Palestinians call on CIPA to exclude complicit Israeli technical institute Technion from its 2025 symposium “Heritage Conservation from Bits” at the National Museum of Korea in Seoul, 25-29 August or risk a call for boycott should it fail to do so. Technion is directly complicit in Israel’s genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza and its underlying 77-year apartheid regime against all Palestinians.
Technion is tightly embedded with and played an instrumental role in developing Israel’s arms industry, which battle tests its weapons systems on Palestinians living under Israel’s illegal military occupation. Technion spearheaded the creation of major state owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, both of which have supplied the Israeli military with weapons used in its Gaza genocide.
Rafael has provided Spike Guided Missiles, Matador (RGW 90) portable shoulder-fired anti-tank rockets, Orbiter 4 killer drones, used operationally for the first time in Gaza, and systems that increase "the lethality of combat forces" and become a "force multiplier on the battlefield." IAI’s Heron killer drones have “played a pivotal role” in Israel’s Gaza genocide, including in strike operations.
In addition, Technion’s Advanced Defense Research Institute boasts of rapidly turning “academic concepts into operational solutions for the battlefield,” including “advancements in swarm drone technology, cyber defense, and battlefield robotics.”
Israel has exterminated tens of thousands of Palestinians in itsGaza genocide. It has destroyed or severely damaged all Palestinian universities in Gaza and upwards of 90% of Gaza’s housing. Palestinians in Gaza are now being starved to death by Israel’s 3 month total blockade of vital aid.
Technion’s workshop at CIPA 2025 centers on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to assess the significance of cultural heritage sites.
Israel is also AI to generate extensive target lists in Gaza in what a former Israeli intelligence officer described as facilitating a “mass assassination factory.”
Technion’s Advanced Defense Research Institute also boasts of “high-performance computing crucial for AI applications” and in support of military projects that are “vital for the next generation” of weapons systems.
As ICOMOS Palestine notes, Israel has also “deliberately attacked and destroyed irreplaceable Palestinian cultural heritage sites in Gaza, whose history goes back more than 4,000 years.”
The Arab Regional Group of ICOMOS has stated that at least two-thirds of Gaza’s 350 archaeological sites, historic centers, natural landmarks, and traditional buildings “have been bombed and destroyed, either partially or entirely, representing a severe loss of the cultural and human heritage of the Palestinian people and the world’s cultural heritage.”
As an institution openly and deeply implicated in Israel’s genocide that is also destroying Palestinian life and heritage, Technion has no place in a symposium aimed at preserving cultural heritage.
The rulings from the International Court of Justice are clear. Israel is plausibly committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Israel is also violating the prohibition against apartheid and its military occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal. CIPA, therefore, has a legal obligation not to recognize, aid or assist Israel’s genocide or its illegal military occupation. Business-as-usual with Technion despite its long irrefutable record in enabling Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity and now genocide constitutes shameful complicity.
We call on the CIPA 2025 Organising Committee to immediately cancel the Technion workshop and to end all institutional ties with apartheid Israel’s complicit institutions, just as conscientious and responsible academia had ended all ties with apartheid South Africa’s complicit institutions.
Should CIPA 2025 fail to do so, we call on KAIST to withdraw support and for the National Museum of Korea to refuse to host the symposium. We further call on ICOMOS and ISPRS to withdraw as supporting organizations. We call on speakers and presenters to withdraw and on participants to boycott the entire symposium.