Friday, May 25, 2007
Steven Weinberg, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, had been invited to Imperial College in July to speak in honour of a Pakistani physicist, Abdus Salam, and to deliver a talk at a conference on particle physics.
But today in a letter to his host at Imperial, Michael Duff, Prof Weinberg said he was withdrawing from the trip.
In the letter, the professor said his decision was triggered by an agreement by the National Union of Journalists at its national conference to boycott Israeli products.
He wrote: "I know that some will say that these boycotts are directed only against Israel, rather than generally against Jews.
"But given the history of the attacks on Israel and the oppressiveness and aggressiveness of other countries in the Middle East and elsewhere, boycotting Israel indicated a moral blindness for which it is hard to find any explanation other than anti-semitism."
A spokeswoman for Imperial said it was "very sad" about the professor's decision.
Prof Weinberg said the only other reason he could imagine for the boycott was the NUJ's "desire to pander to the growing Muslim minority in Britain".
This is the second time Prof Weinberg, who won the Nobel prize for physics in 1979, has cancelled a visit to a UK university because of Israeli boycotts...
[via Judith Apter Klinghoffer]
Yasher Koach Nobel Laureate Professor Weinberg!
WE ARE ASKING FOR JUSTICE FOR THE CRIMES AGAINS HUMANITY COMMITED BY BRITAIN. BRITISH PEOPLE BUILT CONCENTRATION CAMPS TO GET RID OF UNWANTED HUMAN BEINGS.50.000 WOMEN AND CHILDRN BEEN CRUELY KILLED FOR BRITISH GREED IN AFRICA.CHECK WWW.BOER.CO.ZA/BOERWAR/HELLKAMP BRITAIN IS THE SAME PRIMITIVE BARBARIC DARKAGED COUNTRY THEY ALWAYS US TO BE. IF THE BRITS WANT TO SHOW HOW MORAL THEY ARE THEY CAN ADMITE TO THEIR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY OR WAIT TILL THE ICE MELTS AND SINK BRITAIN TO THE DEEP SEA.
Britain does have a bloody history. Much of the modern world has been shaped by Britain, but the time has come where Britain is in its death throes. The offshoots of Britain are thriving where Britain is self destructing. Britain is the ancient Rome of today, dying from invaders and having lost sense of itself.