Is Israel uniquely bad, or has hypocrisy towards the Jewish state become so widely accepted among some progressives that even an eminent scholar like Hawking is susceptible to hypocritical and lazy double standards?
After a great deal of confusing reports, it was confirmed yesterday that physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking has pulled out of a conference in Israel next month after being lobbied by pro-Palestinian campaigners.
Initially some had claimed his decision to pull out of the conference was due to ill health, but a statement published by the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine with Hawking’s approval cleared the matter up.
“This is his independent decision to respect the boycott, based upon his knowledge of Palestine, and on the unanimous advice of his own academic contacts there.”
So “respect for the boycott” was a humanitarian gesture, then?
Ok. But why did professor Hawking see fit to visit Iran in 2007 for a conference? As far as I am aware, there was no statement at the time from Hawking refusing to travel to the Islamic Republic out of “respect” for the country’s political dissidents, or until the government stopped executing homosexuals.
A year earlier, in 2006, Stephen Hawking visited China, whose government is responsible for large scale human rights abuses in Tibet. Tibet is, as Human Rights Watch noted several years before his visit, “a place where some of the most visible and egregious human rights violations committed by the Chinese state have occurred”. A 2008 UN report found that the use of torture in Tibet was “widespread” and “routine”.
There’s no need to be an apologist for the Israeli occupation of the West Bank to question where professor Hawking’s moral compass was when he chose to visit these two serial human rights abusers – and ask why it has suddenly appeared when the country in question is Israel.
Is Israel uniquely bad, or has hypocrisy towards the Jewish state become so widely accepted among some progressives that even an eminent scholar like Hawking is susceptible to hypocritical and lazy double standards?
346 Responses to “So why did Stephen Hawking think it was ok to visit Iran and China?”
talk nic
Say … Where was Netanyahu this last week? https://www.google.ps/search?q=Netanyahu%20china%20May%2008%202013
But let me get this straight….
If Hawking had not visited China, Netanyahu would not have visited China and;
There’d be no illegal acquisition of territory by war by Israel. No illegal annexation by Israel, no illegal settlements by Israel…. The Jewish state would suddenly adhere to the hundreds of UNSC resolutions reminding Israel of binding law, the UN Charter (binding in its entirety) and binding conventions?
WOW!! That’s amazing!!
talk nic
//”As far as I am aware, there was no statement at
the time from Hawking refusing to travel to the Islamic Republic out of
“respect” for the country’s political dissidents, or until the
government stopped executing homosexuals”//
When was the last time Iran executed anyone for being homosexual? They did hang two rapists a few years back. Maybe it was for murder. The two happened to be homosexuals. Homosexuals should get away with rape or murder?
Say …. Will Netayahu’s recent trips to China and Russia be cancelled retrospectively out of “respect” for the countries political dissidents?
Andre De Angelis
” it’s the Hamas that celebrate killers of infants, ”
Every Israeli prime minister since 1948 has been a killer of infants.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QG2mR9kqHmM/TgnbHsAploI/AAAAAAAAG3k/Rk6UpvGzQJg/s400/dead%2Bbabies.jpg
“it’s the Hamas that repeatedly pledges to exterminate all Jews on the planet,”
No, just the ones making life hell for Palestinians.
“it’s the Hamas that enjoy support from Nazi movements all over the West,”
Wrong.
Neo Nazis are pro Israel these days.
Ne Nazis carrying Israeli flags
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1211414/Anti-fascists-clash-right-wing-protesters-Birmingham.html
Israel’s nightmare: Homegrown neo-Nazis in the Holy Landhttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israels-nightmare-homegrown-neonazis-in-the-holy-land-396392.html
Andre De Angelis
So do you believe first time murderers should be let off on good behaviour?
Andre De Angelis
Israel is an apartheid state, and it’s apartheid system was envied and admired by South Africa”s Prime Minister, Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd, in 1961
“The Jews took Israel from the Arabs after the Arabs had lived there for a thousand years. Israel like SouthAfrica, is an apartheid state” (Rand Daily Mail, 23 Novemeber 1961).
You might as well accept it Ginger Beer.