Stephen Hawking joins academic boycott of Israel
Source: The Guardian
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 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.
Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/08/stephen-hawking-israel-academic-boycott?CMP=twt_fd
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Kurska
(5,739 posts)scientific openness and communication.
As an academic researcher myself, I wouldn't dream of ever giving another colleague in my field anything besides my full respect and help if they asked for it. I certainly wouldn't "boycott" them simply because of their country of origin.
But what do you expect when these days you might not even be able to get access to critical journal articles without paying through the nose for them?
The politicalizing and commercialization of the scientific method marches on.
Wabbajack_
(1,300 posts)They usually end up hurting the little people, not who you aim to hurt with them.
Daniel537
(1,560 posts)being imposed by one nation against another, like the one we have on Cuba. This is one man, and many others for that matter, refusing to visit a nation that is known to abuse human rights. Its his right to boycott Israel, and i have no problem with that.
Behind the Aegis
(53,986 posts)That someone so intelligent can be so stupid is sad. There can be rare exceptions, but overall, academic boycotts are useless and stupid.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)Behind the Aegis
(53,986 posts)But then again, it really depends on the subject of the boycott that makes many people glisten.
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)Behind the Aegis
(53,986 posts)Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)I figured one of us jumping to assumptions was more than enough for the thread though. So I was hoping maybe you'd stop tiptoing around and just say what's on your mind. It ain't hard.
Behind the Aegis
(53,986 posts)Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)'Cause it's not in this thread, Aegis. Like I said, I see tiptoeing, but no meat
Behind the Aegis
(53,986 posts)It is in this thread, Scottaloo. Fascinating you are so invested in it though...oh, but I know why, your tip-toeing is not as quiet.
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)This is what you posted;
And what I asked:
You've not answered.
Alright, let's make it simple, via 2 questions.
1) Do you believe calls for academic boycotting of Israel are based on antisemitism?
and
2) Do you believe Stephen Hawking is an antisemite?
Behind the Aegis
(53,986 posts)Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)I wanted to clear it up. Like I said, I can pretty much guess the answers to those questions, but the lack of you know, specifics was making me want to make sure. I could try to open discourse on those guesses, but I'm pretty sure it'd be met by you going "What? I said no such thing how dare you, harrumph harrumph!"
I've done this before, y'know 
So, can you answer the questions?
1) are calls for academic boycotts of Israel based on antisemitism
and
2) is Stephen Hawking an antisemite?
Behind the Aegis
(53,986 posts)This is the MO I expect from a number of people, but a new low for you.
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)Also I'm curious about this line;
I really don't think you know why. But I'm all curious as to what you "know." Call it 'low' if you want, i'm just trying ot get somestraight talk instead of half-shaded finger-pointing and veiled accusations out of you.
Behind the Aegis
(53,986 posts)I simply revised my first response.
Yes, I do know why. It is no different than people who falsely accuse others of anti-Semitism; there is a group that falsely accuse some (like myself) of claiming anti-Semitism, when no such thing as been done. If you want straight-talk, then try it sans the personal attacks.
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)So, what, then, is the "subject" that makes people "glisten"?
Behind the Aegis
(53,986 posts)My original response was "No. No." and then I revised the first response.
As for the "glisten" part, well, I guess you really can't figure it out.
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)And that's why I'm hoping for you to explain. School me up.
Behind the Aegis
(53,986 posts)Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)But the answer to the other two is fortunate. Maybe you could inform some of the other posters around yon parts? Maybe they'll listen up if you tell 'em what's what.
Behind the Aegis
(53,986 posts)So, are you still game-playing or what? Do you really not understand? The only reason I didn't respond directly is because I needed you to expose your game. All one has to do is see the post to which I responded, and there is the answer, but you had to play games based on your false accusations. That's on you.
mimi85
(1,805 posts)thru TicketMaster for this war of words? 
Kurska
(5,739 posts)If not why not?
What about nations where women are considered little better than property like Saudi Arabia, should they not be academically boycotted? How about places where homosexuality are illegal?
When you start damaging science for the sake of politics where do you end. I completely understand economic and even cultural boycotts, but an academic boycott is like I've already said disgusting and contrary to basic scientific principles.
I'm a homosexual myself and I would never dream of engaging in an "academic boycott" even of countries where my love is illegal. That just isn't how science is supposed to operate.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)"insight" as to "how science is supposed to operate."
If I was a scientist, I would definitely boycott countries that abuse human rights. But then I dont know "how science is supposed to operate."
Kurska
(5,739 posts)If you start putting political decisions before open and honest communication of scientific findings to receptive audiences you're probably doing something wrong.
AlbertCat
(17,505 posts)So communicate them somewhere other than Israel. And Israeli scientists can travel to wherever that is. What's the problem? The boycott is about Israel, not science.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)But I would not participate in an event that can be used politically but a government that does not uphold human rights. There is a huge difference.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)After a barrage of camera flashes by Chinese students and reporters, Stephen Hawking slowly spelled out his words of wisdom to a packed auditorium in Beijing Wednesday.
"I like Chinese culture, Chinese food and above all Chinese women. They are beautiful," Hawking said, setting off a storm of applause.
http://www.china.org.cn/english/scitech/172341.htm
Xithras
(16,191 posts)In fact, there are a number of historical examples. While I can appreciate your desire for academic purity, there's another factor to weigh in with here. Academic and research conferences bring prestige to the host country. Scientists don't actually live in ivory towers and have to live in the same world as everyone else. Why, then, would they engage in something that would bring prestige or legitimacy to a government engaging in behaviors they consider to be discriminatory or even genocidal?
The Israeli government has made its bed. The Israeli people who don't oppose it, including its academics, are a part of the problem. The Israeli government, and the people who support it, have a simple choice to make...they can either change their behaviors, or they can accept the fact that some of us will consider them to be pariahs until they do.
As a lifelong student of history, I would love to visit Israel, but I won't do it because I don't want my money to support their government or economy. As an academic and scientist, I wouldn't consider attending any conferences there for the same reason.
cali
(114,904 posts)Why not?
I find the frank hypocrisy of your position fascinating.
Xithras
(16,191 posts)...anyone, or any group, that chooses to withhold its support for any people, company, or nation engaging in inhumane practices. So, yes, I would support the right to form an organized boycott against the U.S. if overseas groups chose to form one in response to some of our practices.
Note that I didn't say that I would join that boycott. As a U.S. citizen residing and working within the United States, boycotting the U.S. isn't actually possible. Gotta buy my food somewhere!
No hypocrisy here.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Wow, good stuff.
Xithras
(16,191 posts)Mine was simply that academic boycotts of abusive governments is nothing new, and I cited two high profile examples.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)I don't get it.
Daniel537
(1,560 posts)it opens up a lot of people's eyes who might otherwise not care or know about the deplorable situation of the Palestinians. He's putting a spotlight on a human rights issue and that's a plus, no matter how you spin it.
Mosby
(16,350 posts)He just finished a trip to china and went to a conference a few years ago in iran. He's a tool.
duhneece
(4,117 posts)A lot more of the world is already aware of China's mistreatmt of Tibet, but the Palestinians don't have that level of awareness going for them...yet. Good on Hawking.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)
delrem
(9,688 posts)Any actual academic articles are available to any Israeli.
Academia is not and cannot be "boycotted" in any way, but political fronts for acedemia can be.
Hawking, in his metaphysical and religious outpourings, doesn't strike me as being very well thought out.
Just sayin'
muriel_volestrangler
(101,361 posts)In the 2013 Conference, we will give special emphasis to the human factor and its role in shaping our tomorrow. We will ask whether the quality of leadership – in all realms of human activity – can make a difference. What is the desired dynamic in relationships between people and leaders in the face of powerful processes of change? To what degree can human beings really be involved in influencing their futures? We will examine what threats may lie in an individual’s tomorrow, in terms of identity, family, health, ability to find happiness, and meaning in life.
http://2013.presidentconf.org.il/en/about/
This is about whether you take part in a political conference explicitly organised in the name of the Israeli president.
haikugal
(6,476 posts)Civilization2
(649 posts)Israel is behaving atrociously, people should take actions to show our contempt for such blatant evil.
cali
(114,904 posts)It's so interesting, this blindness.
Ash_F
(5,861 posts)We did do that though. 
oberliner
(58,724 posts)It is amazing that people can post something like this in earnest.
Ash_F
(5,861 posts)I realize that it must be driving you crazy right now, but the arc of the universe is long and it bends towards justice and so on and so forth. There will be reform. Just like in South Africa. 
Mosby
(16,350 posts)The Palestinians keep other Palestinians locked up in camps, going on 70 years now.
Israel has nothing to do with that or any of the other Palestinian prison camps in the middle east.
Ash_F
(5,861 posts)Their world is crashing down. I talked with some White South African ex-pats in the last couple years. They are still bitter. It's too bad.
People are frustrated because you and other are buying into propoganda.
The solution to the conflict has to come through negotiations, not unilateral actions. (Per UN security council resolution 242)
The Islamic extremists would love to see Israel leave the west bank, that way they can fire missles at the airport in Israel effectively shutting the country down. That's who you are supporting when you support BDS.
People like you are ensuring that the Palestinians will never have a country.
Ash_F
(5,861 posts)Stings doesn't it?
I'm guessing the Hamas leadership in Gaza aren't the "right-wing racist fucks" you mean.
Wow... you literally can not say anything ever.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Israel is putting its best face forward for President Obama, and what better face to put forward for America’s first black president than Israel’s first black beauty queen? The newly crowned Miss Israel is an Ethiopian Jewish immigrant to Israel.
She is joining Obama Thursday for the official state dinner in Jerusalem. Ethiopian immigrants have struggled to integrate into Israeli society, but Obama will be getting a taste of some of their recent success stories.
A few weeks ago, more than a quarter of all Israeli TV viewers watched the judges announce the new Miss Israel of 2013.
Titi is her name, short for Yityish Aynaw. She was the only black finalist in this year’s beauty pageant and she has become Israel’s first black beauty queen. She’s tall, commanding, and outspoken.
“It’s time that someone from my community, someone with my skin color, who is Israeli just like everyone else, represent the country,” Aynaw said.
http://www.theworld.org/2013/03/ethiopian-crowned-miss-israel/
muriel_volestrangler
(101,361 posts)and he invited a physicist for some reason, had said "I protested your invasion of Iraq in 2003; I'm not coming to your conference, you committed war crimes", would you have thought that unusual or wrong? I think most of us would have applauded it. Look at the opening of his library. Many (most?) DUers wanted Democrats to boycott that.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)He is not Netanyahu and is certainly not George W Bush.
He is also essentially a figurehead and does not make policy decisions for Israel.
joelz
(185 posts)The academic boycott of South Africa comprised a series of boycotts of South African academic institutions and scholars initiated in the 1960s, at the request of the African National Congress, with the goal of using such international pressure to force the end South Africa's system of apartheid. The boycotts were part of a larger international campaign of "isolation" that eventually included political, economic, cultural and sports boycotts. The academic boycotts ended in 1990, when its stated goal of ending apartheid was achieved.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)elias7
(4,026 posts)You seem very righteous. This is, though, a forum for discussion and exchange of thoughts and ideas, not just one giant choir you can preach to.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Because this place has only one choir.
Cats.
abelenkpe
(9,933 posts)Daniel537
(1,560 posts)
liindy
(12 posts)boycotted intelligent discourse a long time ago. Bazinga!!!!
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)
magellan
(13,257 posts)No matter how one feels about this academic boycott, someone of his stature backing out of the conference will not only draw attention to the issue but raise eyebrows and get chins wagging. And that's never a bad thing among people who are supposed to use their brains for a living.
davidpdx
(22,000 posts)Sure he's a brilliant guy, but what real difference will it make. Probably not much. The earth isn't going to stop rotating and the sky isn't going to fall tomorrow.
Mr_Jefferson_24
(8,559 posts)Last edited Wed May 8, 2013, 03:36 AM - Edit history (1)
Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)Is Israel the only country in the whole wide world that has done deplorable things? Kurska in #7 listed some good candidates for inclusion.
If you believe that there are many countries that could be criticized, then it's worth asking why Israel is singled out. My speculation, based on very little information, is that there might well have been some anti-Semitism as part of the motivation in the initial stages, but that by now it's become more of a fashionable thing. There are probably a lot of people who are not anti-Semites but who are joining this particular boycott because many of their friends are or because people they admire are or because people who might hire them are.
An alternative explanation is that Israel's conduct is objectively far far worse than that of any other country in the world, and that all these boycotters, without regard to the influences of their social circles and without consideration of Israel's majority religion, have independently come to that conclusion. If anyone can provide evidence for that conclusion, I'd be interested in it.
For starters, people who want to talk about the Palestinians might explain why, 20 years after World War II ended, so many other serious refugee problems had been dealt with, but the Palestinians living under Arab rule were still in such bad straits. Were there boycotts of Egypt based on conditions in the Gaza Strip before it came under Israeli control?
BumRushDaShow
(129,441 posts)Stewland
(163 posts)I applaud Hawking. Sometimes people must be made aware of the evils of aggression masking itself in nationalism and religion. This idea worked well for the Nazis and has been the driving political and social force in Israel. Zionism is an evil much like Nazism. Just like all forces of darkness it's time of being undone will come. The Zionist influence over American politicians won't last forever.
cali
(114,904 posts)and the bullshit that zionism is akin to Nazism is vile. And before you or anyone else in this thread accuses me of being an apologist for Israel, I suggest you check out my posts in the I/P forum. Anyone who posts there regularly knows that I'm harshly critical of the Israeli government.
Mr_Jefferson_24
(8,559 posts)... I couldn't agree more.
Daniel537
(1,560 posts)so Israel is definitely not the only country being boycotted. Israel hides behind the guise of "democracy" in order to commit its abuses against Palestinians, but thankfully everybody isn't buying it.
Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)Syria of course is a special case because of the current levels of violence there. I'd expect most academics, tourists, and other such travelers to avoid Syria right now solely for reasons of personal safety.
To show me that "Israel is definitely not the only country being boycotted," you'd have to point to a specific conference that was held in North Korea or some such place, to which Western academics were invited, but which some refused to attend, publicly stating the reason for their nonattendance to be their disagreement with that country's government's policies. To fit with the common understanding of the term "boycott" there should also be an organized effort -- not just one professor refusing to go to Saudi Arabia, but people making "Did You Know" videos about the country's misdeeds (see #29 above), collectively urging others not to travel to that country, and compiling lists of products to be boycotted.
I have a vague recollection of having seen some public call for people not to go to Saudi Arabia because of its treatment of women. As far as I know, however, no country other than Israel is being subject to sustained and widespread boycott pressure.
Ash_F
(5,861 posts)Or do only 'little people' boycotts count?
Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)To me, "boycott" implies a popular action, i.e., one carried out by the "little people" you mention. The U.S. embargo on trade with Cuba isn't a boycott, it's an embargo. It has the force of law (for Americans) but does not have the support of people in the private sector making videos (see #29) or publishing graphics (see #45) or announcing that they're boycotting conferences for political reasons (see the OP).
Of course, the U.S. embargo on trade with Cuba is subject to exactly the same criticism of applying a double standard. Our government singles out Cuba while allowing Americans to trade with many countries that have done things worse than anything you can impute to Cuba. Those of us who consider that fact to be an example of governmental hypocrisy can logically assert that similar conduct of anti-Israel boycotters is an example of "little people" hypocrisy.
Ash_F
(5,861 posts)...that is basically a pep rally for the Israeli President would be going to any similar conferences in the name of the Iranian President, or the North Korean 'Eternal President'. So there is no evidence of hypocrisy.
Meanwhile the Government is happy too trade with Saudi Arabia, a country that is orders of magnitude worse than any of the nations discussed thus far, that have blanket trade embargoes.
It seems like you are arguing from the perspective that this is a general boycott of Israel. Maybe you should read past the headline?
Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)You write, "It seems like you are arguing from the perspective that this is a general boycott of Israel. Maybe you should read past the headline?"
There may be a few individuals who have issues only with this particular conference, if they join you in considering it a "pep rally" for someone they dislike, but who are not otherwise boycotting Israel. Overall, however, it's absolutely clear that there is indeed a general boycott of Israel.
My reading past the headlines can start right here in this thread, where we see calls to not go to Israel as a tourist or attend any conferences there (#53), and to boycott Israeli goods (#45). The article linked in the OP referred to Hawking's decision as "another victory in the campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions targeting Israeli academic institutions."
Beyond what's in this thread, I did a quick cruise through some relevant Wikipedia articles. A conference in 2001 endorsed "mandatory and comprehensive sanctions and embargoes, the full cessation of all links (diplomatic, economic, social, aid, military cooperation and training) between all states and Israel". To me that sounds about as general as it could be.
The quotation from the linked article refers to divestment but, confusingly, in the context of academic institutions. Divestment, of course, means the call for churches, pension funds, etc. to sell all the stock of companies doing business in Israel.
There was a "Palestinian call for a comprehensive economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel issued in August 2002...." This has included pledges from various musicians not to perform in Israel.
I haven't taken the time to give the specific source for each of these bits of information. I mined all of them from these articles:
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boycott_of_Israel
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boycott,_Divestment_and_Sanctions
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_League_boycott_of_Israel
Is that enough reading past the headlines for you?
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, best known for his work in cosmology and quantum physics, will attend the annual International Physics Olympiad, a brain-to-brain competition among the top physics high school students of 86 countries. The competition will be held this year in Isfahan, Iran, July 13 - 22.
http://physicsbuzz.physicscentral.com/2007/04/stephen-hawking-to-travel-to-iran-for.html
muriel_volestrangler
(101,361 posts)which ended when the junta introduced reforms:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/suu-kyi-urges-britons-to-boycott-burma-1342477.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2366371.stm
http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2003/07/14/foreign-office-calls-for-burma-boycott
http://www.hrw.org/news/2008/01/10/burma-boycott-gems-funding-military-repression
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/nov/08/burma-travel-boycott-lifting
RandiFan1290
(6,242 posts)
cali
(114,904 posts)of Israel sure as shit should be supporting one of the U.S. What we've done is by far worse than what Israel's done.
IDemo
(16,926 posts)Last edited Wed May 8, 2013, 12:40 PM - Edit history (1)
“We had understood previously that his decision was based purely on health grounds having been advised by doctors not to fly," the statement added.
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Stephen-Hawking-reaffirms-support-of-Israel-boycott-312505
Response to JohnyCanuck (Original post)
greiner3 This message was self-deleted by its author.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Fresh reports are emerging about Prof. Stephen Hawking's apparent boycott of Israel.
The Cambridge professor and renowned theoretical physicist was first reported to be boycotting Israel due to what anti-Israel activists called, "his independent decision to respect the boycott, based upon his knowledge of Palestine, and on the unanimous advice of his own academic contacts there."
Following a letter to Hawking, as well as numerous online reports, Cambridge University issued a statement, claiming that the report was a "misunderstanding" and that Hawking was not boycotting Israel, but rather that he was not travelling to Shimon Peres's conference next month for health reasons. The statement claimed, "Professor Hawking will not be attending the conference in Israel in June for health reasons - his doctors have advised against him flying."
A spokesperson at Cambridge also told The Commentator that the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP), which issued the statement on behalf of Hawking, "assumed" that this was the reason behind the boycott, but that they were wrong.
Now however, Guardian journalist Matthew Kalman who penned the original story late last night claims the Cambridge statement is untrue, and that Hawking will indeed be boycotting the Jewish state. He tweeted, "In case you doubted my story on Hawking's boycott of Israel, I have now confirmed it again. Cambridge retraction soon".
http://www.thecommentator.com/article/3477/_boycott_all_the_way_as_cambridge_university_retracts_hawking_health_statement
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Former Cabinet Secretary Israel Maimon is furious over the decision by eminent physicist Professor Stephen Hawking to withdraw from the upcoming fifth Presidential Conference taking place in Jerusalem in June. Maimon has been chairman of the conference since its inception.
Hawking's participation was announced with great fanfare last month, but since then, he has decided to join the academic boycott of Israel, and last week in a note to President Shimon Peres retracted his original decision to attend..
The story of Hawking's change of heart was broken by Matthew Kalman, the Jerusalem correspondent for the influential British newspaper The Guardian.
Hawking's decision was outrageous and improper said Maimon in a statement released by Debby Communications which handles the public relations for the conference. The imposition of academic boycotts against Israel is erroneous and offensive and incompatible with dialogue - certainly for someone for whom the spirit of liberty is the basis of his human and academic mission and who knows that Israel is a democracy in which every individual can express an opinion regardless of what it may be.
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Conference-chairman-furious-at-Hawkings-withdrawal-312472
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)which is exactly what Hawking has done.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Mosby
(16,350 posts)he goes to china and iran but balks at a conference in israel. You gotta know he is facing a shitstorm, rightly so imo.
Occulus
(20,599 posts)Maybe he should direct his outrage at the ethnic cleansers in his government instead of one of the brightest minds on the planet.
Catherina
(35,568 posts)A Brief History Of Hawking's Boycott
by Matthew Kalman May 8, 2013 3:00 PM EDT
By the time Cambridge University spokesman Tim Holt was able to issue a statement denying my story early on Wednesday afternoon, it had already taken on a life of its own. The news that Professor Stephen Hawking, author of “A Brief History of Time” and Britain’s most famous physicist, was canceling his headline appearance at a conference hosted by Israeli President Shimon Peres in solidarity with the Palestinian academic boycott had swept the web and percolated through the blogosphere.
...
12 hours earlier, I had been told a very different version by officials at the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP). They had published a brief note on Tuesday evening with, they said, the approval of Hawking’s personal assistant announcing his withdrawal from the fifth Facing Tomorrow Presidential Conference. They told me that he had written a brief letter to the Israeli president changing his mind and making his reasons clear in terms that BRICUP described 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.”
...
There was an email exchange showing quite clearly that Hawking’s personal assistant and Tim Holt had both approved the BRICUP announcement that sparked my interest on Tuesday night. And there was Hawking’s letter, sent to the conference organizers on May 3 on Cambridge University letterhead, setting out clearly his reasons for pulling out: no health issues, all boycott. It had been copied to several other people. One of them was kind enough to share it with me.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/may/08/hawking-israel-boycott-furore
Confronted with the two pieces of evidence, the Cambridge University spokesman realized he had been caught in a lie. Over the phone, he apologized to me and admitted the previous statement about Hawking’s health had been inaccurate.
...
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/08/a-brief-history-of-stephen-hawking-s-boycott.html?utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=buffer12b21
Catherina
(35,568 posts)By Chemi Shalev | May.08, 2013 | 9:30 PM
...
With Hawking, the Palestinian-inspired BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement now has a powerful symbol and an unlikely poster boy at its disposal in its increasingly successful drive.
2. Hawking’s fame and celebrity make him a public relations prize for the BDS movement, but there is no doubt that his physical condition multiplies its impact a thousand times over. The juxtaposition of Hawking’s frail, helpless and paralyzed frame against the all-powerful and brutish image that boycotters try to ascribe to Israel could very well be molded into an iconic recruitment tool. It’s more Helen Keller than David vs. Goliath.
3. Judging by its initial reactions, Israel and its legions of so-called defenders will do their best to help the BDS make the most of it. The Presidential Conference could have made do with “regret”, but no, their spokespersons had to be “outraged”, thus setting a high bar for Israeli politicians who will now try to outdo each other in denouncing and condemning Hawking. To this one must add the foul and vile social media jokes of average-Joe Israelis on social media that have already found their way into the mainstream press.
Not only is a campaign against Hawking bound for defeat, as any PR expert will tell you, but its fallout will be compounded the more that the protests are aimed at his physical disabilities – including the too clever by half calls for him to “boycott” the technological remedies for his affliction provided by Israeli knowhow.
Israelis aren’t known for their subtlety or genteel manners, so one can rest assured that this is exactly what is going to happen.
....
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/west-of-eden/stephen-hawking-is-now-the-academic-boycott-movement-s-unlikely-poster-boy-1.519980
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Israel is no South Africa. Israelis are not Afrikaners. Ramallah is no Sun City, and Gaza isn’t Bantustan. Inside the 1967 borders there is no apartheid, and, whatever you may think of the occupation, none outside as well.
Catherina
(35,568 posts)not their jailers.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Why did you post that Ha'aretz article? Was it to express disagreement with its content? If so, that was not clear when you posted it.
Catherina
(35,568 posts)If you want to draw focus to its white-washing of the apartheid to make it not look so bad, feel free to. That part is of no interest to me.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)So the insights shared from the part of the article that you posted, you do agree with, but the other paragraphs in the same article by the same person, you vehemently disagree with?
That seems a little strange.
Ash_F
(5,861 posts)Being pro-human rights is not being anti-Semite.
Catherina
(35,568 posts)"I accepted the invitation to the Presidential Conference with the intention that this would not only allow me to express my opinion on the prospects for a peace settlement but also because it would allow me to lecture on the West Bank.
However, I have received a number of emails from Palestinian academics. They are unanimous that I should respect the boycott. In view of this, I must withdraw from the conference. Had I attended, I would have stated my opinion that the policy of the present Israeli government is likely to lead to disaster."
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/stephen-hawking-confirms-he-pulled-out-israel-conference-due-boycott-not-health
Ash_F
(5,861 posts)But regardless there are prominent Israeli academics who support the movement.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Can you name a few of them?
Ash_F
(5,861 posts)But you appear to be flailing randomly in all directions, so I'm just going to give you some space to absorb this story.
Have a nice day.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Would it be possible for you to share a single name of one such prominent Israeli academic?
Catherina
(35,568 posts)oberliner
(58,724 posts)Where did you get this nonsense from?
duhneece
(4,117 posts)From Jerusalem Post:
"...A letter sent by Hawking to the organizers of the June 18- 20 conference suggested, however, that pressure from Palestinian academics made him withdraw..."
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Stephen-Hawking-reaffirms-support-of-Israel-boycott-312505
