SPME Petition 21

The Board of Directors of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) and the SPME Task Force on Boycott Divestments and Sanctions are asking faculty colleagues, students, independent scholars and researchers from around the world to join us in endorsing and circulating this statement below by 41 Nobel Laureates speaking against academic boycotts, divestment and sanctions. We are hoping to exceed 20,000 faculty, students, researchers and scholars with this effort.

When signing this petition, please load your full name and affiliation. Please note your status as student or faculty when applicable.

Please feel free to circulate this petition through your campus mailing lists or share through one or more of the social networking services, such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and others.

Many thanks in advance for your support.

Members of SPME Board of Directors

Jonathan Adelman, University of Denver; Steven Albert, University of Pittsburgh; Leila Beckwith, University of Southern California-Los Angeles, SPME Treasurer; Richard Cravatts, University of Boston, Stanley Dubinsky; University of South Carolina, SPME Vice President for External Relations; Awi Federgruen, Columbia University, Joel Fishman, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs; Rev. India E. Garnett, United Church of Christ, PA; Peter Haas, Case Western Reserve University, SPME President; Judith S. Jacobson, Columbia University, SPME Vice President for Internal Relations; Richard Landes, Boston University; Kenneth L. Marcus, Baruch College of the City University of New York; David Menashri; Tel Aviv University; G.S. Don Morris, Wingate Institute and California Polytechnic Institute-Pomona; Donna Robinson Divine, Smith College; Tammi Rossman-Benjamin University of California at Santa Cruz; Barry Rubin, Interdisciplinary Center and GLORIA Center; Ralf Schuman; MD, Charité Berlin; Philip Carl Salzman, McGill University; Ernest Sternberg, University at Buffalo, State University of New York,

Members of the SPME BDS Task Force

Edward S. Beck, Walden University, SPME President Emeritus; John R.Cohn, Thomas Jefferson University, SPME Board of Directors; Ruth Contreras, University of Vienna and Vienna Natural History Museum, SPME Secretary and Board of Directors; Adam de la Zerda, Stanford University; Alan Dershowitz, Harvard University; Ronnie Fraser, Academics for Israel (UK); Guy Kornberg, Stanford University; Roger Kornberg, Stanford University, Nobel Laureate; Gary Leisman, F. R. Carrick Institute for Clinical Ergonomics, Rehabilitation, and Applied Neuroscience; Judea Pearl, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA); Ilan Troen, Brandeis University and Ben Gurion University, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies; Steven Weinberg, University of Texas at Austin, Nobel Laureate

January 21, 2011

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.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

For Further Information Contact:

Edward S. Beck, Walden University, President-Emeritus and Chair, SPME Task Force on Boycotts, Divestments and Sanction, 717.576.5038 or ScholarsforPeace@aol.com

Peter Haas, Case Western Reserve University, SPME President, peter.haas@case.edu

Samuel Edelman, California-State University-Chico, Executive Director, SPME, spmeexecdir@gmail.com

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