Statement of Nobel Laureates on Academic Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) Actions Against Israeli Academics, Israeli Academic Institutions and Academic Centers and Institutes of Research and Training With Affiliations in Israel

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Scholars for Peace in the Middle East

Nov 02, 2010, 08:23 ET

CHICO, Calif., Nov. 2, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Led by Nobel Laureates Roger Kornberg, Stanford University, and Steven Weinberg, University of Texas at Austin, 38 Nobel colleagues have endorsed the following statement written under the auspices of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) regarding worldwide attempts to boycott, divest from or sanction Israeli academics, institutions, and research and training centers.

Of special concern are the continued threat of a boycott by the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, of Ben Gurion University in Israel, student government divestment efforts in the University of California system, an attempt to get signatures for the California Initiative to divest pension funds from companies doing business with Israel or Israeli companies, as well as the initiative to shut down the Georgia Law Enforcement and Education Center at Georgia State University which has training and research connections with similar institutions in Israel.

A central theme of the Nobel Laureates' statement is:

"Academic and cultural boycotts, divestments and sanctions in the academy are:

antithetical to principles of academic and scientific freedom,
antithetical to principles of freedom of expression and inquiry, and
may well constitute discrimination by virtue of national origin."

Instead of fostering peace, these boycott and divestment efforts are likely to be counterproductive to the dynamics of reconciliation that lead to peace.

Professors Kornberg and Weinberg, with Professor Ed Beck, Walden University, President Emeritus of SPME and Chair of the SPME BDS Task force, have worked successfully together in the past with Nobel Laureates to fight and defeat BDS campaigns against Israeli academic institutions in the UK, the USA, and around the world.

Scholars for Peace in the Middle East is a grass roots network of more than 60,000 faculty and scholars on 4000 campuses all over the world. SPME envisions and strives for peace in the Middle East, and a world in which Israel exists within secure borders, and is at peace with her neighbors as they achieve their legitimate peaceful aspirations.

STATEMENT OF NOBEL LAUREATES ON ACADEMIC BDS ACTIONS AGAINST ISRAELI ACADEMICS, ISRAELI ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS AND ACADEMIC CENTERS AND INSTITUTES OF RESEARCH AND TRAINING WITH AFFILIATIONS IN ISRAEL

By Roger Kornberg, Stanford University and Steven Weinberg, University of Texas at Austin


Published in: A Project of the Scholars for Peace in the Middle East Task Force on Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions	October 28, 2010

Statement of Nobel Laureates on Academic BDS Actions against Israeli Academics, Israeli Academic Institutions and Academic Centers and Institutes of Research and Training With Affiliations in Israel

Believing that academic and cultural boycotts, divestments and sanctions in the academy are:

antithetical to principles of academic and scientific freedom,
antithetical to principles of freedom of expression and inquiry, and
may well constitute discrimination by virtue of national origin,

We, the undersigned Nobel Laureates, appeal to students, faculty colleagues and university officials to defeat and denounce calls and campaigns for boycotting, divestment and sanctions against Israeli academics, academic institutions and university-based centers and institutes for training and research, affiliated with Israel.

Furthermore, we encourage students, faculty colleagues and university officials to promote and provide opportunities for civil academic discourse where parties can engage in the search for resolution to conflicts and problems rather than serve as incubators for polemics, propaganda, incitement and further misunderstanding and mistrust.

We, and many like us, have dedicated ourselves to improving the human condition by doing the often difficult and elusive work to understand complex and seemingly unsolvable phenomena. We believe that the university should serve as an open, tolerant and respectful, cooperative and collaborative community engaged in practices of resolving complex problems.


Sidney Altman	Lawrence Klein
Yale University	University of Pennsylvania
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1989	Nobel Prize in Economics, 1980

Kenneth Arrow	Walter Kohn
Stanford University	University of California Santa Barbara
Nobel Prize in Economics, 1972	Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1998

Robert J. Aumann	Roger D. Kornberg
Hebrew University of Jerusalem	Stanford University
Nobel Prize in Economics, 2005	Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2006

Mario Capecchi	Harold Kroto
University of Utah	Florida State University
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2007	Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1996

Aaron Ciechanover	Finn Kydland
Technion	University of California Santa Barbara
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2004	Nobel Prize in Economics, 2004

Claude Cohen-Tannoudji	Leon Lederman
École Normale Superieure	Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Nobel Prize in Physics, 1997	Nobel Prize in Physics, 1988

Robert Curl	Tony Leggett
Rice University	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1996	Nobel Prize in Physics, 2003

Edmond H. Fischer	Robert Lucas, Jr.
University of Washington	University of Chicago
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1992	Nobel Prize in Economics, 1995

Jerome Friedman	Rudolph A. Marcus
Massachusetts Institute of Technology	California Institute of Technology
Nobel Prize in Physics, 1990	Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1992

Andre Geim	Roger Myerson
Manchester University	University of Chicago
Nobel Prize in Physics, 2010	Nobel Prize in Economics, 2007

Sheldon Glashow	George A. Olah
Boston University	University of Southern California
Nobel Prize in Physics, 1979	Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1994

David Gross	Douglas Osheroff
University of California Santa Barbara	Stanford University
Nobel Prize in Physics, 2004	Nobel Prize in Physics, 1996

James Heckman	Martin L. Perl
University of Chicago	Stanford University
Nobel Prize in Economics, 2000	Nobel Prize in Physics, 1995

Avram Hershko	Andrew V. Schally
Technion	University of Miami
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2004	Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1977

Roald Hoffman	Richard R. Schrock
Cornell University	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1981	Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2005

Russell Hulse	Phillip A. Sharp
University of Texas Dallas	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Nobel Prize in Physics, 1993	Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1993

Tim Hunt	Steven Weinberg
London Research Institute	University of Texas at Austin
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2001	Nobel Prize in Physics, 1979

Daniel Kahneman	Elie Wiesel
Princeton University	Nobel Peace Prize, 1986
Nobel Prize in Economics, 2002

Eric Kandel	Torsten Wiesel
Columbia University	Rockefeller University
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2000	Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1981