge for the Israeli schools in that American students pay the same amount of tuition as they would in their home country, which is approximately $40-50,000 annually. In contrast, medical school in Israel, subsidized by the government, is only about NIS 13,000 ($4,000) per year for Israeli students.

According to the website Doctors Only, it was the sharp drop in revenue that led the Israeli universities to oppose the move until now.

As agreed upon by the Finance Ministry, the Israeli medical schools will therefore receive compensation of NIS 58,000 per student.

TAU’s program, established 45 years ago, is the most venerabled. Its executive dean, Dr. Stephen Lazar, was not enthused by the decision, as reflected in a letter he sent to the current crop of foreign students, the Post reported.

Calling it a “political decision,” he said that the school’s “graduates have been ambassadors for Israel, and they showcase the excellence of medical education at Israeli institutions. Demonstrated successful cooperation of medical institutions in the U.S., Canada and Israel were not considered in this political action.”

Chamovitz’s predecessor, Prof. Rivka Carmi, pointed to a different problem that has yet to be addressed.

“There is a shortage of physicians and a lack of hospitals and professors available for clinical teaching,” she told the Post. “The lack of hospitals for clinical teaching is the bottleneck. A second hospital, in addition to Soroka-University Medical Center, is planned for Beersheba, but that will be built in a decade, if we’re lucky.”

The only hospital built in Israel in the last 40 years was Samson Assuta in Ashdod, which opened its doors in 2017.

“It was the right decision not to accept foreign medical students in the future. I think there is no choice but to be in favor, if you think of the needs of Israel. I say this with a heavy heart,” she added.

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Lawmakers noted that the Palestinian Authority bans flying the Israeli flag.

By Aryeh Savir, TPS

A majority of the members of the Ministerial Committee for Legislation voted on Sunday in favor of a proposed bill that would ban the hoisting of the Palestine Liberation Organization flag in Israeli universities.

The bill banning the hoisting of an enemy flag, including that of the PLO, in places budgeted or supported by the state, was put forward by opposition MK Eli Cohen (Likud).

The bill was presented following a series of recent events in which Israeli campuses were overwhelmed by students marching with PLO flags. The events lamented Israel’s existence by marking the Nakba and included marches with PLO flags, calls for terrorism during student protests, calls for revenge, and calls for another Intifada.

A majority of seven ministers voted in favor of the proposal, and two ministers, Tamar Zandberg from Meretz and Nachman Shai from Labor, voted against it.

Minister Zeev Elkin, the committee’s chair, noted that terror victims and others are offended or intimidated by the flag. He noted that terror victims were offended by the flag because the PLO transfers stipends to terrorists who committed attacks against Israelis.

He also noted that in the Palestinian Authority, it is illegal to fly an Israeli flag.

The bill will pass on the plenum for its first reading later this week.

The Knesset’s Education, Culture, and Sports Committee held a heated debate last Monday on the topic of “Freedom of expression, incitement and violence on campuses,” following the latest pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel events at universities.

A student from Tel Aviv University, Orit Eliyahu, told the meeting’s participants that Jewish students “are going through a very difficult period. There are people who live with me in the dormitories and decided to return to living with their parents because they’re afraid.”

“Raising a PLO flag, an enemy flag, has become a routine thing, but it’s frightening to raise an Israeli flag. On Yom KaZikaron (Memorial Day), the Arab students laughed at us for standing still during the [memorial] siren. Arab students who sit with us in lectures tell us that they want to murder us, and a day afterward they sit next to us in the lecture hall. We’re trembling with fear,” she shared.

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By David Hellerman, World Israel News

Israeli officials denounced a pro-Palestinian rally held at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba on Monday.

Arab students waved Palestinian flags and sang nationalist songs while Jewish students held a counter-demonstration. The opposing demonstrations were kept separate by police and no violence was reported. Non-students were prevented from entering the campus.

The rally came after the university administration refused to permit rally on May 15, the day Palestinians mark as Nakba Day.

Beersheba mayor Ruvik Danilovich denounced the rally as a “disgrace.”

In a letter to university president Daniel Chamovitz, the mayor wrote, “The Palestinian flag is being proudly raised and songs sung praising Israel’s enemies whose only desire is to destroy it.”

The letter also called on Chamovitz to “make a clear statement about the matter.”

Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton said the Council for Higher Education, the supervising body Israel’s universities and colleges, would look into the rally as potential incitement.

“The images we saw this morning are unbelievable,” she said.

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Madrigal Mental Care’s nano-formulation enables nose-to-brain delivery of biodegradable nanoparticles carrying psychedelics such as psilocybin.

By Abigail Klein Leichman, Israel21c

Israeli biopharmaceutical company Madrigal Mental Care is developing a novel nasal spray to deliver psychedelic drugs to the brain for treating and preventing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The nanotechnology-based delivery system will be introduced at the Biomed Israel 2022 international Life Science and HealthTech conference in Tel Aviv, May 10-12.

It is estimated that approximately 3.5% of American adults had PTSD in the past year.

Treatment traditionally includes psychotherapy as well as medications that affect the neurotransmitters serotonin or norepinephrine (SSRIs and SNRIs). The remission rate, however, is high.

The experimental spray contains biodegradable nanoparticles encapsulating molecules of psychedelic substances such as psilocybin (the active ingredient in “magic mushrooms”), ketamine, mescaline and MDMA (Ecstasy).

“An increasing number of studies point to the advantages of using psychedelic drugs for the treatment of psychiatric disorders such as PTSD, depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and even addiction, with low doses,” said the system’s inventor, Prof. Amnon Sintov of the department of biomedical engineering at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU).

“Due to their powerful effect on the human brain, it is imperative to be able to deliver these drugs in a safe manner and precise doses,” he said.

The technology was licensed to Madrigal Mental Care by BGN Technologies, the tech-transfer company of BGU.

David Gabay, cofounder and chairman of Madrigal, said the system provides “a significant advantage over common practices in terms of stability and accuracy.”

So far, the psilocybin doses have been tested on inflamed brain cell cultures in lab studies carried out by Prof. Shimon Ben-Shabat from BGU’s department of biochemistry and pharmacology.

“We are currently beginning pre-clinical trials with rodents with the aim of achieving efficacy and safety approvals in order to begin first-in-human clinical trials next year,” said Gabay.

“There is a vast need for better treatments for PTSD and other mental disorders,” noted Galit Mazooz Perlmuter of BGN Technologies. “We have filed a patent application to protect this unique approach.”

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“Our model indicates there could be another outbreak of Delta or another coronavirus variant this summer.”

By David Hellerman, World Israel News

A new paper published by researchers at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev warns that the Delta variant of the coronavirus may make a comeback even as other Omicron variants fizzle out in the next few months.

While Delta wiped out the variants that preceded it, Omicron has not eliminated Delta, according to Prof. Ariel Kushmaro and Dr. Karin Yaniv. Their findings were just published in the peer-reviewed journal Science of the Total Environment.

Prof. Kushmaro’s lab team developed sensitive arrays capable of differentiating COVID variants from each other in wastewater. Wastewater continues to give indications of where the coronavirus is active, even as diagnoses of people based on PCR and rapid testing decrease.

The team monitored Beersheba’s sewage from December 2021 to January 2022. The two-month study paid special attention to the interaction between the Omicron and Delta variants.

After building a model with Prof. Rony Granek, also of Ben-Gurion University, the researchers predicted that Omicron is dying out while Delta “bides its time.”

“Of course, there are a lot of factors involved, but our model indicates there could be another outbreak of Delta or another coronavirus variant this summer,” warned Prof. Kushmaro.

According to the latest Health Ministry figures, Israel is dealing with 21,543 active cases of COVID-19 of which 185 are considered serious. Since the pandemic’s breakout, Israel has reported 10,698 deaths. World-wide, COVID has claimed more than 6.2 million lives.

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Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev discover a novel treatment, giving renewed hope to head and neck cancer patients.

By World Israel News Staff

Israeli scientists and researchers have been at the forefront of extensive studies and cutting-edge treatments of cancer over the past several decades.

Most recently, researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have discovered a innovative treatment with the potential to significantly help patients suffering from advanced head and neck cancer (HNC), the university announced in a press release Sunday.

Cancer is the main cause of death in Israel, according to Israel’s Ministry of Health. Universities, medical centers and labs nationwide have taken a forefront lead in developing innovative protocols and research to help advance the treatment of cancer.

The research, published in the “Journal for Immunotherapy of Cancer” on March 15, shows that the treatment reduces the proliferation of tumor cells while activating and strengthening the immune system. The treatment blocks the hyper-activation of a specific cell-signaling pathway that is found in over 40% of HNC patients.

Professor Moshe Elkabets, head of the laboratory in the Faculty of Heath Sciences of Ben-Gurion University, where the newly published research was conducted, said that the results of the research provide hope for HNC patients. 

“We sincerely hope that oncologists will test this treatment combination in HNC patients, as improving immunotherapy efficacy is crucial for prolonging the survival of cancer patients,” he said.

Israeli scientists have long taken significant steps in the fight against cancer. In 2018, researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology successfully treated a cancerous tumor using artificial, synthetic cell technology, published in the medical magazine, “Advanced Healthcare Materials.”

Barcode Diagnostics, a start-up company founded by Professor Avi Schroeder, is a personalized cancer drug screening that focuses on delivering medicine through nanotechnology directly to the organ in need of treatment.

According to Innovation Israel, Professor Schroeder believes that mankind will have a solution for most types of cancer-related problems by 2030. 

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Israeli scientists from the Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba have successfully trained a goldfish to navigate a small wheeled platform on land. According to the study, the fish “were able to operate the vehicle, explore the new environment, and reach the target, regardless of the starting point, all while avoiding dead-ends and correcting location inaccuracies.”

I am excited to share a new study led by Shachar Givon & @MatanSamina w/ Ohad Ben Shahar: Goldfish can learn to navigate a small robotic vehicle on land. We trained goldfish to drive a wheeled platform that reacts to the fish’s movement (https://t.co/ZR59Hu9sib). pic.twitter.com/J5BkuGlZ34

— Ronen Segev (@ronen_segev) January 3, 2022

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After treatment, depressive symptoms were reduced on several measurement scales.

By TPS

Depressed patients who received oxygen-enriched air treatment for a month found their symptoms improved, according to a new proof-of-concept study by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researchers.

Fifty-five patients were divided into two groups: The first was treated with oxygen-enriched air, 35% oxygen, and the other with room air with 21% oxygen for 7-8 hours per night over the course of a month. After treatment, depressive symptoms were reduced on several measurement scales.

“As a proof-of-concept, our results are promising. Increasing the fraction of oxygen in the inhaled air reduces symptoms of depression,” said lead researcher Dr. Abed N. Azab, “Of course, there is much more to discover. Would longer treatments be even more beneficial? Would higher oxygen concentrations better improve symptoms or not?”

“Importantly, the administration of oxygen was safe and did not cause adverse effects” Azab underscored.

The oxygen was administered under normal atmospheric conditions, which avoided the inherent dangers of hyperbaric chambers.

Abnormal cellular energy metabolism due to functional deficiency in oxygen supply and/or mitochondrial dysfunction may lead to alterations in neuronal function, plasticity and brain circuitry.

The Oxygen enriched air may increase oxygen pressure in brain tissue and have biochemical effects.

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The scientists say that their new model can help calibrate vaccine deployment and social distancing.

By TPS

Ben Gurion University of the Negev announced that its scientists have constructed a model that policy makers can use to simulate their choices and find the optimal decisions about how to allocate vaccines and what sort of social distancing to mandate to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our model can tell you, for instance, whether it makes more sense to vaccinate the elderly and demand more social distancing from adults or vice versa,” said Dr. Shai Pilosof of the Department of Life Sciences in the Faculty of Natural Sciences.

The scientists say that their new model can help calibrate vaccine deployment and social distancing. For example, according to their model, vaccinating the elderly and imposing social distancing mandates on adults is generally more effective than forcing the elderly to stay home and vaccinating the adults.

“The current COVID-19 global situation demands a multi-layered response. Vaccines are an essential component but it is clear that different contexts such as population characteristics and vaccine availability, together with the dynamic changes in disease spread, demand crucial decision-making on strategies and priorities. Our model can be applied by different countries to simulate and optimize responses,” said Prof. Nadav Davidovitch, chair of the Israeli Public Health Physicians Association and a member of the Israeli National Expert Committee on COVID19.

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In the latest example of how the Abraham Accords are changing the Middle East, leading universities in Israel and Morocco are teaming up in one of the first formal educational collaborations between the countries.

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Findings underline importance of mental health support for medical professionals dealing with the pandemic.

By TPS

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers have discovered patterns of significantly decreased joy, increased sadness, fear, and disgust among health care professionals (HCP) in the largest social media study to track emotional changes and discourse during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

In the study, a multidisciplinary BGU team analyzed more than 53,000 HCP tweets from followers of several hundred Twitter accounts of healthcare organizations and discerned common HCP points of interest.

The most significant topics HCPs discussed during the pandemic were COVID-19 information, public health and social values, medical studies as well as daily life and food. Approximately 44 percent of their discourse was about professional topics during the entire 2020 year.

The groundbreaking research implemented data-driven approaches for analyzing social media networks and showed they are helpful as a method for exploring professional health insights during both routine clinical situations and emergencies.

“Our findings, which track increasing sadness and decreasing joy, should be a warning to health organizations of the importance of better mental health support to help HCPs cope with the emotional consequences of the pandemic,” said Dr. Rami Puzis, of BGU’s Software and Information System Engineering Department (SISE), and Dr. Odeya Cohen, of the Department of Nursing.

“Most interestingly, HCP tweets expressed greater levels of fear just prior to pandemic waves in 2020. This indicates that many HCPs, beyond those working in epidemiology, observed, and were adequately qualified to anticipate pandemic development,” they added.

Puzis noted that “This suggests that decision-makers could benefit from investing additional resources into listening to the broader HCP community to track and anticipate bottom-up pathways for developing health crises.”

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Abnormally configured proteins were found to accelerate breakup  of the brain’s neurotransmitters.

By TPS

Abnormally configured proteins known as myloid plaques may cause Alzheimer’s disease by accelerating the breakup of neurotransmitters, Ben-Gurion University scientists have found. It is the first study to show that amyloid fibrils made of the well-known “beta-amyloid” protein catalyze neurotransmitter degradation.

While amyloid plaques are the hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases, it is still not clear if, and how, such plaques contribute to disease progression and its pathological implications. The BGU study offers an alternative explanation of how the plaques “poison” the brain by breaking up important neurotransmitters such as dopamine and adrenaline.

The research was led by Prof. Raz Jelinek and Ph.D. student Elad Arad, in collaboration with Prof. Hanna Rapaport and Avigail Baruch Leshem.

The researchers discovered remarkable catalytic activity that was directly caused by beta-amyloid fibrils, not non-fibril organizations of the protein.

Importantly, neurotransmitter degradation has been observed in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients, suggesting that the fibril-catalysis phenomenon discovered by Jelinek and colleagues may indeed be physiologically significant.

“Our findings open intriguing new avenues of research into the molecular factors in neurodegenerative diseases that could bring us closer to therapeutic treatments,” said Jelinek, the Vice President and Dean of Research & Development at BGU.

An estimated 50 million worldwide suffer from Alzheimer’s.

World Israel News contributed to this report.

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