Published: 15 April 2021
Last updated: 4 March 2024
UNTIL THIS YEAR, the awarding of the Israel Prize, Israel's highest cultural and academic honour, has always provided a wonderful moment of unity and pride. Broadcast on TV at the end of Independence Day, the prize is given by the education minister, in the presence of the president and other dignitaries, to citizens who have achieved excellence in their field, made a scientific breakthrough, or an exceptional contribution to Israeli society.
Until this year.
This year, Israelis must face just how deeply this government has corrupted the values of excellence and contribution to society.
This year the Israel Prize was to have been awarded, among other honorees, to Professor Oded Goldreich from the Weizmann Institute for his contributions in the fields of cryptography and computational complexity theory. A worthy winner, Goldreich had already been awarded the prestigious Knuth Prize in 2017 for his outstanding contributions to the foundations of computer science.
But this year, self-appointed watchdog organisations proudly and publicly informed the Education Minister, Yoav Galant from the Likud party, that in 2019 Goldreich signed a petition – along with hundreds of other academics – calling on the European Union to halt funding for Ariel University, which is located in the West Bank, because such funding legitimised the occupation and Israeli settlements.
Furthermore, these policing organisations claimed that Goldreich supports the Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions (BDS) movement and has defamed Israeli soldiers.
These watchdogs include Know Your Professor, an organisation that purports to oppose the politicisation of the academy by compiling lists of academics who have engaged in "anti-Zionist" and "anti-democratic" activity. Know Your Professor is operated by Im Tirzu, a far-right group which, according to the Jerusalem District Court, has fascist characteristics.
Another group behind the attack on Goldreich is Israel Academic Monitor which,, according to its website, is "concerned by the activities of academics…who propound unsubstantiated and…arguments that defame Israel and call into question its right to existence".
Galant was persuaded by dubious and unsubstantiated claims made by self-appointed watchdog organisations, but not by Goldreich's public statement that he does not and has never supported BDS.
Galant was persuaded by dubious and unsubstantiated claims made by these organisations, but not by Goldreich's public statement that he does not and has never supported BDS. Three times, Galant tried to convince the committee that had awarded the prize to Goldreich to change their minds, but the committee refused each time.
While, by law, the education minister has no authority over determining to whom the prize should be awarded, he does have to sign off on it. When Galant made it clear that he would not sign the award, the committee took the unusual step of petitioning the High Court of Justice to instruct the education minister to award the prize. In the past, the Supreme Court has ensured the purely professional nature of the award and the independence of the members of the committee.
Last year, when then-Education Minister Rafi Peretz awarded the prize to Rabbi Ya'acov Ariel, who has made numerous public homophobic and misogynist statements, the court also ruled that as jarring as they may be, statements by an Israel Prize winner that do not relate to their profession should not be taken into consideration when deciding who is worthy of the award, so as to prevent any attempts at censorship in a democracy.
This time, however, the court decided Galant could withhold the prize for 30 days – enough time to ensure that Goldreich would miss the ceremony – to reexamine the question of his eligibility. Galant has declared that he will conduct "an investigation into whether the professor's renunciation of the boycott movement was sincere."
Goldreich is a mathematician, but I doubt that even he could come up with an algorithm to measure "sincerity." Galant's reexamination seems more like an investigation by the thought police.
To be sure, there has been criticism of the Israel Prize in the past, in particular that too many of the recipients have been Ashkenazi men, and that women, Mizrahi'im and Arabs have been under-represented. But the prize has never been withheld from a worthy candidate because of his or her political views.
As the minister responsible for higher education, he should know that the academy is intended to promote both understanding and criticism of governments and political processes. Instead, Galant is stifling free thought and silencing dissent.
The heads of all of Israel's universities, with the exception of Bar-Ilan and Ariel Universities, called on Galant to rescind his objections. More than 200 scientists from the Weizmann institute, including Nobel Prize Laureate Professor Ada Yonath, along with nine previous Israel Prize recipients, wrote a similar letter. In an improvised ceremony, Professor David Harel of the Weizman Institute, recipient of the 2004 Israel Prize for computer science and mathematics, gave his award statue to Goldreich.
It is bitterly ironic that politicians like Galant are in the position to deny a prize based on excellence from a worthy candidate. A retired career soldier, Galant was passed over for the position of Chief of Staff because of accusations that he had appropriated public land for his private use – a charge of which he was only partially cleared.
Inarticulate, uninspiring, and full of bravado and chauvinistic arrogance, Galant, like all members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet, was not appointed to his post because of his excellent achievements, but rather because he promised to toe Netanyahu's line.
With no qualifications for the position of education minister, Galant did not provide any leadership for students or teachers during the educational crisis caused by the pandemic. And now, the damage he has done extends far-beyond the affront to Goldreich or the devaluation of the Israel Prize. Galant's decision is part of the larger processes threatening Israeli democracy and society.
Entrusted with the responsibility to educate our children, Galant should invite a variety of opinions into our schools and public squares, especially on controversial subjects, in order to ensure that we are all exposed to ideas that challenge even our most-dearly held assumptions.
As the minister responsible for higher education, he should know that the academy is intended to promote both understanding and criticism of governments and political processes. As a member of government, he should support intellectual excellence.
Instead, Galant is stifling free thought and silencing dissent. Rather than promoting intellectual excellence, he is subordinating science to political interests. By basing his decision on information provided by right-wing proto-fascist organizations, Galant is strengthening blacklisting and other McCarthyist trends that are already threatening Israeli society.
At the "alternative" awards ceremony, Goldreich declared he agrees the "Minister has a right to deny me the prize on behalf of the Likud, but I believe the State of Israel and the Likud are different very different things, that barely resemble one another."
But apparently Galant does not distinguish between his party and the State. Galant has said that “anyone who does not hold the State of Israel and its laws close to their heart does not deserve the Israel Prize” and according to Galant, anyone who criticizes the government does not hold the State of Israel close to their heart.
Galant has joined Netanyahu's "l'etat c'est moi" approach, according to which politicians' personal and political interests supersede the needs of the state and society.
Most years, I watch the televised Israel Prize awards ceremony. This year, I won't. Excellence was not rewarded, and Galant has sullied one of the last arenas of shared Israeli pride.
Photo: Oded Goldreich receives an alternative Israel Prize from Professor David Harel at the Weizmann Institute (courtesy Michael Sfard)
