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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

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  October
     East Task Force on Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions         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