Just a week after the inauguration of the SESAME (Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East)Â facility in Jordan, the BBC Radio Science Unit reports that the project is foundering for lack of a few million dollars in funding.
We have reported on SESAME repeatedly in symmetry as it exemplifies the very international nature of particle physics, and demonstrates some of the key values important to many scientists: the breaking down of borders between cultures, using science as the unifier.
SESAME has an interesting history. It started with a donation of the BESSY-I synchrotron from DESY in Germany, after that machine was being dismantled to make room for an upgraded machine. With that foundation, various countries from the Middle East signed on as partners to help build the first synchrotron facility in the region.
Herman Winick, from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and one of the founders of the SESAME concept, told me of attending a meeting in the Middle East and being overwhelmed by seeing high-level representatives from Israel and the Palestinian National Authority sitting at the same table working out details of the SESAME agreement.
That crossing of traditional boundaries is not unique. Last November, we ran a story about a party at CERN which Israeli and Palestinian students organized together.
This year, close on the heels of the French, Dutch, American, Italian, and German-Austrian parties, an Israeli-Palestinian party was held in Building 216. Israeli and Palestinian flags flew side by side, and a banner on the wall proclaimed "Because things can be different." The word "Peace" was also displayed in English, Hebrew, and Arabic. The party had been organized by four Israelis and one Palestinian, Muhammad Yousef Alhroob; he was the first Palestinian to ever take part in the program.
It seems clear that science has the potential to bring together people in a way that could facilitate more peaceful interactions and that SESAME could be a very effective tool in that process. It would certainly be a shame if the project stalled because of what is a relatively small amount of money. It is US$19 million short and as the BBC reports:
Yasser Khalil, the Egyptian administrative director of Sesame, ruefully recalled a recent online auction for number plates in the Saudi peninsula.
"The number plate 5-5-5-5-5, five 5s, was bought for $15m..." The money, he implies, is clearly there.
