Scientific and Artistic Boycott against Israel

Palestinian writer and critic Professor Edward Said is considered one of the most outstanding figures of the 20th century who had hugely impacted on intellectual ideas especially in the Arab world.
He was born in Bayt-ul-Moqaddas or what the Jews prefer to call Jerusalem in 1935 in a Christian Arab family and died in 2003.
Edward Said wrote: “What can be more uncompromising than the conflict between the Zionist Jews and the Arab Palestinians? Palestinians think that the Jews have pushed them into exile. But they know that their national identity has been brought up in the social and cultural environment of exile.” Edward Said continued: “Intifada is the only Arabic word that has entered the political vocabulary of the 20th century. This new word is the flag of a new identity, the flag of the Palestinian nation’s need to real independence and the sound of breaking the walls of prison.”
One can say that now the support for the Palestinian people and movements like the Intifada is not merely restricted to Muslims but the freedom-seekers all over the world express in different ways their opposition to the Zionist regime and their support for the Palestinian people. For instance, it is interesting to know that the label of “made in Israel” has turned into a big problem for the Zionist regime statesmen. In addition to the Islamic states, countries such as South Africa or Britain have collected the regime’s products from famous stores. Danish government also declared that it would detect and present the products made in the Jewish region of the West Bank with a warning label. According to the reports, a similar decision has been taken in Switzerland due to the demand of customers.
This increasing boycott of the Israeli goods is the result of the widespread activity of the members of Campaign of Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel BDS which has been set up for supporting Palestinians.
BDS members say that buying and selling these products actually means to offer legitimacy to the Zionist regime’s occupation and further decrease of the Palestinian economic capability.
But the scientific boycott of the Zionist regime is an international campaign which has started since 2002 and topped the news of the world with the release of the decision taken by the British physicist Stephen Hawking based on his support for the campaign. Thus the old dream of Edward Said entered a new phase.
Steven and Hilary Rose, Professors of Open University and Bradford University in Britain founded the movement by releasing an open letter in 2002. On April6, 2013 an article written by Steven and Hilary Rose was published in daily Guardian in which the two university lecturers called for severing all scientific and cultural relations with the Zionist regime. By June this year, 700 scientists joined the campaign. The current led to the cancelation of many of the Zionist regime’s scientific conferences in 2002 to 2004 and won the attention of the world scientific community to the Intifada and events of Palestine. But the most important progress of the campaign took place in 2005 once the Union of British University Professors joined the boycott.
The professor of California University in literature David Lloyd launched a campaign similar to the British Campaign along with 15 other university lecturers. Later on the campaign spread to other US universities and more professors joined it. The American linguist Noam Chomsky, the professor of Islamic Studies of California University Hamed Elgar and the professor of Ben Gurion University in political science New Gordon are among those who have joined the scientific sanctions against the Zionist regime. Gordon lost his job.
The prominent British Physicist Stephen Hawking is considered one of the top scientists for his new theories and articles on astronomy and galaxies. This leading physicist has also joined the BDS and by refraining from attending a confab, hosted by Shimon Perez last month, he supported the academic boycott against the illegal Zionist entity called Israel.
Writing a short letter, Hawking said that his independent decision was taken for respecting the academic sanctions against the Zionist regime which was based on his knowledge and information on Palestine and the consultation of some of his academic colleagues. Guardian wrote on the issue: “Hawking has joined the ever-increasing list of the British personalities who have refused the Zionist regime’s invitation for attending the conference.”
The BDS has listed the famous figures of scientific, political, cultural and artistic groups including Elvis Costello, Roger Waters, Annie Lennox, Brian Eno and Mike Leigh.
It is noteworthy that after the spread of this scientific boycott, the Zionist officials have shown tough reactions. Sometime ago, daily Haaretz wrote: “Evidence shows that no one is willing to visit our country.”
Recently the Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf in a visit to the occupied Palestine took part in a film festival in Bayt-ul- Moqaddas. He was lauded by the Zionist authorities of the festival and some of his works were put on display.
But the release of the news on Makhmalbaf’s visit to the occupied Palestine and his participation in the Zionist film festival stirred up world protests against him and many filmmakers, critics and writers across the world reproached Makhmalbaf for breaking the artistic sanctions against the Zionist regime. Certainly in defending his shameful act, Makhmalbaf said he took a step for establishment of peace, but people know that the occupying regime which spares no effort for killing and displacing the oppressed people of Palestine has no tendency for peace.
Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s act was opposed by various persons and parties inside Iran, too. Makhmalbaf has produced films for years and has become famous in the world for his works. But gradually he changed his ideas and took harsh and improper stances against his country and religion and departed the country. For the pas recent years, Makhmalbaf has been united with the arch enemies of the Islamic Republic and the Iranian nation and lives abroad with their financial support. The production of cheap and petty films has just satisfied his masters with no artistic success to him.
The film shown in Bayt-ul-Moqaddas festival was on a deviated sect and its followers in Iran and was produced with the support of the Zionist regime. The presence of Makhmalbaf in Bayt-ul-Moqaddas and his explicit alliance with the enemies of the Iranian and Palestinian nations was so alien with human values and freedom-seeking ideals that it was followed by the reactions of the Iranians abroad and hundreds of people reproached his act by statements, social networks and media. Moreover, the organizations defending the Palestinians and the campaigns boycotting the Zionist regime showed reactions against this pseudo-artist.
An Iranian artist, in his weblog, addresses Makhmalbaf as follows: “You have spoken of peace in a place where the Zionist regime is considered the unmatched executioner of peace. You have forgotten that the people of Palestine still have the keys of their houses from which they have been expelled since decades ago, the keys which have rusted but remind their occupied homes.”