Dozens of Nobel Prize laureates condemn boycott campaign against Israel

December 23, 2010

Under the auspices of the initiative

Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME),

38 Nobel peace prize laureates have signed a declaration condemning international attempts to boycott, divest from or sanction Israeli academics, institutions, and research or training centers. Of special concern are the continued threat of a boycott by South Africa’s University of Johannesburg of Ben-Gurion University in Israel, student 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 Law Enforcement and Education Center at Georgia State University which has training and research connections with similar institutions in Israel.

The statement by the Nobel prize laureates says: “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, [they] are likely to be counterproductive to the dynamics of reconciliation that lead to peace.”

SPME is a grassroots network of more than 60,000 faculty and scholars on 4,000 campuses. The initiative envisions and strives for peace in the Middle East, and a world in which Israel exists within secure borders and is at peace with its neighbors.The present statement (see in full below) was coordinated by Nobel Prize laureates Roger Kornberg, Stanford University, and Steven Weinberg, University of Texas, Austin.

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