麻省理工学院和其他大学距离以色列有多远？抗议的学生希望学校切断研究联系

【中美创新时报2024 年 4 月 24 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）两年前，麻省理工学院院长在俄罗斯入侵乌克兰后终止了与俄罗斯的研究伙伴关系，他说，这给平民带来了“可怕的后果”。现在，随着死亡人数的增加和人道主义危机的加深，抗议以色列在加沙战争的麻省理工学院的学生要求麻省理工学院做出类似的反应，切断与以色列本身以及在加沙推进军事行动的公司的联系。其他校园的抗议者也表达了类似的要求。《波士顿环球报》记者 Hilary Burns 对此作了下述报道。

麻省理工学院的学生提出了一些具体指控，包括该校接受以色列国防部的研究资金，并敦促该校对其与以色列的关系更加透明。麻省理工学院发言人金伯利·艾伦拒绝透露具体细节，称该校的教职员工和研究人员与包括以色列在内的全球科学家和实体合作。

公开文件提供了一些线索：根据美国教育部的数据，麻省理工学院报告在 2020 年至 2024 年间从以色列实体收到了 280 万美元的赠款、礼物和合同。该部门没有具体说明这些资金是来自个人、学术还是公共来源，也没有具体说明它们的用途。

艾伦说：“麻省理工学院强烈支持学术自由原则，使我们的教师能够与广泛的合作伙伴合作追求知识。” “校园内赞助的研究项目涉及开放和可出版的工作，有助于为全世界的科学家免费提供知识。”

麻省理工学院在俄罗斯的项目旨在在莫斯科郊区创建一个技术中心和研究生大学，这并不是麻省理工学院唯一一次重新考虑其一些外国研究关系。2018 年《华盛顿邮报》专栏作家贾迈勒·卡舒吉 (Jamal Khashoggi) 被沙特特工杀害后，剑桥大学重新评估了与沙特阿拉伯的关系。然而，经过内部审查后，该大学决定教授应该能够继续与学生、研究人员一起开展研究项目 ，以及沙特阿拉伯的赞助商。

据教育部称，麻省理工学院报告称，2020 年至 2024 年间，该校从沙特阿拉伯收到了超过 2000 万美元的赠款、合同和礼物。

麻省理工学院神经科学教授南希·坎维舍尔表示，听到该校的一些研究由以色列资助，她并不感到惊讶。她说，教职员工和学生之间应该就对研究的支持进行公开的讨论。

“校园里有很多可疑的资金来源，”坎维舍尔说。

该校的研究生会和本科生协会最近通过了公投，呼吁麻省理工学院终止与以色列的研究联系。麻省理工学院化学工程专业大四学生萨菲亚·奥贡迪佩 (Safiyyah Ogundipe) 表示，学生们希望抗议营地能够促使管理人员停止接受来自以色列的研究经费。

“麻省理工学院确实有能力切断这些联系，”奥贡迪佩说。

为了回应本学期早些时候以 64% 的选票通过的公投，校长梅丽莎·诺布尔斯 (Melissa Nobles) 写信给学校社区，称麻省理工学院“依靠严格的流程来确保所有资助的研究都符合麻省理工学院的政策和美国法律。”

“根据这些标准，麻省理工学院的教员拥有基本的学术自由，可以为自己领域感兴趣的研究寻求资金，”诺布尔斯说。她补充说，本科生的决议不具有约束力，“任何人都不应该将其视为代表麻省理工学院政府。”

电气工程和计算机科学博士生丹尼尔·沉 (Daniel Shen) 帮助撰写了研究生会的公投，他表示，这是“我们工会所倡导的集体民主进程的一个强有力的例子”。

以色列总理本杰明·内塔尼亚胡拥有麻省理工学院的两个学位。艾伦拒绝就内塔尼亚胡与该大学的合作发表评论。

麻省理工学院和其他地方的一些学生抗议者也呼吁各机构从以色列公司撤资，他们说这些努力的灵感来自于帮助结束南非种族隔离的抵制活动。以色列官员拒绝将其与种族隔离进行比较。许多犹太领导人表示，抵制、撤资和制裁运动是一项针对以色列对巴勒斯坦人的政策已有数十年历史的运动，它是反犹太主义的，因为它污蔑和挑衅犹太国家。

哈佛商学院教授路易斯·M·维塞拉(Luis M. Viceira)表示，从投资角度来看，从以色列公司撤资没有意义，而且会不公平地惩罚以色列公司和个人。

“同意或不同意以色列现任政府的政策是完全合法的…… 但从以色列撤资的计划就像是打在整个国家、一个既定民主国家的脸上，而不仅仅是打在他们的政府脸上，”维塞拉说。

一家投资专业人士猎头公司的执行合伙人查尔斯·A·斯科里纳(Charles A. Skorina)表示，投资官员不应被学生要求撤资的呼声所动摇。

“大多数首席投资官都是不可知论者，因为他们应该如此，”斯科里纳说。“他们的任务是：请为学校赚钱。”

在麻省理工学院，学生组织者表示，他们更注重呼吁管理人员终止与以色列的研究关系，并援引该大学作为联邦承包商并与国防部合作的历史。

“以色列正在犯下战争罪行，”奥贡迪佩说。“麻省理工学院继续拿走他们的钱意味着什么？”

题图：本周在麻省理工学院的露营。JONATHAN WIGGS/GLOBE STAFF

附原英文报道：

Just how close are MIT and other universities to Israel? Protesting students want schools to cut research ties.

By Hilary Burns Globe Staff,Updated April 24, 2024

Two years ago, the president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ended a research partnership in Russia after the country’s invasion of Ukraine, he said, provoked “terrible consequences” for civilians.

Now MIT students who are protesting Israel’s war in Gaza are demanding that MIT respond similarly by severing ties with Israel itself and companies that are advancing its military efforts in Gaza as the death toll grows and the humanitarian crisis deepens. Protesters on other campuses are voicing similar demands.

MIT students have made some specific allegations, including that the school receives money from the Israeli Ministry of Defense for research, and have urged the university to be more transparent about its Israeli ties. A spokesperson for MIT, Kimberly Allen, declined to provide specifics, saying that the school’s faculty and researchers work with scientists and entities across the globe, including in Israel.

Publicly available documents provide some clues: MIT reported receiving $2.8 million in grants, gifts, and contracts from Israeli entities between 2020 and 2024, according to data from the US Department of Education. The department does not specify whether the funds come from individual, academic, or public sources, or how they are spent.

“MIT strongly supports the principles of academic freedom that enable our faculty to engage with a wide array of partners in the pursuit of knowledge,” Allen said. “Sponsored research projects on campus involve work that is open and publishable and that contributes to knowledge that is freely available to scientists worldwide.”

MIT’s project in Russia, aimed at creating a tech hub and graduate university on the outskirts of Moscow, is not the only time MIT has reconsidered some of its foreign research relationships. The Cambridge institute reassessed its ties to Saudi Arabia after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist killed by Saudi operatives in 2018. After an internal review, however, the university determined that professors should be able to continue research projects with students, researchers, and sponsors in Saudi Arabia.

MIT reported it received more than $20 million in grants, contracts, and gifts from sources in Saudi Arabia between 2020 and 2024, according to the Department of Education.

Nancy Kanwisher, a professor of neuroscience at MIT, said she was not surprised to hear that some research at the school is funded by Israeli sources. She said there should be an open, public discussion among faculty members, staff, and students about support for research.

“There are lots of questionable sources of funding on campus,” Kanwisher said.

The school’s graduate student union and undergraduate student association recently passed referendums calling on MIT to end research ties to Israel. Students hope the protest encampments will motivate administrators to stop accepting research dollars from Israeli sources, said Safiyyah Ogundipe, a senior at MIT studying chemical engineering.

“MIT does have the ability if it wants to cut these ties,” Ogundipe said.

In response to the referendum, which passed earlier this semester with 64 percent of the votes, chancellor Melissa Nobles wrote to the school community that MIT “relies on rigorous processes to ensure that all funded research complies with MIT policies and US law.”

“Within those standards, MIT faculty have the fundamental academic freedom to pursue funding for research of interest in their fields,” Nobles said. She added that undergraduate resolutions do not have binding power and “should not be construed by anyone as representing the MIT administration.”

Daniel Shen, a PhD candidate in electrical engineering and computer science who helped write the referendum for the graduate student union, said it is a “strong example of the collective democratic process our union is all about.”

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, holds two degrees from MIT. Allen declined to comment on Netanyahu’s engagement with the university.

Some student protesters at MIT and elsewhere are also calling on institutions to divest their endowments from Israeli companies, efforts they say are inspired by boycotts used to help end apartheid in South Africa. Israeli officials have rejected comparisons to apartheid. Many Jewish leaders say the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, a decades-old campaign against Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians, is antisemitic because it villainizes and singles out the Jewish state.

Luis M. Viceira, a Harvard Business School professor, said divesting from Israeli companies does not make sense from an investment perspective, and would unfairly punish Israeli companies and individuals.

“It is completely legitimate to agree or to disagree with the policies of the current Israeli government . . . but a divesting program from Israel is akin to a hurtful slap on the face to the entire country, an established democracy, not just their government,” Viceira said.

Charles A. Skorina, managing partner of an executive search firm for investment professionals, said investment officers should not be swayed by student calls to divest.

“Most chief investment officers are agnostic, because they’re supposed to be,” Skorina said. “Their assignment is: Please make money for the school. Period.”

At MIT, student organizers said they are more focused on calling on administrators to end research ties with Israel, citing the university’s history as a federal contractor and work with the Department of Defense.

“Israel is enacting war crimes,” Ogundipe said. “What does it mean for MIT to continue to take their money?”