OUT, OUT, DAMN SPOTS

Mixing Science and Politics: Boycott of Israeli scientists sparks debate, dissent, and subtle unexpected effects (Catherine Zandonella, June 14, 2003, The Scientist)

Joel Hirsch, an Israeli biochemist at Tel Aviv University, has one more thing to worry about when he submits a scientific paper for publication: the possibility that scientists who disagree with his country's policies will shun his work. "My nightmare scenario is that the paper gets sent to a reviewer who might have an axe to grind about Israeli scientists," Hirsch says.

In the year since some British researchers called for a boycott of Israeli scientists, funding agencies have largely rejected such appeals. A subtler, possibly no less-damaging kind of boycott has surfaced, in which researchers express their outrage with the Israeli government by refusing to interact with Israeli scientists. As a result, when a talk is canceled, or a faculty member receives no reply from a European colleague, Israeli scientists can't help but think the worst. "I can't be sure if it was because I am Israeli," says Orly Reiner, a neuroscientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, about the cancellation of her invited talk at a research conference in France. [...]

The worst danger is not to individual Israeli scientists, boycott opponents say, but rather to the culture of open communication among researchers. Scientists like Segev, Marks, and Greenfield want scientific work to be judged on its merits, not on the basis of the researcher's citizenship. Any boycott or other action that puts such confidence in jeopardy has the potential to do lasting damage, the opponents say, not just to its intended target, but to the field of science itself.

Scientists worrying about the prospective politicization of their work resemble nothing so much as Madonna singing Like a Virgin. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 15, 2003 10:26 AM