Led by Nobel Laureates, Roger Kornberg, Stanford University, and Steven Weinberg, University of Texas at Austin, 41 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 former 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 Yale University Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1989 |
Roger D. Kornberg Stanford University Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2006 |
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| Kenneth Arrow Stanford University Nobel Prize in Economics, 1972 |
Harold Kroto Florida State University Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1996 |
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| Robert J. Aumann Hebrew University of Jerusalem Nobel Prize in Economics, 2005 |
Finn Kydland University of California, Santa Barbara Nobel Prize in Economics, 2004 |
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| Mario Capecchi University of Utah Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2007 |
Leon Lederman Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Nobel Prize in Physics, 1988 |
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| Aaron Ciechanover Technion Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2004 |
Tony Leggett University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Nobel Prize in Physics, 2003 |
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| Claude Cohen-Tannoudji École Normale Supérieure Nobel Prize in Physics, 1997 |
Robert Lucas, Jr. University of Chicago Nobel Prize in Economics, 1995 |
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| Robert Curl Rice University Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1996 |
Rudolph A. Marcus California Institute of Technology Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1992 |
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| Edmond H. Fischer University of Washington Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1992 |
Eric Maskin Institute for Advanced Study Nobel Prize in Economics, 2007 |
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| Jerome Friedman Massachusetts Institute of Technology Nobel Prize in Physics, 1990 |
Roger Myerson University of Chicago Nobel Prize in Economics, 2007 |
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| Andre Geim Manchester University Nobel Prize in Physics, 2010 |
George A. Olah University of Southern California Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1994 |
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| Sheldon Glashow Boston University Nobel Prize in Physics, 1979 |
Douglas Osheroff Stanford University Nobel Prize in Physics, 1996 |
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| David Gross University of California, Santa Barbara Nobel Prize in Physics, 2004 |
Martin L. Perl Stanford University Nobel Prize in Physics, 1995 |
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| James Heckman University of Chicago Nobel Prize in Economics, 2000 |
Stanley B. Prusiner University of California, San Francisco Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1997 |
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| Avram Hershko Technion Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2004 |
Andrew V. Schally University of Miami Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1977 |
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| Roald Hoffman Cornell University Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1981 |
Richard R. Schrock Massachusetts Institute of Technology Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2005 |
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| Russell Hulse University of Texas, Dallas Nobel Prize in Physics, 1993 |
Phillip A. Sharp Massachusetts Institute of Technology Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1993 |
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| Tim Hunt London Research Institute Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2001 |
George F. Smoot Universite Paris Diderot, Ewha Womans University University of California at Berkeley Nobel Prize in Physics, 2006 |
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| Daniel Kahneman Princeton University Nobel Prize in Economics, 2002 |
Steven Weinberg University of Texas, Austin Nobel Prize in Physics, 1979 |
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| Eric Kandel Columbia University Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2000 |
Elie Wiesel Boston University Nobel Peace Prize, 1986 |
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| Lawrence Klein University of Pennsylvania Nobel Prize in Economics, 1980 |
Torsten Wiesel Rockefeller University Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1981 |
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| Walter Kohn University of California, Santa Barbara Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1998 |
