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
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 | |
SOURCE Scholars for Peace in the Middle East
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