Professor Stephen Hawking is backing the academic boycott of Israel
by pulling out of a conference hosted by Israeli president Shimon Peres
in Jerusalem as a protest at Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
Hawking, 71, the world-renowned theoretical physicist and former
Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, had
accepted an invitation to headline the fifth annual president’s
conference, Facing Tomorrow, in June, which features major international
personalities, attracts thousands of participants and this year will
celebrate Peres’s 90th birthday.
Hawking is in very poor health, but last week he wrote a brief letter
to the Israeli president to say he had changed his mind. He has not
announced his decision publicly, but a statement published by the
British Committee for the Universities of Palestine with Hawking’s
approval described it as "his independent decision to respect the
boycott, based upon his knowledge of Palestine, and on the unanimous
advice of his own academic contacts there".
Hawking’s decision marks another victory in the campaign for boycott,
divestment and sanctions targeting Israeli academic institutions.
In April the Teachers’ Union of Ireland became the first lecturers’
association in Europe to call for an academic boycott of Israel, and in
the United States members of the Association for Asian American Studies
voted to support a boycott, the first national academic group to do so.
In the four weeks since Hawking’s participation in the Jerusalem
event was announced, he has been bombarded with messages from Britain
and abroad as part of an intense campaign by boycott supporters trying
to persuade him to change his mind. In the end, Hawking told friends, he
decided to follow the advice of Palestinian colleagues who unanimously
agreed that he should not attend.
Hawking’s decision met with abusive responses on Facebook, with many
commentators focusing on his physical condition, and some accusing him
of antisemitism.
By participating in the boycott, Hawking joins a small but growing
list of British personalities who have turned down invitations to visit
Israel, including Elvis Costello, Roger Waters, Brian Eno, Annie Lennox
and Mike Leigh.
However, many artists, writers and academics have defied and even
denounced the boycott, calling it ineffective and selective. Ian McEwan,
who was awarded the Jerusalem Prize in 2011, responded to critics by
saying : "If I only went to countries that I approve of, I probably
would never get out of bed … It’s not great if everyone stops talking."
Noam Chomsky, a prominent supporter of the Palestinian cause, has
said that he supports the "boycott and divestment of firms that are
carrying out operations in the occupied territories" but that a general
boycott of Israel is "a gift to Israeli hardliners and their American
supporters".
Hawking has visited Israel four times in the past. Most recently, in
2006, he delivered public lectures at Israeli and Palestinian
universities as the guest of the British embassy in Tel Aviv. At the
time, he said he was "looking forward to coming out to Israel and the
Palestinian territories and excited about meeting both Israeli and
Palestinian scientists".
Since then, his attitude to Israel appears to have hardened. In 2009,
Hawking denounced Israel’s three-week attack on Gaza, telling Riz Khan
on Al-Jazeera that Israel’s response to rocket fire from Gaza was "plain
out of proportion … The situation is like that of South Africa before
1990 and cannot continue."
Israel Maimon, chairman of the presidential conference said : "This decision is outrageous and wrong.
"The use of an academic boycott against Israel is outrageous and
improper, particularly for those to whom the spirit of liberty is the
basis of the human and academic mission. Israel is a democracy in which
everyone can express their opinion, whatever it may be. A boycott
decision is incompatible with open democratic discourse."
In 2011, the Israeli parliament passed a law making a boycott call by
an individual or organisation a civil offence which can result in
compensation liable to be paid regardless of actual damage caused. It
defined a boycott as "deliberately avoiding economic, cultural or
academic ties with another person or another factor only because of his
ties with the State of Israel, one of its institutions or an area under
its control, in such a way that may cause economic, cultural or academic
damage".
• This article was amended on 8 May 2013. The original described
Hawking as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of
Cambridge. He stepped down in 2009.
(08-05-2013 - Harriet Sherwood and Matthew Kalman)
Lancé le 19 décembre 2011, "Si Proche Orient" est un blog d'information internationale. Sa mission est de couvrir l’actualité du Moyen-Orient et de l'Afrique du Nord avec un certain regard et de véhiculer partout dans le monde un point de vue pouvant amener au débat. "Si Proche Orient" porte sur l’actualité internationale de cette région un regard fait de diversité des opinions, de débats contradictoires et de confrontation des points de vue.Il propose un décryptage approfondi de l’actualité .
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