Here’s how. The South Kensington attraction is today hosting a series of seminars and workshops aimed at promoting Israeli research. ‘Israel Day of Science’ showcases the scientific research at seven Israeli universities to over 1000 school children. You can probably see where this is heading. Not everyone thinks that the academic centres of Israel are working entirely for the betterment of humankind. According to Booker-shortlisted writer Ahdaf Soueif, speaking to the Independent , Israeli scientific institutions are intimately tied with military might:
Should the Science Museum give its imprimatur to Israel so soon after what Israel has done in Gaza? Should it, moreover, specifically allow its name and reputation to be used to give kudos to Israeli institutions directly involved with Israeli military like, for example, Tel Aviv University? It can no longer be seen as an institution of integrity.
Her views are backed up by over 400 scientists, including Ian Gibson MP, the former chairman of the House of Commons Science Select Committee, who have signed a petition against the event.
They think: “If Robert Mugabe wanted to hire out these museums’ spaces for a corporate event, we know what they would say.”
The museum says: “[we] believe that not to proceed with the event would mean taking a political stand, which would be wholly inappropriate.”
The event has now swollen into a Jerusalem artichoke of a pickle, with petitioners threatening to picket outside the museum today. The Science Museum are at pains to point out that the event was booked over a year ago, long before the recent military escalations in the region and it’s hard to see how they could have backed down given that they’re not in the business of making political decisions. On the other hand, the timing does seem rather insensitive. There are sure to be a few children in the audience with Palestinian backgrounds. What are they going to make of all this?
“There are sure to be a few children in the audience with Palestinian backgrounds. What are they going to make of all this?”
Well, hopefully, they’ll focus on the science and realise that not everything that goes on in Israel is about war and fighting.
Perhaps this event could be followed by a similar presentation of science in the Islamic world or similar.
I hope the Science Museum sticks to its guns, and doesn’t pander to the current mood of antisemitism thinly disguised as criticism of Israel. In case you think these two are necessarily different (and I have heard this trotted out many times by the sanctimonious and the self-important), you are invited to consult the Engage for copious supporting evidence, especially from left-wing British academia.
Ian Gibson et al. should be ashamed of themselves. There was an excellent leader in The Times the other day, with the title Abuse of Science, from which I quote here:
The protesters are not an identifiable scholarly current, but a group of political activists who happen to work in the academy. Many were associated in an earlier campaign to persuade the Association of University Teachers to boycott Israeli universities. The expansiveness of their campaign betrayed its motivation. It was not a disinterested desire for the rectification of historic injustices against the Palestinian people, but an insistence that Israel was illegitimate by virtue of being a Jewish state.
It is ironic that the academics are joined in an inflammatory cause by a Nobel peace laureate, Mairead Maguire, of the Irish Peace People. It stands higher still on the scale of intellectual disrepute that the boycott is supported by Ian Gibson, a former chairman of the Commons Science Select Committee. Dr Gibson declares: “Science is not neutral. It is part of the political process.” It is a fantastic non sequitur to confuse science’s institutional setting with its intellectual content, but it might be taken as symbolic of the protests. This is an arbitrary and vindictive campaign, but above all it is a stupid one.
Looks like the day went ahead largely without trouble. I can’t find any accounts to the contrary in today’s press.
Have you looked on Twitter, Matt? ;-)
I’m trying to blank it out. It’s ruining my ability to get work done.
Funny how the persistent campaign of Israel-hatred in academia seems to go largely unreported in Nature.
There are two very good letters in The Times today about this.
Well done, Matt ;-)
Childish political means/tools/ways/routes like this at the expense of harm to innocence are still popular today. They thought your loss may add pressure to your government who will eventually, and magically, stop their movement in as irrelevant issue, for you. They said, ’don’t blame us, blame your government’. This is like tearing the book of a classmate you hate when you are in primary school, or, you even never do this when in primary school.