The ever-recurring UK debate over whether academics should boycott Israel has spilled out of universities into the museum sector. Events for this week’s Israel Day of Science at science museums in Manchester and London are attracting fierce criticism from some sectors.
Protest group the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine says the event’s showcasing of research from Israeli universities “cannot be allowed to happen”.
“These universities are without exception complicit in the mechanisms and policies of the Israeli occupation, and in developing the military technology used in the massacre in Gaza,” says the group’s website. “Protests are rolling in from scientists and non-scientists alike.”
Israel Day of Science aims “to promote the excellence of Israeli science”, with a series of talks and exhibitions.
The Science Museum in London told the BBC the event was private and the organisers had merely hired space at the museum. The museum also insists the event is scientific and “sponsored by an organisation from a country with which the UK has normal diplomatic relations”.
Jonathan Hoffman, vice-chair of the Zionist Federation, which is behind yesterday’s event in Manchester and tomorrow’s event in London, says he was “saddened” by the protests (BBC). Lior Ben Dor, a spokesman at the Israeli Embassy in London, went further, telling the Jerusalem Post, “science transcends borders and continents and therefore, one does not need to be a great scientist to understand that the Israel bashers have crossed the border towards insanity”.
A letter opposing the event was published in the Guardian newspaper recently. One signatory, MP, and former chairman of the House of Commons Science Select Committee Ian Gibson told the Independent, “Science is not neutral. It is part of the political process, and very much so in that part of the world. I’m ashamed that the Science Museum has become associated with this issue.”
In an editorial published today the Times takes aim at Gibson. “This is an arbitrary and vindictive campaign, but above all it is a stupid one,” it says.
Nature’s line, as expressed in this 2002 editorial, is that, “Rather than signing boycotts, which will achieve nothing, researchers worldwide can help the peace process concretely by actively initiating more of such three-way collaborations — and encouraging their institutions to do the same.”
Image: flyer for Israel Day of Science / Zionist Federation