Prof. Keinan has demonstrated an outstanding leadership and engagement of a university professor in important public issues and ecosystems. He has demonstrated the increasingly recognized third role of the universities beyond their traditional tasks of teaching and research. He has already become a public icon and a role model for many professors and students worldwide by cracking the traditional image of the academia as a socially detached “ivory tower”, and showing that university professors can and should lead the way as a moral “lighthouse”. Aiming at rescuing the dense population in Haifa Bay from the dangerous, 30-year operation of ammonia imports and massstorage, Keinan has initiated and led a major public protest and legal wars, all based on a comprehensive document, known as the Keinan report. All levels of the court system, including the Magistrate Court of Haifa, the District Court and the Supreme Court, have ruled to terminate the liquid ammonia imports to Haifa. Over 1000 newspaper articles have covered this affair, including 30 OpEd articles by Keinan himself, hundreds of TV and radio interviews, public debates and rallies of angry citizens, students, pupils, youth movements, engineers and workers. Many organizations became involved, including eight Government Ministries, 25 municipalities in Northern Israel, nonprofit organizations, and political parties. This story, which has multiple aspects, including the legal, economic, scientific, technological, social, political and national, is attracting increasing interest from outsides the State of Israel.
