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Prof. Stephen Hawking Joins Academic Boycott Of Israel

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  • Prof. Stephen Hawking Joins Academic Boycott Of Israel

    PROF. STEPHEN HAWKING JOINS ACADEMIC BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL

    May 8, 2013 - 11:47 AMT

    PanARMENIAN.Net - 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, The Guardian reports.

    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.

    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.

    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."

    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."

    The office of President Peres, which has not yet announced Hawking's
    withdrawal, did not respond to requests for comment. Hawking's name
    has been removed from the speakers listed on the official website.

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