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Raphael Mechoulam, Israel’s ‘father of cannabis research,’ dies at 92
(JTA) — In the early 1960s, a Bulgarian-born scientist named Raphael Mechoulam was caught carrying five kilograms of, as he called it, “superb, smuggled Lebanese hashish” on a bus from Tel Aviv to Rehovot. But he wasn’t planning on smoking the stuff.
Mechoulam was a fledgling researcher keen on exploring the science behind cannabis, a stigmatized plant whose specific medical properties were not yet known. Over the decades he became a pioneer in cannabis research, whose findings about the psychoactive substance helped ease its entry out of the counterculture and into the mainstream.
Mechoulam died in Israel at age 92; his death was announced Friday by American Friends of the Hebrew University, where Mechoulam helped form The Hebrew University Multidisciplinary Center for Cannabinoid Research in 2017.
“Most of the human and scientific knowledge about cannabis was accumulated thanks to Prof. Mechoulam,” Hebrew University President Asher Cohen said in a statement. “He paved the way for groundbreaking studies and initiated scientific cooperation between researchers around the world. Mechoulam was a sharp-minded and charismatic pioneer.”
As a professor in the Hebrew University School of Pharmacy, Mechoulam and his research team isolated THC, the psychoactive component of cannabis, as well as cannabidiol, or CBD, an active ingredient in cannabis with a range of medicinal benefits.
He also pioneered the study of the body’s own cannabinoid system, which produces chemicals similar to THC to help regulate appetite, manage pain and operate the immune system.
As Mechoulam discovered more about cannabis and its efficacy in easing symptoms of cancer, epilepsy and other diseases, he lamented that strict drug laws in the United States and elsewhere suppressed research and kept the derivatives of cannabis off the market.
“Medicinal cannabis has to follow medical lines of thought and development and modern medical routes” in order to be part of proper drugs, he told the New York Times in 2017. “Israel has more [clinical trials] than the United States at the moment, which is ridiculous.”
Mechoulam was a founding member of the International Association for Cannabinoid Medicines and the International Cannabinoid Research Society. In 1994, he was elected to be a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Mechoulam was born in Bulgaria in 1930 and immigrated in 1949 with his family to Israel, where he later studied chemistry. He received his PhD at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, writing a thesis on the chemistry of steroids. After postdoctoral studies at the Rockefeller Institute in New York, he joined the scientific staff of the Weizmann Institute.
Mechoulam became a full professor at Hebrew University in 1972 and was named the Lionel Jacobson Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in 1975, serving as the university’s rector from 1979-1982.
In 2022, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City mounted its exhibition on Jewish contributions to the history of cannabis and highlighted the work of Mechoulam. “He’s worked on cannabis his entire life, and in the 1990s he and his colleagues discovered the endocannabinoid system, which regulates homeostasis — a significant discovery on how the human body deals with cannabinoids,” Eddy Portnoy, who curated the exhibit, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency at the time. “I read an interview with him where he says that because he was in a small country, he would have to find a niche that other people weren’t working in.”
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Netanyahu’s Pardon Request: What Happens Next?
Israeli President Isaac Herzog speaks during a press conference with Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics in Riga, Latvia, Aug. 5, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ints Kalnins
i24 News – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday submitted a formal request for a presidential pardon to President Isaac Herzog, i24NEWS Hebrew legal commentator Avishai Grintzig revealed.
What happens next? The request now enters a detailed, multi-stage review process involving the Ministry of Justice, law-enforcement bodies, and the President’s Residence.
Once a request is filed, it is first transferred to the Pardons Department in the Ministry of Justice.
The department begins gathering extensive information, seeking input from the Prison Service, Israel Police, the State Attorney’s Office, welfare and medical authorities, and the Enforcement and Collection Authority.
After assembling the material, the Pardons Department submits its opinion to the Minister of Justice. The minister then issues his own recommendation. If a conflict of interest arises, the government must appoint another minister to handle the matter.
The minister’s recommendation is then sent to the legal department at the President’s Residence, where the file is reviewed, supplemented as needed, and passed on to the President’s Legal Advisor.
The Legal Advisor prepares an independent opinion and may conduct additional inquiries with the Pardons Department or other relevant bodies. Once complete, the full file — including all opinions and documentation — is presented to the President for a final decision.
If the President approves the pardon, he signs a clemency document, which is then countersigned by the Minister of Justice (or a substitute minister). The applicant is notified in writing and receives the signed document.
If the President rejects the request, the applicant receives a written notice explaining the decision.
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‘Only the Guilty Seek Pardons’: Political Firestorm over Netanyahu’s Request
FILE PHOTO: Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid delivers a statement at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament,, in Jerusalem, February 13, 2023. REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
i24 news – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu submitted a formal request for a presidential pardon to President Isaac Herzog on Sunday, igniting a political firestorm across Israel’s political landscape.
Opposition leader and Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid called on President Herzog to reject the request outright.
“You cannot grant him a pardon without an admission of guilt, an expression of remorse, and his immediate departure from political life,” Lapid said.
Yair Golan, head of the Democrats party and a retired major general, condemned the move as an implicit admission of guilt.
“The only acceptable arrangement is for Netanyahu to take responsibility, admit guilt, leave politics, and release the nation from this crisis. Only then can unity be restored.”
National Unity Party chairman Benny Gantz accused Netanyahu of using the request to distract the public from the controversial draft-exemption bill.
“He’s acting like an arsonist who starts a fire and then demands protection money to put it out,” Gantz said. “Instead of inflaming tensions, put out the fire you started. Stop harming democracy, call elections, and only then pursue a plea deal or a pardon.”
MK Gilad Kariv also denounced the request.
“After eight years of claiming the cases were collapsing and that there was ‘nothing because there is nothing,’ he is now seeking a pardon,” Kariv wrote. “He refuses to take responsibility or admit guilt. The top national priority is ending Netanyahu’s rule, which has brought repeated disasters and deepened the decay of Israel’s political culture.”
Coalition members, however, lined up firmly behind Netanyahu.
Defense Minister Israel Katz voiced full support:
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said granting a pardon was essential for state security.
“The judicial system, and especially a corrupt State Attorney’s Office that fabricated cases, must be reformed. A pardon and reform go hand in hand.”
Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar added:
“The time has come to free Israel from the saga of Netanyahu’s trial, which is tearing the nation apart.”
Coalition Chairman Ofir Katz praised Netanyahu’s decision as “an enormous act of leadership,” claiming the trial is collapsing and was politically motivated from the start.
“For the sake of national healing, he has chosen this path,” Katz said.
Economy Minister Nir Barkat likewise urged President Herzog to end the trial.
“After a difficult war, Israel must embark on a path of unity. This is the moment to pardon the Prime Minister.”
At the same time, Likud MK Tali Gottlieb criticized Netanyahu from the right—lamenting that he requested a pardon at all.
“Why cast yourself in a negative light when you did nothing wrong?” she said. “Your trial has exposed unprecedented persecution. It is shameful to submit this request.”
The Movement for Quality Government demanded that President Herzog refuse the request immediately.
“A pardon in the middle of a legal proceeding is a mortal blow to the rule of law and equality before the law,” the organization warned. “Granting clemency to a sitting prime minister accused of serious fraud and breach of trust sends a message that some citizens are above the law.”
Pro-democracy protest leaders, Shikma Bressler, Moshe Radman, Yaya Fink, and Ami Dror issued a harsh statement:
“The thief’s hat is on fire. The defendant is begging for a pardon. History will judge Herzog for this moment. Anything less than rejecting the request will make the President complicit in Israel’s destruction.”
The protest movements announced an emergency demonstration Sunday evening outside the President’s Residence in Tel Aviv.
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Pope Leo: Palestinian State ‘Only’ Solution to Israeli Conflict
Pope Leo XIV is welcomed by Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and officials upon arrival at Rafic Hariri International Airport, during his first apostolic journey, in Beirut, Lebanon, November 30, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Yassin
Pope Leo said on Sunday that the only solution in the decades-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people must include a Palestinian state, reaffirming the Vatican’s position.
“We all know that at this time Israel still does not accept that solution, but we see it as the only solution,” Leo, the first US pope, told journalists on a flight from Turkey to Lebanon during his first in-flight press conference.
“We are also friends with Israel and we are seeking to be a mediating voice between the two parties that might help them close in on a solution with justice for everyone,” added the pope, speaking in Italian.
Israel‘s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reaffirmed opposition to a Palestinian state after even its biggest ally the US indicated support for Palestinian independence.
Leo spoke in a brief eight-minute press conference focused on his visit to Turkey, which he visited from Thursday to Sunday on his first overseas trip since election in May as leader of the 1.4 billion-member Catholic Church.
The pope said he and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan discussed both the Israel-Palestinian and Ukraine-Russia conflicts. Turkey has an important role to play helping end both wars, Leo said.
During his visit to Turkey, the pope warned that humanity’s future was at risk because of the world’s unusual number of bloody conflicts and condemned violence in the name of religion.
CRITICAL OF ISRAELI MILITARY IN GAZA
Leo, who usually prefers using careful, diplomatic language, ramped up criticism earlier this year of Israel‘s military campaign in Gaza.
Turkey is predominantly Muslim but is also home to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world’s 260 million Orthodox Christians.
Leo praised Turkey as an example of religious co-existence.
“People of different religions are able to live in peace,” said the pope. “That is one example of what I think we all would be looking for throughout the world.”
Leo is visiting Lebanon until Tuesday, when he returns to Rome.