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Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forumIsrael, Hawking and the Pressing Question of Boycott | Ramzy Baroud
Ramzy Baroud -- World News Trust
May 15, 2013
It is an event of cosmic proportions, said one Palestinian academic, a befitting description regarding Stephen Hawkings decision to boycott an Israeli academic conference slated for next June. It was also a decisive moral call that was communicated on May 8 by Cambridge University, where Hawking is a professor.
Hawking is a world-renowned cosmologist and physicist. His scientific work had the kind of impact that redefined or challenged entire areas of research from the theory of relativity, to quantum mechanics and other fields of study. This towering figure is also wheelchair-bound -- suffering from complete physical paralyses caused by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) disease. For Hawking, however, such a painful fact seems like a mere side note in the face of his incredible contributions to science, ones that are comparable to only few men and women throughout history.
What is considered a prestigious scientific conference in Israel is hosted by President Shimon Peres, most remembered by Lebanese and Palestinians for ordering the shelling of a United Nations compound near the village of Qana in South Lebanon in 1996. The compound was a safe heaven, where civilians often sought shelter during Israeli strikes. Not that time around, however. One hundred-and-six innocent people, mostly children and women, were killed, and 116 wounded, including UN forces. That harrowing event alone would have sent Peres, then Israels prime minister, to serve his remaining years in jail. But of course, Israel is above the law, or so the Israeli government believes and thus it has consistently behaved accordingly in the last 65 years with a price tag of uncountable lives, untold destruction and protracted suffering of entire nations.
Hawkings response to the boycott call was immensely important. The mans legendary status aside, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has proved more durable and successful than its detractors mostly Israels apologists want to believe. Hawkings decision was also a testament that reason and morality should and must go hand in hand. Israels boasting of its scientific accomplishments should mean zilch if such technology is put to work to advance state violence, tighten military occupation and make killer drones available to other countries, thus exporting violence and mayhem. That very science was used in abundance in Israels latest two wars on Gaza (2008-09 and 2012) which claimed thousands of lives between the dead and wounded.
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http://worldnewstrust.com/israel-hawking-and-the-pressing-question-of-boycott-ramzy-baroud
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Israel, Hawking and the Pressing Question of Boycott | Ramzy Baroud (Original Post)
Tace
May 2013
OP
oberliner
(58,724 posts)1. A story so nice it had to be posted twice!