The first meeting of the newly elected 25th Knesset’s Science and Technology Committee, on Monday, January 16, 2023, focused on the activity of The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. In his remarks to the committee and its chairperson, MK Ayman Odeh, Academy President Prof. David Harel presented the Academy’s structure and the tasks entrusted to it by law, dwelling on the diverse activities of the Academy in the areas of advising the government, advancing science, strengthening relationships with international scientific organizations, and making science accessible to the general public. He also recounted the process of the Academy’s establishment, noting the unique character of its integration of the natural sciences, the humanities, and the social sciences.

 

“At its core, the work of The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities involves advancing the status of research, education, higher education, and critical scientific thinking, and the determined pursuit of truth in all fields of science and knowledge – the natural sciences and the exact sciences and, to a completely equal extent, in the humanities and the social sciences.

 

“Our future as a modern country with right-minded values and a moral backbone rests, to a great extent, upon relevant research in all of the sciences and upon their accessibility to the general public. We maintain our assertion that no decent society can survive without basic knowledge of the assets of science, culture, and the intellect, and without passing them on to the next generation by means of good, egalitarian, and well-directed education.

 

“For my part, and in the name of The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, I promise that we will continue to fight for equal opportunities in science and research for everyone, with no discrimination on the basis of religion, race, political affiliation, or gender; and for all students, teachers, researchers, academics, and thinkers to retain the full freedom of thought required for a constant pursuit of scientific truth, based on healthy skepticism, facts, observations, and experiments, and on drawing conclusions by enduring, rational means,” Prof. Harel said.

 

Academy Vice President Prof. Margalit Finkelberg and Academy Director-General Galia Finzi also attended the session. Committee chairman MK Ayman Odeh also expressed his desire for cooperation with the Academy. He promised that he and the committee members would visit the Academy and its currently mounted exhibition, A Gathering Place of Scholars, later this year.

 

The session of the Knesset’s Science and Technology Committee, focusing on the activity of The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities

 

Academy President Prof. David Harel at the committee session. Photo: Noam Moskowitz/Knesset Spokesperson

 

From left: Academy President Prof. David Harel, Academy Director-General Galia Finzi, and Academy Vice President Prof. Margalit Finkelberg at the committee session

 

From left: Academy Vice President Prof. Margalit Finkelberg, Knesset Science and Technology Committee Chairman MK Ayman Odeh, Academy President Prof. David Harel, and Academy Director-General Galia Finzi, at the Knesset