With great sorrow, we announce the death of Master Sergeant (res.) Dov Moshe Kogan Z”L. He was a graduate student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He was killed in battle in the Gaza Strip last Thursday; at the age of 32. The Technion family mourns his loss and shares in the profound grief of the family. May his memory be blessed.
Following a careful evaluation of the current situation, which remains largely unchanged at this time, the Technion campuses will resume regular operations in line with the Home Front Command’s guidelines. This includes the possibility of remote work, subject to the approval of department heads.
There is a strong focus on active and socially contributive engagement. The Center for Community Involvement is open and continues to warmly welcome participants.
In light of the Home Front Command’s instructions, which remain unchanged, the activities tomorrow, Thursday, 9.11.23, will continue as planned.
For our reservists – The Technion announced today that it will provide assistance of NIS 6,000 to students who were drafted by “Order 8” for “Operation Iron Swords” and have served for more than 30 days. The grant is intended for tuition fees, Technion dormitory rent, and ancillary tuition payments.
This financial grant is in addition to a series of benefits and concessions that the Technion has already granted to reservist students in the past month. For details >> https://www.technion.ac.il/?p=55744
We are here for you; in light of the situation, a special telephone hotline has been opened for the Technion family. You are invited to receive up-to-date information on campus events and to share with us volunteer initiatives and contributions to the community. Call: internal 5500, or 073-3785500.
The Technion will provide assistance of NIS 6,000 to all students who were mobilized by an emergency call-up order for ‘Operation Swords of Iron.’ The grant is intended for tuition fees, dormitory rent at the Technion, and other related payments to the tuition.
“2500 students left everything behind and were mobilized by an emergency call-up order, to ensure our right to a life of security and tranquility in this country,” said Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan. “It’s important that each and every one of them knows that the entire Technion community is mobilized and harnessed for their sake. For their benefit, we established a special assistance fund together with friends of the Technion in Israel and around the world, and today we announced that each of them will receive a grant of NIS 6,000. This assistance, which adds to a series of support measures we have already taken, will provide them with a financial envelope and some peace of mind during these tumultuous days. Also, from an academic standpoint, we are preparing to make their return to campus studies as smooth as possible. We are very proud of you, our reserve soldiers, we trust you and look forward to your safe return home.”
The financial grant will be given to those who served in the reserves following an emergency call-up order for at least 30 cumulative days, starting from October 7 until the beginning of the semester. It is intended for undergraduate and graduate degree students and for students who have been accepted to the Technion in the academic year 2023-2024.
The financial grant is in addition to a series of grants and benefits that the Technion has already provided to reserve soldier students in the last month since the outbreak of the war:
Full exemption from rent payment for October and November for reserve soldier students residing in dormitories and their spouses.
Postponement of the opening of the academic year 2023-2024: The academic year will only open when the release process of reserve soldiers begins and not before December 3, 2023.
“Soft landing back in class” – a two-week organizational program before the opening of the academic year to make the return to routine as easy as possible, including gap bridging.
A special package of academic exemptions for students serving in the reserves, which will be granted by the Undergraduate and the Graduate Schools.
Emotional support and guidance counseling.
Special financial assistance for reserve soldier students and their families (in addition to deferring tuition payments and continuation of fellowships for graduate degrees).
Reserve Soldiers –
To receive the grant, please fill out the form at the following link (Hebrew) and attach the draft order and proof of actual reserve duty days.
For further details or questions, please contact Dr. Janna Shainsky, Office Head for the Dean of Students, by email at dir-dean@technion.ac.il
Thirty solemn days of mourning have elapsed since that fateful Saturday, October 7—a day when everything came to a standstill. Today, the Technion held a memorial ceremony to honor the memories of those who were tragically murdered and to remember our fallen. You can view the ceremony at: https://youtu.be/YIXHFK83jk0.
Our hearts go out to the families grieving the loss of their loved ones, and to the families of those abducted or held captive, who await the hopeful news of their release.
In light of the current situation assessment and adhering to the directives of the Home Front Command, activities on the Haifa campuses on Tuesday, November 8, 2023, will proceed as they did today. This includes the provision for remote work, subject to managerial approval, where necessary.
We continue to operate in an ’emergency routine,’ striving to maintain regular campus activities while being prepared for emergencies and responsive to any changes in the Home Front Command’s directives. In the coming days, emergency response drills will be coordinated with the campus security unit and conducted across various academic departments and units. It is crucial for everyone to familiarize themselves with the locations of the nearest protected spaces to their offices. We urge you not only to read the provided list but to personally visit the relevant areas to ensure you can reach them within the timeframes prescribed by the Home Front Command.
For a directory of security rooms and shelters on campus, please visit: https://bit.ly/46geCBg.
Today, the Technion emergency response team, along with a Home Front Command unit, conducted a rescue drill at a specialized training facility.
The security unit’s call center is operational around the clock at 04-829-2222. For more information, visit: https://bitahon.technion.ac.il.
Following the events in the Kiryot area earlier tonight, we have conducted thorough consultations and situation assessments. In compliance with the Home Front Command’s ongoing directives and considering the normal activity in the Haifa region, we confirm that the Technion will operate tomorrow, Tuesday, 7.11.2023, under the same procedures as today.
We will retain flexibility for remote work, which will be granted on a case-by-case basis by managers, should specific circumstances arise that warrant it.
Should there be any new developments this evening, we will provide further updates.
The Public Affairs and Resource Development (PARD) division, in collaboration with Technion Societies worldwide, has launched a vital mission: a fundraising campaign to support our students and staff mobilized for service, their families, and enhance the security infrastructure on our Haifa campuses. We stand proudly with our student soldiers, their families, and all the staff affected by this war, offering our unwavering support.
This assistance goes beyond financial aid; it signifies a collective outpouring of love, compassion, and unity. Your generous contribution to this emergency fund not only supports these exceptional students but also strengthens campus safety, renovates shelters and safe rooms, and provides essential equipment.
We are orchestrating a comprehensive range of support for our students, staff, and the entire Technion community. This includes immediate assistance, such as rent subsidies and food packages, along with counseling services for reservists, their partners, and all members of the Technion’s student body. Additionally, academic tutoring and emotional support are being provided to help everyone cope with the pressures they face. We are also offering essential economic support, through special grants, for students in need. To enhance the safety and security of our campus, we are hiring additional security personnel and supporting on-campus childcare services. Furthermore, we are proactively stocking campus bomb shelters with emergency provisions and allocating funds for immediate renovations of existing shelters.
Support this urgent campaign by making a tax-deductible gift through your local Technion Society:
Last week, the Technion was privileged to host Dr Qanta Ahmed, physician specializing in sleep disorders, journalist, and public commentator. Dr Ahmed first visited the Technion in 2013, after contacting then-Technion President Peretz Lavie. In 2015, she was awarded a Technion Honorary Fellowship “in tribute to her tireless and courageous battle for human rights in the Muslim world, and to her vigorous opposition to radical Islam and to antisemitism, and in gratitude for her friendship to the State of Israel and the Technion”.
“I came here not in a professional capacity, but as a human being, to show solidarity, and to bear witness to the atrocities committed by Hamas,” Dr Ahmed said. “We have a responsibility to bear witness, so no doubt can be cast that these crimes happened.”
Dr Qanta Ahmed
Wearing blue and white, Dr Ahmed spoke for a full hour of what she had witnessed: in Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the Kibbutzim where Hamas massacred citizens; in Shura Base, where bodies of the victims are still being identified; and in the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute, where experts are examining fragments of teeth and bone so as to be able to update families not knowing whether their loved ones were abducted or killed.
“This was not ‘yet another terrorist attack’,” she recounted. “I saw bodies restrained with zip ties and electric cords, I saw multiple modes of death on single bodies, I saw remains of people burnt at temperatures over 700°C – temperatures only achievable with chemical accelerants. These are crimes against humanity. Hamas came prepared, with plans carefully laid out, to commit genocide against the Jewish people. They went systematically, house by house, murdering men, women, and children, and they filmed it all to cause additional psychological pain.”
“If there is anything more barbaric than what I saw, it is the denial of the event,” she continued. “I’ve read about Holocaust denial, but now I’m seeing it firsthand. The more evidence is shown, the more vehement the denial is. When we saw such crimes in Bosnia, we called it genocide. When we saw such crimes in Rwanda, we called it genocide. When we saw ISIS committing such crimes against the Yazidis, we called it genocide. Why is it then, that when Jews are the victims, people feel the need to ‘contextualise’, to justify Hamas? It staggers me that the same communities that were horrified by ISIS, are now providing legitimacy to Hamas. I can give it no other name, but antisemitism.”
Dr Qanta Ahmed
“There is a Hadith,” Dr Ahmed told, “it says, if you see injustice, you must fight it. If you cannot fight it with actions, speak out against it, fight it with words. If you cannot speak out, at least bear witness to it, carry it in your heart. But never turn back on injustice. I could not live with myself if I turned my back on this.”
“Hamas is an Islamist organisation, same as ISIS, more malignant and better funded, in fact. Islamism pursues cosmic, religionised lethal antisemitism as one of its central tenets. If there is genocide being committed in Gaza, it is committed by Hamas, who uses its own fellow Muslim population in service of its political aims. We know that Hamas uses medical infrastructure to shelter its centres of operations, uses Palestinians as human shields. Islamism isn’t Islam. I cannot describe how repugnant it is to me to hear the Shahada, the declaration of my faith, cried by terrorists murdering innocent people.”
“Your friendship is particularly dear to us in these trying times, some of the hardest moments in Jewish history,” Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan thanked Dr Ahmed.
When one suffers an unspeakable tragedy, it is incredibly meaningful to know that one isn’t alone, but has friends who will see their grief, share their pain, stand with them, and support them. We are grateful to have such a friend in Dr Ahmed. We hope that there are others who, like her, will dare to stand with us against the radical deranged hatred that we are facing.
Following our assessment of today’s situation and in alignment with the unchanged directives of the Home Front Command, activities on Monday, November 6, 2023, will proceed on the Haifa campuses as they did today. Managers may, if necessary, grant approval for remote work in justified cases.
Following a careful evaluation of the current situation, which remains largely unchanged at this time, and considering the normalization of educational operations in Haifa and nearby areas, the Technion campuses will resume regular operations in line with the Home Front Command’s guidelines. This includes the possibility of remote work, subject to the approval of department heads.
We are currently operating under ’emergency routine’ conditions, endeavoring to maintain orderly activities on campus while simultaneously preparing for potential emergencies and staying alert for any updates from the Home Front Command.
There is a strong focus on active and socially contributive engagement. The Center for Community Involvement is open and continues to warmly welcome participants.
Dr. Qanta Ahmed at the Technion: “We are all looking for words for what happened on October 7, and it is very important to use the exact terms – ‘genocide’ and ‘crime against humanity’ – without considering global public opinion”
“I would not have been able to live with myself if I had stayed in the United States and not come to Israel after I learned about the events of October 7. It was important to me that at least one Muslim woman, who has been fighting radical Islam for about two decades, would come to see what happened here and testify to the same crimes against humanity. This is my moral and religious duty as a Muslim.”
Dr. Qanta Ahmed
These words were said this week at the Technion by Dr. Qanta Ahmed – a Muslim doctor of Pakistani origin, and an honorary fellow of the Technion from 2015. Dr. Ahmed, who currently lives in the United States and defines herself as an “anti-Islamist Muslim”, said in her lecture at the Technion that “I am not fighting Muslims, but rather, murderous Islamism. Being a Muslim means, among other things, exposing injustices even when they occur in your family, your tribe or your community. In our sources, it is written that if you witness an injustice you must try to stop it with your own hands; If you cannot use your hands, you must use your voice; And if you can’t use your voice – you must mark it in your heart as an injustice you witnessed.”
Dr. Ahmed visited the Technion for the first time in 2013, after contacting the Technion’s president at the time, Prof. Peretz Lavie. Already in 2014, Dr. Ahmed pointed out the falsity of talk, in the academic world, about Israel’s “arbitrary violence,” which is motivated by “false and evil propaganda” and manifests itself in a “brutal attack that is not limited in time.” Even then, she described the reluctance of the Hamas organization, its stated desire to eliminate the State of Israel, and the incitement it conducts against the residents of Israel and the Jews in general.
In 2015, she received an Honorary Fellowship from the Technion “in recognition of her courageous and tireless fight for human rights in the Muslim world and for her active and persistent opposition to radical Islam and anti-Semitism; and in thanks for her friendship with the State of Israel and the Technion.”
In her lecture this week at the Technion, she talked about the visit she made about ten days ago to Kibbutz Beeri and the body identification centers in Shura Camp and Abu Kabir. She presented her understanding of the events of October 7 in the broad context of radical Islam, global anti-Semitism and Israel’s relations with its neighbors.
Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan thanked her for the lecture and said: “It is very exciting to host you here, especially in these days, which are among the most difficult moments in our history as a nation. The actions of the Palestinian terrorist organizations exclude them from the human community, and the same is true for their supporters and anyone who does not distinguish between the atrocities that occurred on October 7 and the ongoing conflict between Israel and its enemies. It was not ‘another event in the history of the conflict’ but something completely different, and I hope that everyone who belongs to the human race will forever remember this event.”
Dr. Qanta Ahmed
“We are all looking for words for what happened here,” Dr. Ahmed said in her lecture. “We are all thirsty for language. Many use terms such as ‘massacre’, ‘Holocaust’, ‘second Holocaust’ and ‘Israel’s 9/11’. These associations are clear, but not precise: something more horrific happened here than 9/11, not only in terms of the number of victims in relation to the size of the population, but also in terms of the intimacy of the killing. The association with the Holocaust is also clear, because once again, the goal is the extermination of Jews, and yet, it is very important to use the exact terms – ‘genocide’ and ‘crime against humanity’ – without considering the reactions in global public opinion.
“These terms are important because here was a planned, calculated and deadly event designed to destroy people because of their identity – their Jewish identity. It is important to note that Bedouins also lost their loved ones in the attack, and I met some of them during a visit to the south, but the goal was to kill Jews.
“I was in Rwanda. I was in Pakistan. I was in post-ISIS Iraq, where genocide was committed in the Yazidi community – a genocide that has not ended to this day. The world was horrified by the genocide in Iraq and came out against it, but many of those who condemned Daesh now actually support Hamas, sometimes under the guise of a pro-Palestinian protest. That is why it is important to clarify that there was genocide here in all its characteristics – an attack that was carefully planned and, moreover, carefully documented, in order to break the spirit of the Israeli public with horrific videos of children and babies. Pregnant women were murdered here and their fetuses were also murdered.”
Dr. Ahmed said that after the visit to Kibbutz Beeri, she went to the National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Abu Kabir and the Shura camp, which was adapted to receive the bodies and their remains and to identify them due to the burden on the institute in Abu Kabir. “In the Shura camp, I entered the containers, each of which contained 48 bodies or the remains of bodies. There were 25 such containers.”
“The investigators, police officers and doctors who work in the Shura camp spoke of the Israeli public as an ‘ orphan nation ‘. One of the policemen told me that since he has been serving there, he cannot hold his son in his arms. Another said that when he opens the refrigerator at home, he smells death. When he closes the refrigerator – the smell disappears.”
Along with exposing the barbaric murders, said Dr. Ahmed, “it is important that we also show the world that denial as a barbaric act . I learned a lot about Holocaust denial, and now I understand how much denial hurts the families of the victims. Therefore, our basic duty as human beings is to be witnesses and tell the truth. The events of October 7 were documented by the killers in countless videos, but it turns out that the clearer the evidence, the more vicious the denial. We have to recognize that ignorance often moves farther and faster than facts. There are factors that cultivate deliberate ignorance, and consumers today can choose the news and fake news that suit them.
Dr. Qanta Ahmed
“The American universities have been used for many years as an incubator for anti-Semitism. There is a collision between the murderous Islamism, the ultra-progressive leftist, anti-Semitism and what I call “the neo-orthodox woke”. This view holds that every person is either an oppressor or a victim, and precisely the Jews, the descendants of the victims of the Holocaust, are today seen as Nazis. This is the background to why many elements in the universities are now siding with Hamas. This position is consistent with the perception of Israel as a colonialist power and ignores the fact that the Palestinians are indeed occupied – not by Israel, but by murderous Islamism. However, there is an opportunity here: anti-Semitism is now being exposed in its nakedness, which may allow us to fight it.”
The Technion administration has already communicated through every available platform its zero-tolerance policy for expressions of support for terrorism. In light of ongoing discussions on social media, we feel it is necessary to clarify this stance once again.
Immediately following the events of October 7, in response to posts suspected of endorsing terrorism, the Technion management issued a statement emphasizing the gravity with which it views such publications and has unequivocally stated to the campus and the public that it will not tolerate support for terrorism in any form. Simultaneously, it was clarified that the Technion would not conduct cursory trials, and that each complaint received would be rigorously scrutinized.
A special team, appointed by the President of the Technion, diligently reviewed the complaints filed against 46 students. Among these, approximately one-fourth did not pertain to Technion personnel at all, and some even included false allegations. Four complaints were forwarded to the Disciplinary Court for Students for indictments.
On Thursday, October 26, the court issued an interim injunction ordering the temporary suspension and expulsion from the Technion campus of a particular student, pending a final verdict.
While we do not underestimate the severity of the issue, it is important to note that these are isolated cases. The number of such incidents at the Technion is comparable to figures from other universities in Israel.
Regrettably, the repeated posting on social media of the same recycled presentation—lacking any new or verified information—serves ulterior motives. The aim of these publications is to exploit the current pain and anxiety we are all experiencing, thereby deepening societal and campus divisions.
We urge everyone to exercise patience during these challenging times. We encourage you to uphold the values that have guided the Technion for a century and to preserve the harmonious coexistence we share at the Technion, in the city of Haifa, and in the State of Israel.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the families who have lost loved ones, as well as with the forces currently engaged in conflicts in both the south and the north. We fervently hope for their safe and swift return.
After a thorough assessment of the situation earlier this evening, and in compliance with the periodically-updated directives from the Home Front Command, the Technion management has determined that activities on the Haifa campuses will continue on Thursday, November 2, 2023, in the same manner as they did today.
While the campus remains in ’emergency mode,’ we are committed to maintaining as normal a work and academic environment as possible. This is being done in conjunction with ongoing preparations for any emergent situations. Rest assured, we are continually ready to adapt to any changes in the Home Front Command’s instructions.
We urge you to take the time to prepare for emergencies and to familiarize yourselves with the relevant protocols. Please identify the locations of protected spaces near your offices or residences. We recommend that you not only review the list of these spaces but also physically visit the locations that are relevant to you.
