{"id":32289,"date":"2013-05-09T17:36:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-09T16:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/5-reasons-why-the-smartest-man-in-the-world-is-right-to-boycott-israel\/32289\/"},"modified":"2013-05-09T17:36:00","modified_gmt":"2013-05-09T16:36:00","slug":"5-reasons-why-the-smartest-man-in-the-world-is-right-to-boycott-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/5-reasons-why-the-smartest-man-in-the-world-is-right-to-boycott-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Reasons Why the Smartest Man in the World Is Right to Boycott Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Stephen Hawking should be commended for pulling out of an Israeli conference as a protest at Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.<\/p>\n

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May 9, 2013<\/span><\/em> \u00a0| \u00a0<\/p>\n

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As announced by the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine ( BRICUP<\/a>) and subsequently covered by The Guardian<\/a>,\u00a0Reuters<\/a>\u00a0and others, world-renowned theoretical physicist and cosmologist Professor Stephen Hawking has decided to heed the Palestinian call for boycott, and pull out of an Israeli conference hosted by President Shimon Peres in June. After initial confusion<\/a>,\u00a0this<\/a>\u00a0was\u00a0confirmed<\/a>\u00a0– Hawking is staying away<\/a>\u00a0on political grounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here are five reasons why Professor Hawking is right to boycott:\u00a0<\/p>\n

5. Whitewashing apartheid\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Israeli government and various lobby groups use events such as the “Presidential Conference” to whitewash Israel’s crimes past and present, a tactic sometimes referred to as “rebranding”. As a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official put it<\/a>\u00a0after the 2009 Gaza massacre, it is the kind of approach that means sending “well-known novelists and writers overseas, theatre companies, [and] exhibits” in order to “show Israel’s prettier face, so we are not thought of purely in the context of war”. ” Brand Israel<\/a>” is all about creating a positive image for a country that is the target of human rights campaigners the world over – as if technological innovations or high-profile conferences can hide the reality of occupation and ethnic cleansing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

4. Shimon Peres\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite his reputation in the West as a “dove”, Peres’ career to date includes war crimes<\/a>\u00a0in Lebanon, support<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0collective punishment<\/a>\u00a0of Palestinians in Gaza, and, in private discussions, incitement<\/a>against non-Jewish citizens. Anyone would do well to avoid a conference hosted by such a hypocrite. Simply not being Ariel Sharon does not really cut it; Peres should be scheduled for a trip to The Hague, not welcoming foreign dignitaries and celebrities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

3. Boycott is\u00a0not\u00a0incompatible with ‘dialogue’\u00a0<\/p>\n

Contrary to the rhetoric of Israeli officials and sympathisers, boycott is\u00a0not\u00a0contrary to dialogue. Hawking’s decision, for example, will mean people are discussing Israeli policies and strategies for ending occupation. That is not atypical – BDS initiatives often encourage a meaningful exchange of views and perspectives. However, some people abuse the concept of dialogue to defend an asymmetrical status <\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on : AlterNet<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephen Hawking should be commended for pulling out of an Israeli conference as a protest at Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. May 9, 2013 \u00a0| \u00a0 Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. As announced by the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine ( BRICUP) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-32289","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}