[BUDAPEST] Double standards in the way the international science community deals with Israel compared to Russia is leading to a mistrust in the global science system by Arab researchers, according to the head of Lebanon’s main science policy body.

While Russian scientists have been barred from international science collaborations as a consequence of the war in Ukraine, the same thing has not happened to Israeli scientists despite the country’s ongoing offensive against neighbouring Lebanon and Gaza.

“As scientists, not only citizens, when we see that you have these double standards when dealing with Russians and not with Israelis, for us … it is a problem of mistrust in this international system, and mistrust in the international scientific system,” said Tamara Elzein, secretary general of the National Council for Scientific Research of Lebanon.

“What this system is advocating, like freedom [for] researchers, freedom of speech, human rights, we think now these are empty slogans.”

Tamara Elzein, secretary general, National Council for Scientific Research of Lebanon

“What this system is advocating, like freedom [for] researchers, freedom of speech, human rights, we think now these are empty slogans,” Elzein told SciDev.Net on the sidelines of the World Science Forum in Budapest, Hungary, yesterday (Thursday).

“I am talking now as a citizen in this part of the world. Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jordan—populations in these countries have lost faith in these universal values.”

Since September, Israel has dramatically increased its bombardment of neighbouring Lebanon, as a conflict which had been simmering since 2023 boiled over.

Lebanese scientists are now fearful of leaving the country, in case they are not able to return due to the conflict.

Elzein herself said she had travelled to Budapest to tell people about the situation for scientists in her country without being sure she will be able to return.

White phosphorus

As a result of the conflict, Lebanon’s research institutes have shifted their priorities to be able to help the government in its response to the war.

For example, Elzein said her institution was making a record of the attacks by Israel to support the government’s eventual recovery plans.

“We have been working since October 2023 through many of our centres to work on the assessment of attacks on Lebanon, to categorise these attacks between classic bombing, phosphorus shells, flare bombs and so on, and to study the impact,” she said.

“We are trying to do this … to help the government once they build the national recovery plan.”

Lebanon’s farmers will receive advice on how to recover their farms after they have been contaminated by white phosphorus, a poisonous chemical used in shells to create smoke screens.

“For some sectors where, as scientists, we can be useful, we are trying to provide assistance to the government,” Elzein explained.

“In the case of phosphorus, for example, we will be working with the Ministry of Agriculture to see how we can train farmers to deal then with the soil, with their lands.”

This article was produced by SciDev.Net’s Global desk.