Stephen Hawking Boycotts "Israel"

Local Editor

Famed physicist, Professor Stephen Hawking, joined the academic boycott of "Israel" by pulling out of the annual conference hosted by "Israeli" president Shimon Peres in Occupied al-Quds.

He says it is in protest of ""Israel's" treatment of Palestinians".

Hawking, 71, is the world-renowned theoretical physicist and Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge.
According to the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine, Hawking has made an independent decision to respect the boycott, based upon his knowledge of Palestine, and on the unanimous advice of his own academic contacts there.

Hawking's move follows a boycott of the "Israel" by the Teachers' Union of Ireland and by the American members of the Association for Asian American Studies.

After the 2009 "Israeli" attack on Gaza in 2009, Hawking condemned "Israel" publicly in strong terms.

Hawking has been known to take anti-war positions in the past. In 2004, he joined an anti-Iraq war demonstration in London and addressed the demonstrators, calling the US led invasion of Iraq a 'war crime' and based on 'lies'.

Hawking suffers from a rare motor neuron disease called ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. As a result he is confined to a computer-run wheel chair.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by moqawama.org