The following letter is to be published in the upcoming issue of the London Review of Books. It is a brief statement appealing for peace, responsibility and -above all- reason in the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Among the undersigned I spotted musicians, actors, photographers, film directors among a number of prominent writers. I could also recognize the names of at least seven Nobel prize laureates for Literature.
The reader is kindly asked to try and spot at least one person even distantly related to science.
He is also kindly advised to make a useful comparison with this document.
(In the photo: Participants of the 2nd Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affaires, organized in 1958 by Linus Pauling, Nobel Laureate for Chemistry AND Peace)
below the letter addressed to LRB by Daniel Barenboim et al.
The London Review of Books
Volume 56, Number 3 · February 26, 2009
'Please Listen, Before It Is Too Late'
By Daniel Barenboim
To the Editors:
Your readers may be interested in the following statement by Daniel Barenboim and the list of those who have supported it.
For the last forty years, history has proven that the Israeli–Palestinian conflict cannot be settled by force. Every effort, every possible means and resource of imagination and reflection should now be brought into play to find a new way forward. A new initiative which allays fear and suffering, acknowledges the injustice done, and leads to the security of Israelis and Palestinians alike. An initiative which demands of all sides a common responsibility: to ensure equal rights and dignity to both peoples, and to ensure the right of each person to transcend the past and aspire to a future.
Daniel Barenboim
Adonis, Etel Adnan, Alaa el Aswany, Dia Azzawi, Agnès B., Ted Bafaloukos, Russell Banks, Tahar Ben Jelloun, John Berger, Berlin Philharmonic, Bernardo Bertolucci, François Bayle, Idil Biret, Christian Boltanski, Pierre Boulez, Jacques Bouveresse, Alfred Brendel, Peter Brook, Adam Brooks, Carole Bouquet, Daniel Buren, Ellen Burstyn, Huguette Caland, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Carmen Castillo, Patrice Chéreau, William Christie, Paulo Coelho, J.M. Coetzee, Roger Corman, Jean Daniel, Régis Debray, Robert Delpire, Jonathan Demme, Plácido Domingo, Umberto Eco, Elliott Erwitt, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Rupert Everett, Michel Faber, Carlo and Inge Feltrinelli, Ralph Fiennes, Filarmonica della Scala, Jodie Foster, Eytan Fox, Fab 5 Freddy, Bella Freud, Martine Franck, Mary Frank, Eduardo Galeano, Jean-Luc Godard, Richard Gere, Gamal Ghitany, Amos Gitai, Edouard Glissant, Jean-Paul Goude, Nadine Gordimer, Günter Grass, Jürgen Habermas, Michael Haneke, Donald Harrison, Milton Hatoum, Sheila Hicks, Bill Irwin, Steven Isserlis, Philippe Jaccottet, Elfriede Jelinek, Samih al-Kassem, Naomi Kawase, Ya¸sar Kemal, Rachid Khalidi, Edouard Al-Kharrat, Michel Khleifi, Gérard D. Khoury, Abbas Kiarostami, Stephen King, William Klein, Abdellatif Laâbi, Jacques Leibowitch, Jemia and J.M.G. Le Clézio, Stéphane Lissner, Radu Lupu, Yo-Yo Ma, Amin Maalouf, Claudio Magris, Issa Makhlouf, Florence Malraux, Henning Mankell, James McBride, John Maybury, Zubin Mehta, Waltraud Meier, Annette Messager, Duane Michaels, Anne-Marie Miéville, Marc Minkowski, Thomas Mitchell, Ariane Mnouchkine, Sarah Moon, Edgar Morin, Jacques Monory, Fernando Morais, Jeanne Moreau, Georges Moustaki, Oscar Niemeyer, Jean Nouvel, Kenzaburo Oe, Orhan Pamuk, Clare Peploe, Michel Piccoli, Maurizio Pollini, Christian de Portzamparc, Simon Rattle, Alain Resnais, Claudia Roden, Arundhati Roy, Moustapha Safouan, Walter Salles, Susan Sarandon, Fazil Say, Elif Şafak, George Semprun, Hanan Al-Shaykh, Pierre Soulages, Wole Soyinka, Ousmane Sow, Staatskapelle Berlin, Salah Stétié, Juliet Stevenson, Meryl Streep, Elia Suleiman, Peter Suschitzky, Tilda Swinton, Sam Szafran, Zeynep Tanbay, Uma Thurman, Desmond Tutu, Shirley and Charlie Watts, Abdo Wazen, Jacques Weber, Wim Wenders, Debra Winger, Daniel Wolff, Neil Young
I actually find this appeal so vague and politically correct that i would only be half-surprised if it was also signed by the most hardcore Likud supporter.
ReplyDeleteAlthough i agree that in general scientists lack political consciousness, you should not forget that a lot of the most prominent left-wing activists (e.g. Chomsky, Bricmont) are also renowned scientists during their spare time.
I agree on the political correctness of the appeal. Let's not forget that its author (Barenboim) and many of the people signing it are of Jewish origin. I also agree that if it was to be signed by more Arab intellectuals it would have not made to a British journal. It has happened before with appeals by Barenboim and Said.
ReplyDeleteNonetheless, it is exactly this political correctness (that has probably discouraged people like Chomsky, Hobsbawm or Amos Oz to sign it) that makes the absence of scientists even more disturbing. Or could it be that Barenboim never asked them? I doubt that.
Scientists are in labs, institutes, universities, interested mostly in their field, funding, papers, curriculum... Scientists are NOT more interested in public affairs than other professions, and my personal sampling finds most of them quite naive outside of their respective fields.
ReplyDeleteI hear some people saying that the academic establishment is dispoportionally crowded with pro-Israel people (i.e. ethnic Jews or people funded by affiliated organizations) but I am not very prone to conspiracy theories in general, so I prefer to attribute the lack of scientists in this list either to initial targeting of the campaign to "arts and humanities" rather than sciences, or to the general ignorance of scientists on matters outside their small world.
And I think we must be grateful to the numerous people of Jewish descent that sign this (indeed, modest) petition, for removing from the rest of us the burden of (alleged) anti-semitism. I don't think we can ask for much more from their standpoint.
PS. Christophoros, I just saw your reply - as you see we mostly agree.
I agree with you B., thanks for this comment.
ReplyDelete