Friday 10 May 2013

Stephen Hawking Boycotts Israel



Stephen Hawking boycotts Israel. Image courtesy of NASA.




Joel Kontinen

Science is not the only thing that scientists do. Professor Stephen Hawking was supposed to attend a scientific conference in Israel but he cancelled his coming at the last moment. Initially, the University of Cambridge issued a statement, explaining that he was not well enough to travel. However, he later admitted that his real reason was a desire to boycott Israel.

Professor Hawking is not the only scientist who has used his scientific credentials to dabble with politics or other non-scientific issues. Richard Dawkins has hardly spent any time in a laboratory in decades but has focused on spreading the gospel of atheism. Recently, PZ Myers has defended abortion.

The Hawking case shows that anti-Semitism has definitely not fallen into a black hole.

Source:

Plosker, Simon. 2013. Stephen Hawking’s Media Mess. The Times of Israel. (9 May).