UPDATE: Following the publishing of the report below, which was composed based on Israeli media reports, the Palestine Chronicle was contacted by an Earth Fund spokesperson, who stated the following: “We are exploring opportunities, including in Israel, but no decision or commitment was made to establish a center.”
Tel Aviv’s genocidal war on Gaza has led to the Bezos Earth Fund declining to invest in establishing a center for food technology in Israel, Israeli media reported.
According to Calcalistech, an Israeli technology news site, the Technion – Israel Institute for Technology and the Hebrew University had responded to a call for proposals by Bezos Earth, the climate fund of Jeff Bezos, last year.
Last week the research teams were informed that “given the uncertainty around the war at the current time, such a large and significant grant for a Bezos Center is not a viable option for us in the current situation.”
Bezos Earth planned “to invest $30 million in a new center, along with $70 million that would be invested by the university chosen to set up the center. That is, a total of $100 million for the center over a five-year period,” Calcalistech reported.
Jeff Bezos' climate fund pulls out $30 million investment from Israel https://t.co/jRmd438H0d
COWARD
— Nevergiveup (@Nevergi95414627) April 24, 2024
‘Loss for Israeli Research’
The report said Israeli universities “reacted to the news with understandable disappointment.”
“This is a loss for Israeli research and innovation … If until now we have seen the humanities and social sciences suffer because of the war, this is the first time that we have encountered such a blatant refusal due to the war,” Professor Benny Chefetz, head of the Department of Soil and Water Sciences of the Hebrew University, reportedly said.
“The email we received describes the most simple and cruel way the reality of Israeli academia and research these days: people don’t want to invest in Israel at this time and this also raises concerns going forward.”
The Technion, the report said, “does not discuss private correspondence publicly.”
Over 34,356 Killed
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 34,356 Palestinians have been killed, and 77,368 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
