Science Under Apartheid: Israel’s Assault on Knowledge in Palestine with Loay Elbasyouni

<p>In this episode, SWANA collective members Rana Sharif and David Lloyd speak with Loay Elbasyouni about the conditions for Palestinian science under occupation and blockade. Loay Elbasyouni is a Palestinian electrical engineer who grew up in Gaza and finished his post-secondary education from Beit Hannoun School.&nbsp;His remarkable journey “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRl5B2qlDi4" target="_blank">From Gaza to Mars</a>” and his achievements have been featured on multiple international media outlets around the world. Loay was part of the NASA team that made history in April 2021 for flying the Ingenuity helicopter from the surface of Mars, where he was an electrical and power electronics lead for NASA-JPL Mars Helicopter team. Loay has over 17 years of work experience focused on power electronics in several industries, including automotive, renewable energy and aerospace. He is currently the Senior Director of Engineering at Astrodyne TDI, a power electronics company.&nbsp;He holds a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering, a Master of Engineering in computer engineering and computer science, and a Master of Science in electrical engineering from the University of Louisville, Kentucky.</p> <p>Last week, the respected international human rights organization Human Rights Watch issued a report that showed that Israel is conducting an apartheid regime across the whole of historic Palestine, “from the river to the sea”. In doing so, they merely confirmed what Palestinians themselves and their global solidarity networks have been saying for years, based on the facts on the ground that constitute what the 2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court describes as “inhumane acts … committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.”&nbsp; Israel’s daily practices, to which it gives the name of <em>hafrada</em>, separation or segregat