December 21, 2014 Prof. Yosef Klafter, President, Tel Aviv University Prof. Moshe Zviran, Dean of the Faculty of Management Prof. Ehud Grossman, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine Prof. Daniel Haimovitz, Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences Dear Sirs, Re: The Israel Cancer Associations' Response to the Recruitment of Students to the Management Team of Philip Morris Company We were shocked to read a Tel Aviv University announcement inviting students of the Faculty of Management, to a recruiting event for marketing and sales interns [to work] for the Philip Morris tobacco company. For many years, the Israel Cancer Association (ICA) has been involved in the global fight against smoking, as it is known with certainty, based on prospective and retrospective research studies, that tobacco is the only product that, when used according to the manufacturers' instructions, kills its users. According to Ministry of Health estimates, about 85,000 individuals die each year in Israel as a result of tobacco products, and it has been proven that smoking reduces life expectancy by about a decade. The ICA, which relies solely on public donations to fund its various activities, refuses to receive donations from tobacco companies. Recently, we rejected and returned a donation of NIS 200,000 when we were informed that it came from a company that imports cigarettes to Israel. Moreover, in our opinion, it is not becoming of a distinguished and reputed academic institution such as Tel Aviv University to collaborate with an industry that spreads illness and death among its product users, and it is certainly inappropriate for the university to facilitate an event that empowers the tobacco industry and encourages individuals to join forces with it to get a new generation addicted. This subject will be discussed at our Executive Board meeting, to be held at the end of December, and we will propose terminating the funding of research posts for research scientists from Tel Aviv University, until this matter is clarified. It is unacceptable that, on the one hand, we will assist your excellent and devoted researchers in the battle against cancer, and on the other hand, you will empower and encourage a destructive and cancer-causing industry. Sincerely, Prof. Eliezer Robinson Chairman Israel Cancer Association Past-President of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) .