Maof

17.02.04. This letter was sent 07.01.04 to the Editor-in -chief of "Nature", but rejected since "as this debate will no doubt run and run, in the interest of saving space we can only consider letters that add significantly to the existing discussion. Pressure on our limited space is severe, so we can offer to publish only a few of the many submissions we receive."
Since we believe that this letter is significant, we decided to send it to you.

       With this letter we want to comment on the article "Across the great divide", published 2 October 2003, in an issue with a headline on the front cover "Scaling the barriers" and a subtitle "Can science rise above the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?"
       The article of Jim Giles tries to present a balanced view of the situation and clearly speaks against the idea to boycott Israeli scientists in order to "correct" the behavior of their government. The idea of the boycott, initially suggested by some European and Arab scientists, received quite moderate support from the entire community. Among supporters is  small group of Israeli scientists. It was a number of anti-boycott petitions that emphasizes the already existing opposition of many Israeli scientists and their help extended to the Arab colleagues. In other petitions the pro-boycott activity was considered as an in essence pro-terrorist activity.
       Unfortunately, however, the paper of Jim Giles (as perhaps the interviews with scientists, particularly Arab), which the paper is based upon, as well as the anti-boycott petitions, miss one important issue. This is the responsibility of the Arab scientists for what is happening to their people.
       The Arab scientists know perfectly well that the suffering of their people is not due to "occupation", "colonialism", "settlers", refugees" etc organized by Israel. Indeed, the refuge camps were created in 1948 and they existed well before the 1967 war. The Arab countries could easily have accommodated the displaced, most of them voluntarily, Arabs, just as Israel did with more than half a million of Jews who were forced to flee the Arab countries. But the refuges were used from the beginning as an anti-Israeli weapon. With the creation of the PLO the situation deteriorated.
       During last three years of fighting initiated by Arafat, the life of the Arabs in the Autonomy has deteriorated considerably. But the Arab scientists know very well that their people suffer because of corrupted and criminal leadership of the Autonomy. And the obligation of the Arab scientist is to do their best in order to get rid of this leadership as fast as possible. It is their moral duty in the name of their conscience and their people. However, they even did not try to form a sort of opposition to this regime. Instead, they write textbooks full of hate to Jews and Israel. These books create a basis for breeding terrorists. It is not incidental that about 60% of the suicide terrorists were university or college students.
       The intellectuals who are living under dictatorships or, as in the case of autonomy, under openly terrorist and criminal regimes, have the responsibility to oppose such regimes. The German physicist C.F. von Weizsäcker said long ago in connection with the Nazi Germany, that there are regimes, under which high treason becomes the highest patriotic duty of an intellectual. This is applicable when judging the behavior of Iraqi scientists under Saddam as well as to the Arab scientists in the autonomy.
       One can understand that fear can prevent activity of those who live in the Autonomy. But those who live outside, particularly in the Western countries, have access to information and see the advantages of freedom - why they are either silent or even supportive of Arafat's regime!? This has no justification.
       Educated people, instead of supporting tyrannies, should do their best in helping to get rid of them. This is the most effective way to fulfill their patriotic duties and thus improve the life of the suffering people and of the future generations.

Sincerely yours,
Miron Ya. Amusia and Mark E. Perel’man,
professors of physics, Jerusalem.

PS A recent example of the discussed above lack of responsibility among the Arab intellectuals is a letter of twenty of them, both from Autonomy and Israel, including one Israeli parliament member, to President G. Bush. They accuse Sharon and only him in derailing the "peace process", completely "forgetting" even to mention the responsibility of the corrupted Arafat's regime. And this is written today, when EU and IMF investigators desperately try to find ends of about $1 billion donations to the Palestinian Autonomy from different countries during the period 1997-2003. There are evidences that Arafat's wife received from a Swiss bank during the period 07.2002-07.2003 more then $11 millions. The intellectuals could easily estimate the importance of this money for their people by contrasting the average income of about $40/month in the Autonomy to $100 thousands/months of the located permanently in Paris wife and young daughter of the eternal leader of the "freedom fighters" Arafat.