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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Stephen Hawking confirms he is boycotting Israeli conference |
| 2013-05-09 |
| Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has canceled his planned appearance at next month's Presidential Conference in Jerusalem, apparently in response to the urging of Palestinian activists and academics. Hawking informed President Shimon Peres of his decision last weekend, but decided not to make it public. Thus it became public knowledge only yesterday, when it was reported on the website of the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine and picked up by the British daily The Guardian. According to the statement published with Hawking's approval by BRICUP, a group that works to promote an academic boycott of Israel, the cancelation was "his independent decision to respect the boycott, based upon his knowledge of Palestine, and on the unanimous advice of his own academic contacts there." The group didn't publish Hawking's letter to Peres, but said it would do so if it received his permission. Later, Cambridge University, where Hawking is a professor emeritus, said the 71-year-old physicist had canceled because of health problems, and that he had not confirmed BRICUP's statement. Hawking suffers from a motor neuron disease that has left him almost entirely paralyzed. But the university subsequently issued a retraction, saying that Hawking's office had confirmed the statement. Hawking has been in Israel several times before, most recently in 2006. Also Stephen Hawking accused of hypocrisy over Israel conference boycott |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #1 intelligence does not equal morality. Ask him about abortion |
| Posted by: Frank G 2013-05-09 21:31 |