Support An SPME (Scholars For Peace in the Middle East) Petition

Promoting Academic Integrity and Honest Debate

A Petition To Endorse The Statement of 40 Nobel Laureates on the Issue of Academic Boycotts Divestments and Sanctions

January 21, 2011 To: Faculty Members World Wide to Endorse 40 Nobel Laureate Statement on Academic Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions and Use In Response to Such Campaigns

The Board of Directors of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) and the SPME Task Force on Boycott Divestments and Sanctions are asking faculty colleagues, students, independent scholars and researchers from around the world to join us in endorsing and circulating this statement below by 40 Nobel Laureates speaking against academic boycotts, divestment and sanctions. We are hoping to exceed 20,000 faculty, students, researchers and scholars with this effort.

When signing this petition, please load your full name and affiliation. Please note your status as student or faculty when applicable.

Please feel free to circulate this petition through your campus mailing lists or share through one or more of the social networking services, such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and others.

Many thanks in advance for your support.

Members of SPME Board of Directors

Jonathan Adelman, University of Denver; Steven Albert, University of Pittsburgh; Leila Beckwith, University of Southern California-Los Angeles, SPME Treasurer; Richard Cravatts, University of Boston, Stanley Dubinsky; University of South Carolina, SPME Vice President for External Relations; Awi Federgruen, Columbia University, Joel Fishman, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs; Rev. India E. Garnett, United Church of Christ, PA; Peter Haas, Case Western Reserve University, SPME President; Judith S. Jacobson, Columbia University, SPME Vice President for Internal Relations; Richard Landes, Boston University; Kenneth L. Marcus, Baruch College of the City University of New York; David Menashri; Tel Aviv University; G.S. Don Morris, Wingate Institute and California Polytechnic Institute-Pomona; Donna Robinson Divine, Smith College; Tammi Rossman-Benjamin University of California at Santa Cruz; Barry Rubin, Interdisciplinary Center and GLORIA Center; Ralf Schuman; MD, Charité Berlin; Philip Carl Salzman, McGill University; Ernest Sternberg, University at Buffalo, State University of New York,

Members of the SPME BDS Task Force

Edward S. Beck, Walden University, SPME President Emeritus; John R.Cohn, Thomas Jefferson University, SPME Board of Directors; Ruth Contreras, University of Vienna and Vienna Natural History Museum, SPME Secretary and Board of Directors; Adam de la Zerda, Stanford University; Alan Dershowitz, Harvard University; Ronnie Fraser, Academics for Israel (UK); Guy Kornberg, Stanford University; Roger Kornberg, Stanford University, Nobel Laureate; Gary Leisman, F. R. Carrick Institute for Clinical Ergonomics, Rehabilitation, and Applied Neuroscience; Judea Pearl, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA); Ilan Troen, Brandeis University and Ben Gurion University, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies; Steven Weinberg, University of Texas at Austin, Nobel Laureate

    

January 21, 2011

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

Walter Kohn
University of California, Santa Barbara
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1998


Kenneth Arrow
Stanford University
Nobel Prize in Economics, 1972


Roger D. Kornberg
Stanford University
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2006


Robert J. Aumann
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Nobel Prize in Economics, 2005


Harold Kroto
Florida State University
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1996


Mario Capecchi
University of Utah
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2007
Finn Kydland
University of California, Santa Barbara
Nobel Prize in Economics, 2004

Aaron Ciechanover
Technion
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2004
Leon Lederman
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Nobel Prize in Physics, 1988


Claude Cohen-Tannoudji
École Normale Supérieure
Nobel Prize in Physics, 1997


Tony Leggett
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Nobel Prize in Physics, 2003


Robert Curl
Rice University
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1996


Robert Lucas, Jr.
University of Chicago
Nobel Prize in Economics, 1995


Edmond H. Fischer
University of Washington
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1992


Rudolph A. Marcus
California Institute of Technology
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1992


Jerome Friedman
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Nobel Prize in Physics, 1990


Eric Maskin
Institute for Advanced Study
Nobel Prize in Economics, 2007

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
Stanley B. Prusiner
University of California, San Francisco
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1997

Roald Hoffman
Cornell University
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1981
Andrew V. Schally
University of Miami
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1977


Russell Hulse
University of Texas, Dallas
Nobel Prize in Physics, 1993


Richard R. Schrock
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2005


Tim Hunt
London Research Institute
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2001


Phillip A. Sharp
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1993


Daniel Kahneman
Princeton University
Nobel Prize in Economics, 2002


Steven Weinberg
University of Texas, Austin
Nobel Prize in Physics, 1979


Eric Kandel
Columbia University
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2000


Elie Wiesel
Nobel Peace Prize, 1986

Lawrence Klein
University of Pennsylvania
Nobel Prize in Economics, 1980


Torsten Wiesel
Rockefeller University
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1981

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

For Further Information Contact:

Edward S. Beck, Walden University, President-Emeritus and Chair, SPME Task Force on Boycotts, Divestments and Sanction, 717.576.5038 or ScholarsforPeace@aol.com

Peter Haas, Case Western Reserve University, SPME President, peter.haas@case.edu

Samuel Edelman, California-State University-Chico, Executive Director, SPME, spmeexecdir@gmail.com 

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