By Richard Edmondson
Earlier this week renowned British physicist Stephen Hawking made a decision based upon conscience. That decision was to honor the academic boycott against Israel and to decline an invitation to attend the Presidential Conference, an event held each year in Israel that normally draws a prestigious crowd of attendees. However, instead of simply respecting Professor Hawking’s decision and leaving it at that—which would have been the mature, reasonable, adult response—supporters of the Jewish state, much like petulant adolescents, have gone into attack mode. The following press release was posted at the website of the Anti-Defamation League:
Earlier this week renowned British physicist Stephen Hawking made a decision based upon conscience. That decision was to honor the academic boycott against Israel and to decline an invitation to attend the Presidential Conference, an event held each year in Israel that normally draws a prestigious crowd of attendees. However, instead of simply respecting Professor Hawking’s decision and leaving it at that—which would have been the mature, reasonable, adult response—supporters of the Jewish state, much like petulant adolescents, have gone into attack mode. The following press release was posted at the website of the Anti-Defamation League:
Stephen Hawking’s Decision to Withdraw From Israeli Conference
‘A Slap in the Face to Academic Freedom’New York, NY, May 8, 2013 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today criticized the decision by British professor Stephen Hawking to withdraw from the Israeli Presidential Conference on political grounds, calling it “a slap in the face to academic freedom.”
In a letter to conference organizers, Dr. Hawking said he came to his decision after Palestinian academics urged him to comply with calls for an “academic boycott” of Israel.
Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement:
Dr. Hawking has bought into the anti-Israel “boycott, divestment and sanctions” campaign, which relies on an abhorrent and false comparison of Israeli democracy to apartheid. It is sad that a man of Dr. Hawking’s immense intellect is unwilling to see the double standard and demonization which are the hallmarks of this anti-Israel movement.
The fact remains that the vast majority of academics and other public figures throughout the world do not succumb to the entreaties of a bigoted few. Hawking has joined a relatively small group of closed-minded academics, entertainers and other public figures who show their lack of respect for academic freedom and the promotion of the free exchange of ideas.
Had Dr. Hawking gone ahead with his trip, he likely would have met many Israelis, including leading academics, who share his political views. Instead, he has delivered a slap in the face to academic freedom. We are heartened by the fact that so many other public figures continue to visit Israel and choose to engage and experience, rather than boycott, demonize and discriminate.
But it isn’t only the ADL. A Jewish rabbi, Abraham Cooper, in an op-ed piece for Fox News, casts Hawking as “highly unorthodox,” asserting that the physicist “caved to the prevailing virulent anti-Israel orthodoxy among the United Kingdom’s elite and announced he’ll boycott because of Palestinian protests.”
I’m not sure what UK “elite” Cooper is referring to here. Last time I checked, British Prime Minister David Cameron and his senior ministers were all uniformly pro-Israel, along with most of the British Parliament, and, unless I miss my guess, the royal family as well, but then defenders of the Jewish state often lapse into soliloquies of flawed logic.
As may be expected, flourishes of eternal Jewish victimization can also be detected in some of the attacks.
“I have a suggestion,” said a professor at the University of Haifa. “I suggest that the people of Israel send Hawking for a free trip on the Achille Lauro!!”
Petulance on the high seas indeed.
A writer at The Telegraph describes Hawking’s decision as “a sad display of partisanship,” while another at the Daily Mail calls it “shameful,” and if you go here you can read of scurrilous comments about the wheel-chair-bound physicist posted at social media sites.
Israel’s supporters are not particularly known for their grace and manners. Moreover, Hawking is a smart man. He would have known that that taking the step of honoring the boycott, a boycott that has the aim of bringing about an end to a brutal occupation, would make him a target of criticism. The fact that he chose to do so anyway speaks all the more eloquently for him.