guardian | Professor Stephen Hawking is backing the academic boycott of Israel
by pulling out of a conference hosted by Israeli president Shimon Peres
in Jerusalem as a protest at Israel's treatment of Palestinians.
Hawking,
71, the world-renowned theoretical physicist and former Lucasian
Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, had accepted an
invitation to headline the fifth annual president's conference, Facing
Tomorrow, in June, which features major international personalities,
attracts thousands of participants and this year will celebrate Peres's
90th birthday.
Hawking is in very poor health, but last week he
wrote a brief letter to the Israeli president to say he had changed his
mind. He has not announced his decision publicly, but a statement
published by the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine
with Hawking's approval described it as "his independent decision to
respect the boycott, based upon his knowledge of Palestine, and on the
unanimous advice of his own academic contacts there".
Hawking's
decision marks another victory in the campaign for boycott, divestment
and sanctions targeting Israeli academic institutions.
In April
the Teachers' Union of Ireland became the first lecturers' association
in Europe to call for an academic boycott of Israel, and in the United
States members of the Association for Asian American Studies voted to
support a boycott, the first national academic group to do so.
In
the four weeks since Hawking's participation in the Jerusalem event was
announced, he has been bombarded with messages from Britain and abroad
as part of an intense campaign by boycott supporters trying to persuade
him to change his mind. In the end, Hawking told friends, he decided to
follow the advice of Palestinian colleagues who unanimously agreed that
he should not attend.
Hawking's decision met with abusive
responses on Facebook, with many commentators focusing on his physical
condition, and some accusing him of antisemitism.
By participating
in the boycott, Hawking joins a small but growing list of British
personalities who have turned down invitations to visit Israel,
including Elvis Costello, Roger Waters, Brian Eno, Annie Lennox and Mike
Leigh.
