Note: This article was originally published in Substack
NGC-7331 illustrating SN2025rbs. Image credit Gianluca Masi using the Virtual Telescope (virtualtelescope.eu)
Support for Science Discovery stops with Genocide
Opinion by James Daly, Ph.D.
While researching the new Type Ia supernova (SN 2025rbs) in NGC-7331, I discovered that all “transient” events and discoveries (supernovae are transient by their very nature), end up recorded on the “Transient Name Server” or TNS for short, hosted at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science, as the endpoint in the chain of custody for these discoveries. Although the TNS is hosted at the Weizmann Institute, it is managed by the Supernova Working Group of the International Astronomical Union, the IAU for short. Since 2020, all supernova discoveries are hosted here.
My research first led me to the discovery page for SN 2025rbs via The Astronomers Telegram, hosted in Canada.
The Weizmann Institute is located in Rehovot, Israel, within the borders established by the 1947 UN Partition Plan for Palestine, per UN General Assembly Resolution 181, a location outside occupied Palestinian territory (Gaza and the West Bank).
For the record, it was founded in 1934 as the Sieff Institute (named in honor of Israel and Rebecca Sieff of London in memory of their son Daniel) and renamed in 1949 after Israel’s first president, Dr. Chaim Weizmann. As such, the institute predates the founding of the State of Israel.
It is necessary to provide some historical context. The seed for a “Jewish Homeland” for worldwide Jewry was planted in 1917 by the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Arthur Balfour, so named as the “Balfour Declaration”. It is no small wonder, then, that it is linked back to a wealthy London family as the founders and originators.
Before we continue, we have to recognize and acknowledge the reality of what the state of Israel has become since its 1948 founding.
Chaim Weizmann was the founding president of the State of Israel and a committed Zionist. Given their history, hindsight would suggest that the wisdom of naming a leading institution of science in his honor was questionable and could suggest something inconsistent with the values they claim to hold, about the character of the founders or those who run it, about its funding and support.
Extensive searches for “The Weizmann Institute” returns many accolades and claims, praising them as open-minded, politically neutral, non-aligned, robust, etc., etc., with appeals to Israeli state education law to support the claims:
- “a public research university, operating independently as a non-governmental institution.”
- “its institutional alignment with the IAU’s need for a politically neutral, and operationally stable hub for transient astronomy applications.”
- “The IAU also required the servers be mirrored in neutral countries such as Switzerland to prevent unilateral takedowns and to preserve the politically neutral character of the TNS application.”
These claims, including dead-end searches of the IAU, are all baseless and unfounded. None of them can be verified via any independent sources, including their own website. To wit, the only public facing text that could be remotely construed as being aligned with these claims are found here, on their “about” and “ethics” pages and, in a pdf stating their “Code of Ethical Conduct”:
The Weizmann Institute has a long history of investigation and discovery rooted in a mission of advancing science for the benefit of humanity.
A similar narrative is found here
As a premier research institution aspiring to advance science for the future of humanity, the Weizmann Institute of Science (hereinafter: “the Institute”) is committed to excellence, integrity, and merit as the prime guiding principles in all its activities, appointments, promotions and recognitions.
There is no public-facing charter or mission statement that could verify and support any of these claims. It’s all conjecture and supposition from decades of heavily financed propaganda and uncritical acceptance of any and all positive claims about Israel.
It also needs to be pointed out, to their credit, many thoughtful Israelis are not Zionists and are opposed to the actions of their government, including scholars, students, academics, researchers and professors at the Weizmann Institute and beyond. You can’t fault an institution for the behavior of the host government. Indeed, the Orthodox Hasidim are opposed to Zionism on theological grounds, refuse to serve in the IDF and are often arrested as they protest the actions of their government.
It’s broadly recognized that the Israeli state is engaging in ethnic cleansing and committing a genocide against the people of Gaza, the West Bank and greater Palestine. It’s no secret that Israeli “settlers” wantonly trample on the rights of West Bank citizens, brazenly and illegally appropriating their land, often at the point of a gun with the help and protection of the IDF. As a matter of fact, an American citizen was recently beaten to death by them.
The residents of Gaza live in a de-facto “Open Air Prison” and are randomly targeted by Israeli snipers and western mercenaries for sport and target practice. Hospitals, schools and churches, once considered by even the most evil despots of old to be sanctuaries and places of refuge, are routinely bombed and leveled, with 60% of those killed in Gaza women and children. The heroic doctors who still practice there, at great personal risk to their life and safety as targets themselves, routinely find bullets lodged in the heads of the dead children when X-rayed and examined.
These statements and so much more are widely accepted. Their veracity is above reproach, and they are not controversial. The countless war crimes committed by, and the depravity of, the Netanyahu regime are universally known and acknowledged and have been attested to by UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese and the United Nations Secretary General, António Guterres.
This post isn’t intended to chronicle the daily atrocities committed by the Israeli State against an undefended civilian population under the guidance and watchful eye of Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet of war criminals. There are hundreds each day, with numerous, verifiable sources, some with or without video, verbal and/or written accounts and testimonies, each attesting to a life snuffed out by an Israeli sniper or western mercenary, too numerous to tally at this point.
The Transient Name Server
The moral dimensions of the IAU’s choice of the Weizmann Institute not withstanding, ostensibly, the single defining characteristic that uniquely qualifies them to host the Transient Name Server, beyond raw technical prowess (which many elite institutions such as UC Berkeley, Harvard, Caltech, MIT, U of A, Cambridge, etc., share) is their supposed neutrality, a claim that cannot be verified either on their public-facing website or any independent source.
Another claim that cannot be verified regarding the IAU’s choice: they sought a host outside traditional Western power centers such as the U.S. or EU to avoid perceptions of bias in all its forms. And another that can’t be verified: they (the Weizmann Institute) are minimally funded by the Israeli state and are, thus, largely free from government overreach or coercion. The primary funding sources include IAU grants, funded by international dues with minimal reliance on US or EU grants, unlike NASA or ESA archives.
Ostensibly, and unverifiable, this funding model ensures that no single country can threaten defunding to influence policies, and to insulate it from political pressure.
Alternatives
In closing, there are at least 2 verifiable and constitutionally neutral, non-aligned nations that could have hosted the TNS. Why the IAU chose Israel’s Weizmann Institute has been outlined above. Those nations include Ireland and Mexico. Mexico’s neutrality is explicitly defined in their constitution, and Ireland’s neutrality is widely known. They are also one of four European countries that do not belong to NATO, an ostensible defensive alliance. Additionally, they are among a small group of nations who have the moral temerity to stand up for the Palestinians and human rights in general.
For Mexico, the Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics at UNAM could just as easily host the TNS and, for Ireland, University College, Dublin or Trinity College.
Conclusion
Your thoughts are welcome. At the end of the day, we all make moral choices. In the name of science, do we continue to support an institution whose government is actively engaged in a genocide, or do we make hard choices to preserve life and human dignity and, ultimately, to preserve a legacy worthy of remembrance?
Regardless of their success, history will smile on those who stood up against injustice, who took the path less traveled, who stood up for the weak and powerless, for those who had no voice.
Get Email Alerts on New Posts
From Las Cumbres Observatory, a quick, interactive web-based view of the sky at the moment, complete with interactive controls The Sky Now. The page includes “The Sky Tonight”, a quick, interactive web-based version of Stellarium.
Astronomy For Change: https://astronomyforchange.org
Did you enjoy this article or like what we do? Why not leave a tip or buy us a Coffee?
Follow Us On Twitter: https://twitter.com/astronomychange
Why not support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/astronomyforchange
Imagination is more important than knowledge
An index of all articles can be found here.
Comment Moderation Policy
If you enjoyed this article, please consider supporting us with a modest donation
or through a subscription on our Patreon Page
Membership at Astronomy for Change is Free!
