Students organizers host teach in about Israeli involvement in Helix

Rutgers Students for Justice in Palestine and NJ Build Up Resistance Now held an informational teach-in on September 16 , educating students about Rutgers’ involvement in the Helix Hub development in downtown New Brunswick.

The Helix, advertised as “The Hub of Innovation,” seeks to provide industries and universities the critical ecosystem to research, learn, work, and collaborate. The building’s development is in three phases:

Phase 1 (H1): Translational research space, the Rutgers medical school, and the New Jersey Innovation Hub. Phase 2 (H2): The new 350,000 square foot home of Nokia Bell Labs (NKB).

Finally, Phase 3 (H3): Versatile work and office spaces for smaller organizations on the bottom floors, topped by residential.

Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and NJ Build Up Resistance Now (NJ B.U.R.N.) have opposed the involvement of Tel Aviv University (TAU) occupying space within the building as a “satellite campus”.

Students gathered to share presentations showing links and financial ties Rutgers has maintained with companies like DEVCO, the development company spearheading the building of the Helix, Nokia Bell Labs, the scientific research arm of Nokia, and the closeness Rutgers University maintains with TAU since 2021. 

Activists also noted that Nokia Federal, a sister subsidy to Nokia Bell Labs under Nokia, benefits from Nokia Bell Labs’ research, according to Nokia’s website. Nokia Federal research areas include automation, AI and software systems.

Nokia Federal has active contracts with the United States Department of War. The company is also currently in a Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) contract with Indefinite Delivery and Indefinite Quality (IDIQ) with the Department of War. 

The SHIELD IDIQ program is the “the primary acquisition vehicle” for the Trump administration’s  Golden Dome missile defense initiative. Nokia Federal is just one of many companies in this program, which is funded to the tune of $151 billion.

During the teach-in, SJP highlighted a “Memorandum of Understanding ” signed between Rutgers University and TAU in November 2021.

At the time former Rutgers President, Jonathan Holloway, flew to Tel Aviv University to meet with Tel Aviv University President, Ariel Porat, to sign the memorandum, which sought to establish the presence of TAU in the development of the Helix Hub as well as continuing to further the relationship between the two universities.

“I traveled to Tel Aviv to sign this memorandum of understanding in person because this is an important initiative that reflects Rutgers’ commitment to excellence and our recognition that there is no limit to the power of partnerships,” Holloway said at the time.

Tel Aviv University has hosted think tanks for the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), in the past. The security group developed the “Dahiya Doctrine,” involving the use of force and the systematic targeting of civilian infrastructure. The group shows this as one of the direct ties between TAU and Israel’s genocide campaign in Gaza.

Tel Aviv University also facilitates the Erez program, a collaboration with the Israeli army designed to allow those training to become officers complete a full bachelor’s and aiming to turn them into “combat officers and well-educated academics.”

An NJ BURN representative said that current President of DEVCO, Chris Paladino had messaged the NJ BURN’s Instagram account in June, claiming that Tel Aviv University was not a tenant of the Helix Buildings. This was as the Helix official website removed Tel Aviv University from its list of collaborators earlier this year.

In May 2024 Rutgers New Brunswick Chancellor Francine Conway issued the following statement “we did not agree to sever Rutgers’ relationship with Tel Aviv University or its future presence in the [Helix] Hub.” 

There has been no statement from Rutgers University since to discredit the claims made by SJP and NJ B.U.R.N. and support Paladino’s, making the involvement of  Tel Aviv University at the Helix unclear.

WRSU reached out to Rutgers University about TAU’s collaboration and tenancy at the Helix. They pointed us to DEVCO regarding tenancy, who did not respond to a request for comment. Rutgers did not respond to a follow up regarding collaboration on research done at the Helix between TAU and Rutgers.

Story by Jaiden Gamez. Rahil Chatterjee contributed to this report.