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?”
abebird
As far as I know, and I know, Israelis make fun on people as you. The US-USSR played the Samson option more clearly and threateningly…. and almost annihilated each other. So what you’re up to, Mr, Dog ?
abebird
More clearly that Anti Semite chewing that slogans on daily basis. I’m happy that Jews are wiser then people as you !
abebird
You’re just twisting, curving and copy/past lies circulated online. The
truth is that the research and development of most Intel products are made in 4 factories in Israel; there they also developed the i7. It is true that later it
continued the production in America, but that does not change the fact that
Hopkins uses Israeli made equipments, not only of the wheelchair, but generally while computing. You too.
Intel Core 2 Quad processors project was launced in Intel Israel in 2006 later moved to Intel Haifa Israel in 2008. Core i7 is part of Core 2 Quad inovasion
called “Sandy Bridge”.
http://www.zdnet.com/benchmarks-intels-sandy-bridge-3040091309/
http://www.zdnet.com/israel-inside-a-history-of-intels-r-and-d-in-israel-7000003122/
I know that you feel bad, but that facts!
talknic
“Netanyahu doesn’t boycotting Britain for their conquest of Gibraltar and the Malvinas islands !!!!”
Gibraltar: formally ceded to the British in 1713, under Article 10 of the Treaty of Utretcht. http://www.heraldica.org/topics/france/utrecht.htm
Malvinas islands: Falkland Islanders prefer to remain British citizens. Self determination! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21731760
“Iran executing homosexuals regularly ”
Source/s please….
Two men were executed in Iran a few years ago for rape and murder. They just happened to be homosexuals. Should homosexuals be exempt from the Law for rape and murder?
Shingo
>> The truth is that the research and development of most Intel products are made in 4 factories in Israel; there they also developed the i7
False. The i7 used in Hawking’s laptop was developed in Hillsboro Oregon and nothing he relied on has anything to do with Israel. NOTHING.
Like I said, the claims the i7 was designed in Israel are lies.
Nor is his wheelchair Israeli made, produced or designed.
Furthermore, Hawking (not Hopkins – you can’t even get his name right the facts) was not even using intel based laptop (AMD) until Intel begged and paid him to move to Intel. So the claim that he ever relied on anything designed or manufactured in Israel is pure BS.
>> Intel Core 2 Quad processors project was launced in Intel Israel in 2006 later moved to Intel Haifa Israel in 2008
Wrong again. The Core 2 Quad processors was an iteration from the previous processor which was also developed in Hillsboro Oregon and a fabrication was outsources to Israel.
I know that you feel bad, but that facts! Now go back to sucking on that lemon.