Technion’s 100 year anniversary dinner

Protest at Israel Institute of Technology 100 year gala event: “no to celebration of genocide”

Stop the War of Palestine will lead a protest tonight outside an event being held in Sydney by the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) to mark its 100 year anniversary.

Speakers at the event include an IDF soldier reporting on experiences fighting in Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza. Also featured is an Israeli war-hawk, David Weinberg, from The Institute for National Security & Zionist Strategy. His speech is titled “Israel’s Resilience and Determination to Win”.

The protest is being supported by staff and students from UTS and Sydney University, institutions which both have formal partnerships with Technion.

Technion is closely integrated with the Israeli weapons industry, doing research for major companies such as Elbit systems and Rafael which are currently profiting from the genocide.

Protestors are demanding that Australian universities cut all ties with Technion and that the Albanese government places sanctions on Israel.

After weeks of preparing for the protest, organisers learned today that Technion will hold the event at the Great Synagogue on Castlereagh Street in Sydney. Organisers say that holding a pro-genocide event at a place of worship is an attempt to hide the content of the event and avoid protest, but that they will proceed with a rally across the road to press demands for sanctions on Technion.

Antony Lowenstein, an independent journalist, author of The Palestine Laboratory and on the Advisory Committee of the Jewish Council of Australia, says, “Any Australian university partnering with Israeli higher universities complicit in the Israeli defence sector are legitimate targets of protest and could be potentially legally liable for war crimes being committed in Palestine, Lebanon or beyond. Australian university bosses are reminded that there’s no hiding the brutal reality of Israel’s endless occupation of Palestine and mass slaughter in Gaza.”

Lowenstein adds, “The weapons Israel uses in these illegal and immoral conflicts are directly tied to Technion and its R&D departments. Whitewashing these gross violations of human rights is shameful and many Jews around the world, myself included, stand in direct opposition to them. Holding this event in a synagogue should not distract from what’s being said in a Jewish house of worship, a celebration of Israeli militarism and violence.”

Paddy Gibson, an historian and member of UTS Staff for Palestine said: “Technion has been an essential part of the Israeli war machine since it helped produce weapons for the Nakba, the murderous mass expulsion of Palestinians from their lands in 1948. Technion is holding a celebration of genocide in Sydney tonight. It is shameful that Australian universities are formally partnered with this institution, that works every day to build the technology Israel is using to slaughter Palestinians and bringing soldiers engaged in genocide on a speaking tour. The Albanese government should be placing sanctions on Israel, but university staff will not wait. I was one of many National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) national councillors who recently resolved for a full academic boycott of Israel and the union is supporting our demands for Australian universities to cut ties with Israel.”

Adam Adelpour, from Stop the War on Palestine, says, “Holding this event in the Synagogue is an attempt to present Technion’s anniversary as a Jewish event. It’s not. Our protest is directed at Technion’s complicity with the Israeli state perpetrating starvation and a genocide in Gaza that has been condemned by the International Criminal Court.”

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