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Pasteur in Palestine: The Politics of the Laboratory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2010

Nadav Davidovitch  and
Rakefet Zalashik
Nadav Davidovitch
Affiliation:
Ben Gurion University and Temple University
Rakefet Zalashik
Affiliation:
Ben Gurion University and Temple University
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Argument

We examine the creation and functioning of the “Pasteur Institute in Palestine” focusing on the relationship between biological science, health policy, and the creation of a “new society” within the framework of Zionism. Similar to other bacteriological institutes founded by colonial powers, this laboratory was developed in response to public health needs. But it also had a political role. Dr. Leo Böhm, a Zionist physician, strived to establish his institution along the lines of the Zionist aspiration to develop a national entity based on strong scientific foundations. Even though the institute enjoyed several fruitful years of operation, mainly during World War I, it achieved no lasting national or scientific importance in the country. Böhm failed to adapt to new ways of knowledge production, scientifically and socially. The case study of the “Pasteur Institute in Palestine” serves as a prism to view the role of the public health laboratory in the history of Palestine with its ongoing changes of scientific, organizational, and political context.

Type
Research Article
Information
Science in Context , Volume 23 , Special Issue 4: Science in an Israeli Context: Case Studies , December 2010 , pp. 401 - 425
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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