Professor Peter Higgs Supports Academic Boycott of Israel

Much love for Professor Peter Higgs, namesake of the Higgs boson, firm evidence for which was announced by scientists at CERN this week, and who ‘shares his views on the occupation in every forum and encourages the academic boycott of Israel.’ In the Israeli Physical Society Journal, it’s noted that:

“Although the British scientist Peter Higgs gave his name to the Higgs field and Higgs particle, at least two other physicists, François Englert and Robert Brout, had a part in the discovery. All three were awarded the prestigious Wolf Prize by Israel’s Knesset in 2004. Higgs boycotted the ceremony for political reasons.”

In an appeal to Indian academics this week, INCACBI, the Indian chapter of the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel emphasised:

The Israeli state daily tramples on the academic freedom and cultural life of the Palestinian people, and continued association with the instruments of such a state is unconscionable. We believe that academic life is rooted in the values of democracy, equality and justice. The pursuit of excellence in the fields we work in has meaning only if imbued with conscience. When Palestinian students and teachers are not allowed to reach their universities because of permit laws and checkpoints, universities and schools are leveled by bombs and tanks, food, textbooks, and medical supplies are prohibited from entering Gaza, and artistic events are closed down in Jerusalem, none of the foundational principles on which academic and cultural contact are based can ever be fulfilled.

Boycott, divestment and sanctions are a legitimate means called for by Palestinian civil society for individuals and organisations to apply punitive action on the criminal Israeli regime when governments have refused or been unable to act.

How could one not boycott a regime which orders the destruction of an entire Palestinian village in the West Bank as part of its monstrous land grab?

Palestine / Israel Links

Congratulations to nearly half the US Presbyterian Church delegates who didn’t buy into the atrocious racist hasbara peddled by Peace Now and the ziolobby. Peace Now’s collusion with the Occupation and apartheid Israeli regime is now completely exposed.
Funding the occupation is taking a side
Irony: “Parenthetically, the interview itself, in its structure and the kind of questions asked and not asked, suggests that Finkelstein himself is fashioning his own persona as a cult leader.”