A call to oppose academic blacklists & express solidarity with Israeli academics

In Britain, for some reason, academic blacklist season seems to kick off predictably every spring--in 2005, then in 2006, and now again in 2007.

The statement below (circulated by Scholars for Peace in the Middle East) is a response to the latest proposed boycott of Israeli academics by the Universities & College Union (UCU) in Britain. (For further information, see here & here & here & here.) More generally, it takes a strong and unequivocal stand for the basic principles of academic freedom and open intellectual exchange.

I have signed it, and I urge all "academics, scholars, researchers, and other professionals"--along with writers, artists, and intellectuals of all sorts--to consider signing on as well. Also, please pass along this petition to your friends and colleagues.

--Jeff Weintraub

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An International Call To Academics and Professionals From Nobel Laureates and University Presidents To Stand In Solidarity With Our Israeli Academic and Professional Colleagues

To: Academic and Professional Colleagues

Please Join Us By Signing and Circulating the Following Solidarity Statement With Our Israeli Academic and Professional Colleagues

We are academics, scholars, researchers and professionals of differing religious and political perspectives. We all agree that singling out Israelis for an academic boycott is wrong. To show our solidarity with our Israeli academics in this matter, we, the undersigned, hereby declare ourselves to be Israeli academics for purposes of any academic boycott. We will regard ourselves as Israeli academics and decline to participate in any activity from which Israeli academics are excluded.

Sincerely,
The Undersigned

(A partial list of signatories follows. Please sign with both first and last names, as well as identifying your professional title and institutional affiliation. Incomplete signatures may be deleted.)

Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov
Nobel Prize - Physics
Distinguished Scientist
Argonne National Laboratory, USA

Kenneth Arrow
Nobel Prize - Economics
Stanford University

S. Bacow
President
Tufts University

David Baltimore
Nobel Prize Physiology or Medicine
Past President,
California Institute of Technology

Esther Barazzone
President
Chatham University

Henry S. Bienen
President
Northwestern University

William R. Brody
President
Johns Hopkins University

Robert Brown
President
Boston University

Nancy Cantor
Chancellor and President
Syracuse University

Robert Carothers
President
University of Rhode Island

Gerhard Casper
President Emeritus
Stanford University

David Clary
President
Magdalen College
Oxford University

Claude Cohen- Tannoudji
Nobel Prize- Physics
Laboratoire de Physique de L'Ecole Normale Superieure
Paris, France

Jared Cohon
President
Carnegie-Mellon University

Scott Cowen
President
Tulane University

Michael Crow
President
Arizona State University

Talbot "Sandy" D'Alemberte
President Emeritus and Professor
Florida State University

Alan Dershowitz
Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law
Harvard University

Stanley Deser
Dirac Medal
Ancell Professor of Physics
Brandeis University

Gail Dinter-Gottlieb
President and Vice Chancellor
Arcadia University
Canada

Allen K. Easley
President and Dean
William Mitchell College of Law

Alfred Ebenbauer
Former Rector,
University of Vienna, Austria

Robert F. Engle
Nobel Prize - Economics
New York University

Jerome Friedman
Nobel Prize-Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Sheldon Lee Glashow
Nobel Prize-Physics
Boston University

Donald A. Glaser
Nobel Prize Physics
University of California at Berkeley

Clive W.J. Granger
Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics
University of California, San Diego

David Gross
Nobel Prize Physics
Director,Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics
Frederick W. Gluck Chair in Theoretical Physics
University of California at Santa Barbara

Herbert A. Hauptman
Nobel Prize- Chemistry
Medical Foundation of Buffalo

James J. Heckman
Nobel Prize Economics
University of Chicago

Alan Heeger
Nobel Prize-Chemistry
University of California-Santa Barbara

John L. Hennessy
President
Stanford University

Richard Herman
Chancellor
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Dudley R. Herschbach
Nobel Prize Chemistry
Harvard University

Avram Hershko
Nobel Prize Chemistry
Distinguished Professor at the Unit of Biochemistry
Rappaport Faculty of Medicine
Technion
(Israel Institute of Technology)

Roald Hoffmann
Frant H. T. Rhodes Professor of Humane Letters
Conell University

Tim Hunt
Nobel Prize - Physiology/Medicine
Cell Cycle Control Laboratory
London Research Institute
Clare Hall Laboratories

Elfriede Jelinek
Nobel Prize Literature
Austria

Richard M. Joel
President
Yeshiva University

Daniel Kahneman
Nobel Prize - Economics
Professor of Psychology
Princeton University

Eric R. Kandel
Nobel Prize - Medicine
University Professor
Columbia University

Steven Knapp
President-Elect
George Washington University

Walter Kohn
Nobel Prize Physics
University of California-Santa Barbara

Helmut Konrad
Former Rector, University of Graz
Graz, Austria

Roger Kornberg
Nobel Prize - Chemistry
Professor of Structural Biology
Stanford University

Arthur Kornberg
Nobel Prize - Medicine
Emeritus Pfeiffer Merner Professor of Biochemistry
Stanford University School of Medicine

Leon Lederman
Nobel Prize - Physics
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
University of Chicago

James Moeser
Chancellor
University of North Carolina

C.D. Mote Jr.
President
University of Maryland

Marshall W. Nirenberg
Nobel Prize - Medicine
Biochemical Genetics
National Institutes of Health

Ross Paul
President
University of Windsor

David Politzer
Nobel Prize - Physics
California Institute of Technology

G. David Pollick
President
Birmingham Southern College

Rajendra Prasad
Rector
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi

Jehuda Rheinharz
President
Brandeis University

Richard J. Roberts
Nobel Prize - Physiology/Medicine
New England Biolabs

Richard L. Rubenstein
President Emeritus and Distinguished Professor of Religion
University of Bridgeport

Donna Shalala
President
University of Miami

Ralph Snyderman
Chancellor Emeritus
Duke University

Graham Spanier
President
Penn State University

Shirley Strum Kenny
President
Stony Brook University
State University of New York

Stephen Joel Trachtenberg
President
The George Washington University

Harold Varmus
Nobel Laureate - Physiology/Medicine
President
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Leslie Wagner
Chancellor
University of Derby, UK

Steven Weinberg
Nobel Prize-Physics
Josey Regental Professor of Science
University of Texas, Austin

Elie Wiesel
Nobel Peace Prize
Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities
Boston University

Frank Wilczek
Nobel Prize-Physics
Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Kevin Wildes, S.J.
President
Loyola University
New Orleans

Robert E. Witt
President
University of Alabama

Daniel Zajfman
President and Professor of Physics
Weizmann Institute of Science

Vladimir Zakharov
Dirac Medal in Theoretical Physics
Regent Professor of Mathematics
University of Arizona

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As an added security measure for signers of this petition to reduce the need to void anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic remarks that have been posted, as well as reducing the number of fraudulent signature postings, the authors might consider necessary to verify the authenticity of signatures. Unfortunately there are significant numbers of individuals who would like to sabotage the credibility and impact of this important precedent-setting petition. If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Edward S. Beck, President, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East. Thank you for your understanding, support and patience.