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Israel seeks a truce with protesters
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem recently took an unprecedented step to resolve the protest against animal research that has been growing in Israel over the last two years. In late July, the University's Medical School invited two Knesset committees, several journalists and a number of antivivisection groups to tour their animal facility. Of the 30 parliamentarians invited on the tour, only five, including both committee chairmen, took part.
Much of the protest in Israel has centred on the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In November 2001, undercover video footage of experimental neurosurgery on primates at the University was shown on national television news, with allegations that the experiments were conducted incompetently and carried out for little good reason. This resulted in considerable public and political controversy with parliamentarians and even the Health Minister joining protests outside the University.
"We made no special preparations for the visit." said Professor Avinoam Reches of the University Medical School, "This is a rare event. We are even hosting our opponents, representatives of the animal protection groups. The medical research establishment erred when it didn't open the animal houses to the public earlier. It gave the impression that researchers had something to hide. But we kept people out, not out of paranoia, but due to the reality of brutal attacks by the activists who burnt labs, destroyed computer data and even issued threats against the lives of researchers here and abroad. I hope we are on the doorstep of a broad peace treaty that will serve us both."
The visitors were invited to see anything and everything in the animal facility, including a range of transgenic and nude mice, as well as sheep, pigs and primates. Researchers were on hand to explain the experiments that the animals were used for. In addition, the group met a patient with Parkinson's disease who was the first in Israel to benefit from the new deep brain stimulation technique developed through research on primates.
The visit was an initiative of the new Inter-University Forum for Medical Sciences in Israel, which was set up earlier in the year to address public relations problems with animal research. The resulting press reporting was very positive and it appears that this new openness on the part of universities has taken much of the heat out of the growing conflict between the scientists and the protesters.