95 thoughts on “Israeli Palestinian Physics Prize Winners “Disappeared” by Israeli Media – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. Congratulations to all these brilliant young men and women. I took a link at the link you provided with some of the details of the various projects these students submitted. Truly amazing work. Perhaps your piece here will encourage someone in the Israeli media to celebrate them all, regardless of religion or ethnicity. It would be a shame for their achievements to be overshadowed by the remarks you quoted or by the unbalanced coverage you documented.

    1. Bob — you don’t seem to “get” this kind of propaganda. The phrase “it would be a shame if…” should be “it is a shame that…” The point of the propaganda is get the skewed picture into print, on the breakfast tables of millions of readers, who will never thereafter criticize of rethink their impression. In short — the harm is done. It doesn’t matter if this blog moves Israeli media to be more honest and fair because there will be no occasion to demonstrate their newly found decency in journalism.

      1. Fair enough – but one can still hope that all of these young folks get the attention they deserve. This blog will at least ensure that some people will know their names. In fact, I probably would have missed this story entirely were it not for this blog. As it was, I ended up learning all about this competition and the impressive projects by all of these young people, particularly the two that were featured here.

  2. you are absolutely right and it’s outrageous – only you too, failed to mention the names of the two Arab citizens who came in second place: Majed Elfaraneh and Faruq Abu Elhassan. So inadvetendly you are also participating in “erasing” them….

      1. Richard, can you explain to me the multitude of names listed at center’s official site under second and third place respectively. It’s confusing. What I also don’t understand is why they use the photos without caption thus giving no one a chance to understand who is who in the photo. You at least tried. Isn’t this a standard?

        1. Hmm, is it a pre-selection for the respective second or third place. But then one would expect the same under the first place.

          Please help me to understand. 😉

  3. “We succeeded in showing the world the potential of the Jewish mind”
    ‘The Jewish mind’: imagine if a non-Jew said that, even in 2012.
    Reminds me of Hugarian-born American ‘anthropologist’ Raphal Patai who wrote a “The Arab Mind” (Seymour revealed back in 2004 that it was the ‘Bible’ of the neocons and read by US military staff) and later on a “The Jewish Mind”.

    I don’t know where these Palestinian second place winners went to school, but as the Israeli school system is separated into a Jewish and an Arab sector, with only very few ‘mixed’ schools’, and when one knows the institutionalized discrimination against the “Arab” sector, their achivement is really what is worth mentioning: against all odds, one could say.
    According to “Follow-Up Committee for Arab Education”, the Israeli government spends an average $192 per year on an Arab student, and $1.100 on a Jewish student. Ben White in his new book: ‘Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy’ also comes to a one-to-six gap between the two sectors.
    A very good document on the discrimination in Israeli education (link tp PDF):
    http://www.hrw.org/news/2006/01/02/discrimination-against-palestinian-arab-children-israeli-education-system

    (Ben White has statictics in his new book on Israeli Palestinians, showing that the gap has increased: the State of Israel spends six-times more on a Jewish pupil than on an Arab), this is really what’s incredible about this story.

    1. The last two lines should have been erased, though the dicrimination in The-Only-Democracy can never be mentioned too often.

    2. Very good points. It would have been nice if those two students were featured and had an opportunity to be interviewed as well. Could have provided some really useful insights into education in Israe, generally, and specifically within the non-Jewish community there. If you find out any more details about where they went to school – or anything else of note – please share!

    3. Deir — we are birds of a feather. It was that phrase exactly that horrified me. It such a racist notion that it sounds like those bad guys in Germany a while back, so to speak. If he can discuss the “Jewish mind” then so can the anti-semites and they will.

  4. “Israel won first, second, third, and fourth prizes and the Israeli media are rightfully proud of the accomplishment”

    Apparently so proud that they changed the story slightly. There seems to be no such ranking, but 8 winners equally placed (among them two Israelis and two Russians) and three Honerary Categories in different fields (also equally ranked within each category):
    http://www.ifpan.edu.pl/firststep/submit/res_fs20.html
    And those two Palestinian guys better change direction or look for a future elsewhere: Israeli Palestinians with a Degree in Physics (you know, the ‘internal’ ennemy…) will never find work at the level of their diploma. They’ll end up as school teachers in an underfunded Arab school even if they graduate from MIT.

    1. Or else they’ll join the Palestinian Diaspora and make a huge contribution to U.S. or European physics research. A contribution they couldn’ve made to Israel had it not been a racist system that derogates their contribution.

      1. Reminds me, I read a very interesting article lately (I really wish I’d kept it) about educated Israeli Palestinians leaving Israel for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, finding jobs they didn’t have access to in Israel. If I remember correctly there was an interview with an artist too. One of them mentioned the fact that this is exactly what Israel wants them to: leaving, and never come back.

        1. I would think that this is exactly what the leadership of the Occupied Palestinian Territories would want as well. An influx of educated Israeli Palestinians would be a very positive development for them, would it not?

          1. No, Bob. There are already thousands and thousands of well educated Palestinians languishing in the West Bank and Gaza with no jobs, thanks to Israel’s strangulation of the Palestinian economy. Palestinians are the among the best educated people in the Arab world.

          2. @ Bob
            Why do you think the Palestinian leadership want the Israeli Palestinians to leave the state of Israel and at the same time insist on the right of return ? There are hundreds of thousands of well-educated Palestinians in the West that would go back if they were allowed to. How come Israel allows Israeli Palestinians to settle down in the West Bank but at the same time refuses permanent residence to many diaspora Palestinians who often have to renew their permits every three or six month or live in the OT with their Israeli-delivered papers expired. I read recently about the a diaspoara Palestinian teaching – I think it was at Bir Zeit – who was expelled in the middle of the academic year. It happens all the time.
            To answer your next comment: as Mary says the Palestinians in the OT are among the best educated people in the Arab world with the Tunisians, but that isn’t contradictory with people coming from elsewhere finding jobs. They bring something that the occupied Palestinians need: the dynamics from a non-occupied situation.

        2. The above poster said they were “finding jobs they didn’t have access to in Israel” by moving to the West Bank and Gaza.

          You are saying that thousands of well educated Palestinians languishing in the West Bank and Gaza with no jobs, thanks to Israel’s strangulation of the Palestinian economy.

          How can both of these statements be true?

          If there are thousands of well educated Palestinians languishing in the West Bank and Gaza with no jobs, how are educated Palestinians leaving Israel for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, finding jobs they didn’t have access to in Israel?

          1. Economic development is stifled in both the West Bank and Gaza (though moreso in the latter area). But there are some opportunities in the West Bank that may not be available inside Israel for Israeli Palestinians.

        3. Thanks so much for a very cogent explanation. Makes sense. (I know the replies to replies get muddled, so this is in response to the idea of the two seemingly incongruous (to me) statements both being true). I think you are agreeing (and correct me if I’m wrong) that movement into the OT of well-educated Israeli Palestinians could have a positive impact on those communities in the West Bank and Gaza to which they move.

  5. It’s simple. Only Jewish achievements are of interest to Jewish readers, presumably. Palestinians are invisible on both sides of the wall. How insulting to these hard working young people, although I’m sure they’re used to it.

  6. Apparently Richard Silverstein is now taking his materials at least for frameworks of interpretation from hardcore antisemitic sources, who obsessively refer to and claim to fight against “the Jewish Supremacists” (and what a nice euphemism he found, “Jewish triumphalists”…). Embracing this mentality led him to argue (just like the anti-Semites) that those who promote Israel’s incredible positive achievements in science, technology, education, economy, culture and so forth, are actually motivated by the need to show the “genetic and racial superiority of Jewish DNA”. In line with this distorted, ridiculous defamation of an entire country, he frames the professor’s remark that “We succeeded in showing the world the potential of the Jewish mind” as racist – although the professor did not say that the mind of others has no potential, and did not engage in any racial argument or ideology whatsoever (and I’m sure that if you ask him, he will strongly condemn your claim that Jews are genetically superior).

    But the truly amazing disgusting aspect of this article is that Silverstein took a positive event – both in terms of educational achievements and in terms of Jewish-Arab cooperation and Arab/Palestinian citizens’ of Israel’s integration in society and success – and made it to be a story on Jewish racism, Israeli media racism, and the usual story on an imaginary society of unlimited evil and discrimination, the only place where Arabs enjoy full democratic and liberal rights and freedom.

    1. Silverstein’s material in this article is “borrowed” from Israeli left-wing sites (“fightracism” and similar), three days ago and fourteen days after Israel Hayom et al. published their stories. It’s rather clear where’s the original story. I wonder how he failed to mention this minor detail.

      1. I don’t know what you’re “on” about. The post makes clear that Sol Salbe translated the post at Fight Racism & links to both Sol’s translation & the original Hebrew post. It also links to the Yisrael HaYom article in English. So what’s your problem again other than being a useless nitpicking nudnik?

        1. You took a story about not mentioning in an article the names and affiliations (schools, nationality, whatever) of all the students who won awards in a specific competition, and made it into a demonizing article on “Jewish supremacist” (a common antisemitic contemporary expression, used widely by white supremacists, conspiraciests and such) and on the pro-Israelis who are racists and think that the Jews are better than everyone else because of their DNA.

          You’re adopting the antisemitic discourse and you don’t even notice.

          1. Wow! How easily one slips into anti-semitism through analysis, through comment, through breathing. Who will cure us of this affliction?

          2. You’re a liar. The term Jewish supermacism is NOT “a common antisemitic expression.” It is a term widely used by many people who have no such views. Here, for example, are two uses of the term by people who are Jewish & at least one of them Israeli:

            Some academics and writers allege Jewish supremacism, often in relation to Israel and Zionism. Author Minna Rozen describes the 17th century Jews of Jerusalems’ view of themselves as an elite group among Jews as supremacism.[24] Ilan Pappé writes that the First Aliyah to Israel “established a society based on Jewish supremacy.”[25]

            The fact that David Duke uses the term is of no relevance as I use it in a completely different context. In case you don’t understand this, he & I share a common language and so use similar terms. But we use them for entirely different purposes. I don’t agree with a single idea David Duke espouses including this one.

            If you associate me with anti-Semitism again you’ll be banned outright. READ THE COMMENT RULES.

          3. Silverstein can’t be an antisemite. He is Jewish and besides, he can fling about endearing Yidishisms…

            He can’t be an antisemite, because he is one of only a few genuine Jews who remain in this world who know what Judaism is all about. That’s why he is blogging under the name of Tikkun Olam. Clearly he knows that Tikkun Olam is about augmenting the amount of hatred towards Jews in the world. There are approximately 12 million Jews today, 6of whom live in Israel.Of the rest of the 6 millions, 80% at least support Israeli Jews. So you can see how absolutely a Jew Silverstein is, and what are the odds he is facing.

        1. If you think Richard is anti-semitic, or any of the readers here, why not come out and say so, and then stop commenting on this blog? Take your wounded zionist sensibilities elsewhere, if you think discussing racism and Jewish supremacy is anti-semitic.

          1. Mary, I wish to write a thorough reply but most of my replies here have been deleted so I don’t want to invest energy and time.
            I did not argue that Richard is an Anti-Semite (I don’t know him), but that he engaged in an anti-Semitic interpretation of a particular event (it’s not even an event, there was nothing to report, it’s a made-up story, as I explained in a comment that was deleted).
            It’s a trend to label any message that contains the word “antisemitism” as “oh these Zionists again and their antisemitism labeling”. The discussion whether someone is an antisemite or not is futile – the right discussion should be whether one’s ideas are legitimate or not legitimate (due to racism, demonization of a particular ethnic/religious/national group and so forth, delegitimization of a group’s rights, etc).

          2. When you say I wrote something anti-Semitic it’s the same as calling me an anti-Semite. You will not comment again here till you withdraw that entire statement. If you don’t, you won’t. Your choice.

          3. How incredibly cowardly and arrogant you are, to resort to cheap shots against the writer of this blog because you have nothing at all of substance or merit to contribute. Why do the blatant displays of racism and discrimination against Arab Israelis and Palestinians make you so defensive that you feel you must resort to such foul remarks to stop Richard from writing about them?

    2. “Maor” is missing the point. There is nothing wrong with celebrating the cultural and scientific achievements of Israel or any other society, but the achievements of its members of ALL backgrounds, should be celebrated. Mr. Silverstein did not engage in “defamation of an entire country,” he stated that the Israeli media was “rightfully proud” of the accomplishments of Israeli students.

      In most news reports of prize winners, one would expect the first, second, and then third prizes to be mentioned. That Yisrael HaYom named first and third prize winners (who happened to be Israeli Jews) and omitted the second prize winners (who happened to be Palestinian citizens of Israel) is rather strange, to say the least.

      It is ridiculous to defend Prof. Malamud’s obnoxious remark, “We succeeded in showing the world the potential of the Jewish mind,” by saying that he didn’t say the minds of non-Jews were of no value. A remark like his is utterly uncalled-for, for an Israeli professor who is supposed to be a teacher of Israelis of varied national, ethnic and religious backgrounds, and given that his prize-winning students whom he is so proud of included two Palestinians.

  7. 12 winner names are listed on the Ben Gurion University’s page, here: http://in.bgu.ac.il/ilanramon/Pages/FIRST%20STEP%20TO%20NOBEL%20PRIZE%20IN%20PHYSICS.aspx

    In the article you link to, only two names are mentioned: The first prize winner and one of the third prize winners. None of the 8 students who won the second prize are mentioned, 2 of whom have Arab names and 6 – Hebrew names. The two with the Arab names appears first because the names are listed in an alphabetic order. Your allegation of deliberate deletion of Arab students’ names in the article would carry more authority if Hebrew name winners from of the second prize had made it into the article. There were three names in the third prize category but only one was indicated. which suggests to me some sort of editorial decision that has nothing to do with ethnicity or religion.

    If you want to make a case for discrimination, you would have to explain why, out of the 12 names only two were mentioned at all. And why, when 8 of the unmentioned names are Jewish, do you take special interest in the non-mention of the Arab names? Do you think they should have been given special attention, because they were Arab students? If so, why?

    As for Deir Yassin’s astounding accusation about there being no future for Arab physicists in Israel’s hi tech industry, here is from my own anecdotal: In the three short weeks that I spent in Israel this summer, I heard of one physicist at Intel, Jerusalem, and another in the (!) military industry plant near Tel Aviv. Both held very senior positions. I didn’t go looking for them. Their names were casually mentioned by people who work for them or with them and in some proffessional context. BTW, of the five pharmacists I had to consult with during my visit, 4 were Israeli Arabs, one Russian:) Israeli Arabs are well integrated, if they want to, the opportunities are there to be taken. Many do choose to integrate.

    1. I didn’t talk about pharmacists. It’s well-known that lots of Israeli Palestinians are pharmacists.
      Spare me the crap about Israeli Palestinians being well-integrated and your ‘I-heard-about’ blahblah based on a three week trip (Birthright-stuff or Hasbaraellowship ?). If you ‘heard’ ‘casually’ about two Arabs holding high positions, it’s maybe because they were the only two. And not more casually than you remember it months after.
      Just like the ‘there-are-Arab-judges-in-the-high-court’. Yeah, there’s one, poor Salim Jubran who’s always mentioned by the propaganda to show what a democracy Israel is. Until he refused to sing the HaTikvah at Asher Grunis’ swearing in, then he was told where he belongs.
      Why don’t you look at the report that I posted on discrimination in the educational system: fundings (six times more money for a Jewsih student), special education, school facilities etc. And why don’t you google ‘discrimination+israel+ arabs’, and read the reports ?
      Or just start reading this:
      http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/segregation-of-jews-and-arabs-in-2010-israel-is-almost-absolute-1.321728

      1. Thank you for sharing that article. The author is quite extraordinary:

        “Amnon Be’eri Sulitzeanu is the co-executive director of the Abraham Fund Initiatives, an organization that promotes coexistence and equality between Israel’s Jewish and Arab citizens.”

        Israel could use more people (and organizations) like that.

        By the way, do you know if the bill discussed in that article ended up becoming law?

          1. Are you using “a big Obama donor and liberal Zionist” as a pejorative? It seems so from your comment, though I could be misunderstanding. Anyway the above poster seemed to be suggesting that the op-ed by Amnon Be’eri Sulitzeanu was worth reading – I assumed his was a group viewed favorably (The Abraham Fund). Is it?

          2. I regard it with mixed emotions since I don’t believe donors like Slifka can really approach the root problems of Israeli society as fearlessly & forthrightly as they must be addressed. Frankly, I don’t know the Abraham Fund very well. So I can’t comment on their specific work. But I’ll try to read the Haaretz piece if I can & give my impression.

      2. Deir Yassin: I would have thought you’d welcome the knowledge that Israeli Arab physicists hold high ranking position in Israel’s hi-tech industry. How much of a coincidence would it take for the only two Arab physicists being mentioned by two separate persons in two separate contexts and who do not even draw attention to the fact that these are Arabs but rather casually referring to them as “My boss” and “My host at the meeting in the military industrial plant”? By imputing all sorts of imaginary contexts to my visit and my report you are in fact only serving to discredit yourself. I’m thinking: This is pure projection. What will the poor man or woman do without that core of hatred to makes his/her life so enjoyable and worthwhile?

        BTW, one of the most popular Israeli sit-coms is “Arab work”, a satirical look on the life of an Arab Israeli couple and their two children living in a mostly Jewish neigbourhood. It is written by Sayed Kashua, a popular satirist and writer who spares noone in his sharply drawn satires. Funny how nobody in this blog is interested in what is actually happening in Israeli society. So much easier to just make up stories that never really happened, like this non-story about how Israeli media ignores and disappears Arab students. Is this what Tikkun Olam is about? Looks more like Heress Olam. If it’s right and working, make sure to break it.

        1. Does Amnon Be’eri Sulitzeanu not know what is happening in Israeli society? He is the one who wrote the Ha’aretz article that commenter linked to.

        2. Thank you, I know Sayed Kashua. Why don’t you read his “Dancing Arabs” and “Let it be Morning”.
          Instead of giving us individual stories, why don’t you google the reports I mentioned. Or just start with the Katzir-affair: Kaadan vs Katzir. Try to follow the story of that Arab family through their fight to settle down in a ‘Jewish’ town. You won’t believe it: it’s the Deep South in the ’50’s.

          1. Thanks for drawing attention to Adel Kaadan. That was a groundbreaking case as the Israeli High Court ruled in favor of the Arab family trying to settle down in a Jewish town.

            From Ha’aretz: A panel of five justices, led by Court President Aharon Barak, ruled that “the state’s obligation to act with equality extends to all of its activities. It therefore also extends to the allocation of state lands.”

            Positive precedent-setting ruling in the end, would you agree?

          2. Israel’s Supreme Court isn’t like the U.S. Supreme Court. There’s not really a tradition of precedent or separation of powers. The Courts rulings are essentially advisory & not definitive or obligatory. So the Court merely sets a tone in society but doesn’t carry the day in its decisions. That’s why Separation Walls can still be standing four years after the Court directed that they be moved. Such a thing could never happen in the U.S. (though our Court has deep flaws as well).

          3. @ Bob Mann
            Why don’t you tell us how many years the Kaadan-family fought for their legal rights, and why don’t you tell us when they moved into their house in Katzir ? And why don’t you look up the new law giving ‘communities’ the right to decide who move into their midst. We’re all ears….

          4. Many years – a shamefully long time before justice was finally done in this case. What is the new law that you are speaking of? Please share.

          5. @ Bob
            I don’t have much time so I’ll give you a wiki-link. It gives you some keywords at least.
            The law I was thinking about is the one mentioned in point 5 “Community Settlement Legislation”. In spite of what the law says, we all know who this is about, and it has been confirmed by various people who’ve been directly asked whether they were Jewish.
            Take a look at point 7 “Land and Infrastructure” too. And we’re talking about land that was often expropriated from Palestinians, some of them still living within the state of Israel.
            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_and_the_apartheid_analogy

            PS. The courts is Israel are changing: everytime a ‘liberal’ retires, he/she is replaced by a Likudnik. Noam Solberg is living in a settlement, if I’m not wrong.

    2. Enough with the hocus pocus, mumbo jumbo. I’ve mentioned three (not one, as you claim) Israeli publications each of which named various winners, but none of which named the Israeli Palestinians. Any reasonable person will recognize this as racism. Except you, because you’re not reasonable.

      1. You still have not explained how it is racism when there is a list of 12 names, and the only ones you care about and provide arcane explanations for having been ignored are the Arab students’ names. Just provide one plausible explanation, Silverstein. And being a sloppy reader and reporter does NOT count as an explanation.

        You take a good and happy piece of news about Israeli kids doing well and biliously turn it into “evidence” of racism and dysfunction. Let me repeat, Tikkun Olam is not your suit. Something else is fueling you and I wouldn’t want to speculate what that is. It is clear that self-hatred it is not since you seem to suffer from rather excess of love for your own fantasies.

        Amnon Be’eri Sulitzeanu may have encountered instances, or even many instances of racist prejudice in Israel but I don’t think he would know what racist means if it hit him on the head with a sledgehammer. He and you do not care about racism, you care about imaginary insults, that have not happened, to Arabs only. If anyone is a racist here it is you who think that Arabs should be singled out for accolades just because they are Arabs. There are many Arab kids doing extremely well in Israel but you wouldn’t want to know that would you, it interferes with your beloved “narrative” and your political objective of demonizing Israelis.

        1. Nope. Why are the names missing? That is the question, that is the “racism.” And you should stop this ad hominem stuff.

        2. Yeah, yeah — it’s always “something else.” It’s never what it is because then answers would be necessary and the answers, if any, are not pretty. If the Arab kids were ignored then Israel is not a place to celebrate, not by anyone. The “demon” is in the false identity of Jewish and Israel, the religious and the national political, and its consequences.

        3. You have not read the comment rules. Accusations of anti Semitism & “self-hatred” are not only nonsensical, they’re impermissible smears & violations of comment rules. You are now moderated. Any future violations will result in losing your privileges.

          It’s beyond presumption for you to tell the director of a human rights NGO fighting against racism that he wouldn’t know it if it hit him in the head. Even more presumptuous for you to tell me what I care or don’t care about & what my motives are–something of which you haven’t a clue.

          You’re a racist. The only question is is your racism based on malicious motives or is it based on ignorance. Probably in your case a bit of both.

  8. One of the two prominent Israeli scientists in the Technion is an Arab. See this link published in the Technion site:
    http://www.hayadan.org.il/hayek_and_levenberg-got-unesco-prize-143081

    BTW, I did not see anything about no Jewish DNA aside from sick minds. This has nothing to do with Israelis. I guess it is common in your neck of the wood. Don’t attribute it to Israel please.

    The reason there are no science Arab Nobel winners, can be attributed to society and nothing to do with the Genes.
    Their population sure outnumbers the Israelis 50 to 1.

  9. Most of the credit goes to these Arab students themselves, but the State of Israel also deserves a small amount of credit for their accomplishments. If the Fourth Estate in Israel failed to honor these students, does that make the rest of Israel a failure as well?

    1. It’s not just the media. The administrator of the Ramon Center competition himself issued a racist statement that disrespected the Israeli Palestinian students.

      You don’t know where these students studied. They may’ve studied in an underfunded Israeli Palestinian school or may’ve found an Israeli Jewish champion who supported their studies. For damn sure it wasn’t Victor “Jewish Mind” Malamud.

      1. Have you learned any more about these students? I’d be curious as well to know where they studied of if they had a “champion” of some kind. Can’t seem to find any more information about them online – perhaps there is something in Hebrew that you can track down?

  10. Of course there are Arabs who are Nobel prizewinners, “free man”. You just don’t know about them. (Not their fault. Perhaps yours?) Ahmed Zweil, Peter Mudawwar and others come to mind…

    1. freeman said: “The reason there are no science Arab Nobel winners, can be attributed to society and nothing to do with the Genes.”

      I thought it was obvious he meant that no Arab states produced any Science Nobelites.

      And Helen’s examples would seem to corroborate this statement.

      “Medawar was born on 28 February 1915, in Petrópolis, Brazil (a town 40 miles north of Rio de Janeiro) of a British mother (née Edith Muriel Dowling) and a Lebanese father, Nicholas Medawar, who was a Maronite Catholic.[2] Medawar’s status as a British citizen was acquired at birth: “My birth was registered at the British Consulate in good time to acquire the status of ‘natural-born British subject’.[3] Medawar left Brazil with his family for England “towards the end of the war”,[3] and he lived there for the rest of his life.

      Medawar was educated at Marlborough College and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he eventually became a Fellow.”

      “Ahmed Hassan Zewail (Arabic: أحمد حسن زويل‎, IPA: [ˈæħmæd ˈħæsæn zeˈweːl]; born February 26, 1946) is an Egyptian-American scientist who won the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on femtochemistry. He is the Linus Pauling Chair Professor Chemistry and Professor of Physics at the California Institute of Technology.”

      Both Nobel winners lived in Western democracies.

      1. I have a very short leash for people like you whose modus operandi seems to be to degrade Arabs except when you might use them on behalf of Israeli hasbara. Read the comment rules. If you’re here with a ideological agenda scoring points in a hasbara war, go elsewhere.

        There are hundreds, if not thousands of Arabs living in Arab countries who have won prestigious international prizes. The Nobel Prize isn’t the only such prize (& Arabs living in Arab countries have won it too). I’m putting you on notice.

        1. It was the Nobel prize that was discussed, not ” prestigious international prizes.” And your vehemence would be better served if you actually provided a list of those Arabs from arab lands winning these prizes.

          I’m really heart broken that you should put me on notice, Silverstein. We met before on a message board where I was the moderator. You came under attack and I defended you, despite your positions being disgustingly ill-conceived in my eyes. Like I said, Tikkun Olam is NOT your suit, don’t kid yourself.

          1. I said Arabs from Arab nations have won Nobel Prizes. Do you understand what that means? Your implicit claim that those Arabs names as Nobel laureates were not from Arab countries falls because there are Arabs from Arab lands who won it. There are also thousands more who’ve won other equally prestigious international prizes for their brilliance in their fields.

            If you don’t know which Arabs won the Nobel PRize I’d say it’s YOU who need to do that research, not me. I know who they are. You don’t. Your ignorance once again is on display & it’s ugly to see.

            No one defends anyone whose ideas they find “disgusting.” So either you didn’t find them disgusting then & have no memory that you defended them for other motives. Or you did find them disgusting & didn’t defend them. In which case you’re lying. Either one shows you once again to be rather pathetic.

            You’ve broken another comment rule by posting far too many comments in a single day. The rule for people posting as many as you have today is not to post more than 3 in a 24 hour period. If you post more you are monopolizing the threads & this is not permissible.

  11. ” This Hebrew language article recounts the meeting with Pres. Shimon Peres. Not only does it omit the names of the Israeli Palestinian winners, it erroneously awards their second place prize to an Israeli Jewish student. It’s almost as if the non-Jews were air brushed out of the picture both literally and figuratively.”

    Here is what the article says:

    תלמידי מרכז אילן רמון מבאר שבע שהשתתפו השנה בתחרות “צעד ראשון לפרס נובל בפיזיקה” הבינלאומית, זכו השבוע לכבוד מיוחד שהוזמנו לפגישה לבבית עם נשיא המדינה שמעון פרס.

    כזכור, בתחרות הבינלאומית שהתקיימה בחודש שעבר בפולין השתתפו 5 תלמידים מבאר שבע, במקום הראשון זכה אורן הלוי, תלמיד כיתה י”ב מבית הספר התיכון מקיף רבין, שלושה תלמידים רמי בבייב, חביב כהן ומאיה חן שור, כולם ממקיף אמי”ת זכו במקום השני ובמקום השלישי זכה פרדריק שרמן, אף הוא ממקיף אמי”ת.

    Students of Ilan Ramon Centre who had taken part in this year’s international competition “First step towards a Nobel prize” were granted a special honour this week as they were invited to meet Israel’s president Shimon Peres at the president’s residence.
    As may be recalled, in the international competition that took place last month in Poland, 5 students from Beer Sheva participated. Oren Halvi, a twelfth grade student from Rabin Comprehensive School won the first prize. Three students, Rami Babayef, Haviv Cohen and Maya Chen Shor, all three from “Amit” Comprehensive School, won second prize, and the third prize went to Frederic Sherman, also from “Amit” Comprehensive.

    ___________

    Clearly the interest is in mentioning the names of students from Beer Sheva. In other words, only the names of students from Beer Sheva were mentioned. How shall I say it again? The five names singled out from a list of 12 Israeli students winners, were those that attend a school in Beer Sheva.

    How can this be harmonized with Silverstein’s slanderous complaint that the organizing principle in the selection of names is the insistence by Israeli reporters of NOT mentioning the Arab students’ names?

    Demonizers do not need to make rational and consistent arguments. They know who their audience is and to what ends they are manufacturing these non-stories.

    1. You are being purposefully obtuse and annoying. The point, as we all know, is that several Israeli publications omitted the names of the Arab students. I do sincerely hope Richard bans you; you are not contributing to the discussion except to make accusations and ad hominem attacks. Boring and intellectually bankrupt is how I perceive your commentary.

      1. The ad hominem stuff is inexcusable here. The issue remains that the two were not mentioned and Israel’s unseemly racial policies and practices seems to be the basis for this misleading journalism. But we are feeding trolls, as Mary says.

        1. The issue remains the out of the 12 students, 5 names from Beer Sheva were mentioned and seven, presumably from other places in Israel, were not. The two Arab names were among the seven. Perhaps you can provide a good reason why the names of the Arab students should have been singled out for mention, when the article so clearly focused on the students from Beer Sheva and excluded the seven who were not.

      2. Obtuse and annoying because I won’t swallow your misguided attempts to manufacture a crisis where none exists? You can perhaps prove what Silverstein alleges by applying a consistent and rational parameter. When you make such terrible accusations of racism you need to be very careful to show that indeed racism is present, by eliminating all the other easily plausible and accessible explanations as to why these students’ names were not mentioned. It is not enough to claim that just because it comforts you to think so, because you so obviously hate Israeli Jews, then some crappy piece of “journalistic” report is correct and truthful. If you fail to do so, and instead resort to banning those who do and present a clearly possible and likely explanation, then you are engaged not in the promotion of any general good, compassion or human rights but in toxic pollution.

        If you think your analysis of the omission is the only possible explanation then let’s see your stuff, let’s see the irrefutable analysis that proves beyond a doubt that your reading is the correct one. If you don’t, I think it is acceptable to assume that you are nothing but a vile propagandist intent on criminalizing a whole collectivity of people with who knows what punishment you are fantasizing about for them.

        I repeat: This is not tikkun olam. This is the very opposite of the Jewish principle of tikkun olam, that aims at mending bridges and augmenting the good in this world.

        1. Sure that’s the Zionist method in a nutshell: “…careful to show that indeed racism is present,(sic) by eliminating all the other easily plausible and accessible explanations as to why…” The Zionists and their fellow travelers everywhere do not simply dismiss as “anti-semtism” anything critical of the Zionist regime, but are careful to consider all the other plausible explanations for the criticism. We see it all the time: At the threshold, the Zionist pulls back and reconsiders the objective legitimacy of the complaint before dismissing it as racism, diligent and conscious that such a claim is a libel and injurious to the person’s reputation.

          From what I’ve seen again and again, virtually everybody who is not a Zionist is termed an “anti-semite.” My terrier ate my slippers yesterday and … I couldn’t help it …I unfairly and without other evidence called her an “anti-semite!”

          1. “From what I’ve seen again and again, virtually everybody who is not a Zionist is termed an “anti-semite.”

            What do you mean by “Zionist”? A clear definition with some boundaries on what is / is not a Zionist would be useful. It would help in determining whether your “criticism” is based on universal propositions or is geared towards only the aspirations of the Jewish people. That is an important distinction.

          2. Definitions of Zionism offered for your sake are off topic. Comments must be directly related to the post on which they comment. Wait until there’s a post dealing with that subject. I’ve written voluminously on this subject elsewhere in this blog. This isn’t the place for that discussion.

    2. The first place winner in 2012 is Yuval Katznelson. Oren Halevy was the first place winner last year. This article in Hebrew is about the winners of the 2011 prize, not the current 2012 winners from the photo. That could be what is causing some of the confusion.

    3. The Israeli Palestinian students are, I believe, affiliated with the Ramon Center since their photo is on the Ramon Center website. In other words, they probably live in or near Beersheva AND are participants in the Ramon Center program. The article notes “students of the Ilan Ramon Center” and proceeds to omit these two. Therefore, your argument fails once again.

      I challenge you to prove that the Israeli Palestinians are NOT affiliated with the Ramon program and not residents of the Beersheva region. Go ahead we’ll wait for the results. If you can’t prove your claim then I’ll expect an apology. If one is not forthcoming I’ll be deeply hurt, but not surprised.

  12. Voila. One obnoxious, aggressive hasbarist (sometimes 2) is all it takes to totally jam a comment thread. Let us look at some interesting issues surrounding Arab students in Israeli schools, to start with. Perhaps this will put things back into focus.

    http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/israel-must-end-discrimination-against-arab-college-graduates-1.436533 “But Israeli Arabs, who make up 22 percent of the population, suffer from exclusion and discrimination. Nowhere does this discrimination stand out more than among college graduates. Only 1.3 percent of Arabs who graduate in high-tech fields find work in their specialties, despite claims by high-tech leaders that they are desperate for workers. Most of these Arab college graduates are forced to compromise and work as teachers.”

    http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/66636/gap-year-in-israel-opens-my-eyes-to-lives-of-israeli-arabs/
    “I realized the unique position of Israeli Arabs, particularly the Muslims. They share a heritage and religion with other Arabs, yet they live in a Jewish state. They are criticized by non-Israeli Arabs for living in Israel, yet many Israeli Jews want as little to do with them as possible. Many feel ostracized, isolated and shunned.”

    1. Thank you for bringing things back on track. I would love to hear directly from someone who is actually in this position. Are there any Israeli Arabs who frequent this blog and can share their perspective with us?

      By the way, I use the term Israeli Arab because that is the term used by the poster above (mary), but I think Palestinian citizen of Israel is starting to be the more widely used terminology.

  13. “Universal propositions” have no life in Israel as the state is the opposite of universalism. My broad use of “Zionist” is intended to identify pro-Israel forces.

    The reason the two names were omitted is precisely the conflating of “Israel” with “Jewish” in order to maintain consistency with the “Jewish mind” bs. This is where Israel stumbles all the time and it is the characteristic that makes the state unique. The idea that ethnicity, religion and national political identity are identical is the very thing that makes for the fuss as it is incompatible with pluralism and democratic “universals.” If being Jewish carries with it a thorough-going national political identity then how can a Jew be a good citizen in any country other than Israel? It is, by Israel’s own estimate, as though Diaspora Jews are of Israeli nationality “in waiting.” The tension created by this contradiction gives rise to moot, disturbing ideas like “dual loyalty,” an idea that doesn’t bear scrutiny. As is Zionism’s wont, the mere practice of Judaism is an act of national political affirmation. It is standard practice now that the pro-Israel camp plays whatever end of this it wishes rather than resolving the contradiction. The proof is in the pudding here: Zionism thrives in the US by virtue of national political ideas and universals about freedom that Israel does not extend to those subject to its authority. In nationalizing Jewish identity AND religion, Israel has assured the fracturing of both and a host of problems for itself. In short, Richard is very right: The political and the religious identities must be split up. If not, any opposition to Israel’s national agenda will always appear as opposition to Judaism and Jews, and that agenda will always appear elitist and racist to its critics.

  14. Americans don’t understand that there is a difference. They think that Israel is a replica of America just incidentally populated by Jews. I am sure a poll would reveal that Americans believe Israel is governed by a constitution. So they think that this court siding with an Arab at all, rare as it is, is historical precedent, a regular Roe vs. Wade!

  15. RE: “Yisrael HaYom conveniently named the first and third place winners, but not those awarded second place. Haaretz too ‘disappeared’ the two second place winners, who happen to have been Israeli Palestinians. ~ R.S.

    MY COMMENT: I think it is important to reiterate that Israel Hayom (a/k/a “Bibiton”) is Sheldon Adelson’s pro-Netanyahu rag. It is owned and operated at a loss by a right-wing American casino magnate!

    Sheldon Adelson’s pro-Netanyahu tabloid [Israel Hayom] now the most widely read paper in Israelhttp://972mag.com/sheldon-adelsons-pro-netanyahu-tabloid-now-the-most-widely-read-paper-in-israel/646/

    1. Yes, it is important. Adelson has purchased Israeli public opinion and monopolized discussion. I don’t know why Israelis think such a paper a good place for news and views and I think they get what they deserve. Adelson would like to buy the US Election as well but it is too costly. This is partly why billionaires should be heavily taxed always — to keep them cognizant that wealth is socially produced and that, just because some have a lot of it doesn’t mean they can do any thing they want with it. There should be consequences to Adelson’s unseemly behavior perhaps by overcoming Citizens United and by much higher taxes on the super wealthy.

  16. NOGA:

    Obtuse and annoying because I won’t swallow your misguided attempts to manufacture a crisis where none exists?

    Actually, what Israel HaYom says isn’t very much important. It’s a privately-funded newspaper. The really troubling issue, which you stubbornly ignore, is summarized in the quote: “We succeeded in showing the world the potential of the Jewish mind,” said Professor Victor Malamud, the head of the Ilan Ramon Youth Physics Center at Ben Gurion University, which works with students who wish to enter physics competitions.

    Victor Malamud is not a private citizen, he’s a publicly-funded teacher. His salary is paid by both Jews and Arabs. Yet he chooses to ascribe Israel’s success to the Jewish mind only, even when two of the Israeli winners were Arab. That you fail to see any crisis there speaks volumes about the level of racism and denial in the Zionist mindset.

    1. Not to mention his attacks on Richard for writing the article in the first place. I am sure that is where the crisis lies.

      What Richard points out is a manifestation of a deeply imbedded prejudice working against Arabs in Israel, and no matter how many ad hominems he flings at Richard, he cannot or will not address that prejudice, possibly because he shares it.

    2. But that’s it exactly: “…the potential of the Jewish mind” in a democracy demonstrates the problem of identifying ethnicity, religion and national identity as one indivisible thing. Who says “…the potential of the Catholic mind” or “…the potential of the Protestant mind?” Rather the state might be cited, the Italian mind, the Israeli mind, or something along this line. But I don’t think so. It is not only the word “Jewish” that is troubling but also the word “mind”, a close analogue to “brain.” After all, he could have said that they had demonstrated the virtues of the Israeli education system or the hard work of some students in Israel, etc. etc. But, Israel alone insists on the identification of ethnicity, religion and nationality and that’s the rub. When a Roman Catholic scientist wins a prize, I am certain the Vatican is happy and I am sure his fellow citizens are happy for their shared country, but nobody would rant about the “…the Catholic mind.” Maybe they’d rant about Catholic schooling or some such, but not “mind.” He might as well have said “Jewish brains” but I think he was close enough, …and well beyond the bounds of taste in any event.

      There is no difficulty or contradiction with Malamud’s language for an Israeli audience, an audience informed by Adelson’s newspaper, but for the rest of the world, this racism, this announced belief in a biological basis for citizenship, doesn’t play very well. I can only say that it is strange and disturbing to see race and biology again in a political setting. I suppose these geniuses can do what they want in “their” land or try to, but they sure can’t make the rest of us like it, respect it or support it.

      As they go on with this business of “Jewish mind,” they give ever more impetus and credibility to BDS and the accusation of Apartheid. But, that’s the good news.

      1. Basically, a mind is a mind is a mind. To infer that intellectual superiority rests within certain groups (the “Jewish mind” for example) is racism.

        1. Sure, but he doesn’t say “Jewish research” or “Jewish schools”, he says “mind,” meaning brain, and this is where biology crosses ideology as he is talking about innate differences, not acquired differences. But, yes, it’s all undisguised racism.

  17. Bullshit! Pardon me but i read not one, but several reports on this competition in the online hebrew press. It mentioned the names of all the students, mentioned that some were arab and mentioned exactly which place each of them received.
    I guess Israel bashing is so addictive and so much fun that you just cant quit! Despite facts to counter your premise.
    BTW- israel was NOT born in sin!

    1. If you were honest you’d offer a link but you haven’t. I on the other hand offered a link to 2 major Israeli pspers which erased the Israeli Palestinisn winners. So which one of us is more credible?

      Link please.

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