Nobel Prize winner urges boycott of physics competition in Tel Aviv

Missouri (QNN)- The 2018 winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry George P. Smith has urged a boycott of a physics competition in Tel Aviv in July.
George P. Smith and 19 other scientists signed an open letter last week that calls on “all students and mentors from all over the world not to participate in the next International Physics Olympiad in Israel and to stand for human rights of the young Palestinian pupils and students, including their right to education.”
The organizing committee claims that the aim of the International Science Olympiad is to plant « the seeds of cooperation and friendship among students from all over the world ». However, the letter stated that “under the present circumstances, citizens of many countries are de facto excluded from entering Israel and attending the IPhO, not to mention Palestinian students from the West Bank and Gaza.”
“As academics and citizens we wish to draw your attention to the serious situation facing Palestinian schoolchildren, students and teachers,” the letter adds.
Smith, emeritus professor of biology at the University of Missouri, won last year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry for his invention of a process to evolve proteins that can be used to develop new medicines.
Israel promotes itself as a center of science and technology, however scientific research, including some funded by the European Union, is often a cover for developing Israel’s war industry.
Israel’s education ministry was recently headed by Naftali Bennett, a far-right anti-Palestinian politician who has boasted of his record of killing Arabs.