On January 22, 2023 the President of The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Prof. David Harel, expressed his grave concern over “the blatant irrationality of our leadership” and the processes it has set in motion, which, he said, will clearly have destructive effects on education and culture in Israel, and likely also on the excellence of Israel’s science. Prof. Harel expressed his concern that a day might come when aligning themselves with the government and supporting its conduct will be a criterion for the election of members to The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and that it is even possible that membership of those already elected to it, but who do not meet this criterion, would be revoked.

 

Prof. Harel made these statements during his opening remarks at the Academy’s annual Buber Memorial Lecture at the Academy in Jerusalem, which was delivered this year by Nobel laureate Prof. Daniel Kahneman, who spoke on the impact of ”noise” on decision-making.

 

“Today, specifically, we cannot keep silent. It is incumbent upon us to express our concerns about the conduct of Israel’s decision-makers and to state our views. The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities is not fit to go on strike. It has only a couple of dozen employees, and of course we have no cadre of students who can demonstrate and raise an outcry. But we can, and must, speak up and give advice. Indeed, advising the country’s decision-makers is one of our main tasks, according to the Israel Academy Law – not only in the natural sciences, but also in the humanities and social sciences, which by their very nature include culture, knowledge, education, and the inculcation of enlightened values. My advice to the government today is not a result of the Academy’s usual process of offering advice, in routine times…. We have no time for that. The pace of events is bewildering and frightening, and I feel obliged to respond right now, today …. The cry that must go out today is about the blatant irrationality of the leadership. Of the government.

 

“Greater and better people than I have used harsh words to define the government’s actions over recent weeks: ruin, pogrom, a terror attack, and again, ruin; and they have described this period in terms no less harsh, including a falling of darkness, a downward slide into an abyss, the unraveling of the social, legal, and economic fabric of the state, a black time. I cannot, of course, provide a responsible opinion about these descriptions, but what I can say is that the continuation of the government’s process will clearly have destructive effects on education and culture in Israel, and likely also on the excellence its science, but without any doubt for the values underpinning its establishment.

 

“The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities is not supposed to advise the government only on matters of cyber, quantum computing, food security, and the climate crisis. Education, culture, and ethics are not beyond the Academy’s mandate; they lie, rather, at its very core, as in any Academy in a democratic, enlightened, and liberal country.

 

“If the current process continues in the direction that it is going, and with the mind-boggling speed of its progress, then, in my opinion, it will affect not only the systems of law, economy, and civil rights. We cannot rule out the possibility of interference in the freedom of academic thought and potentially catastrophic harm to Israel’s research and higher education budgets. After all, we now have a finance minister who declared in an interview that “evolution is a farce.” I will fight with all my strength against such explicit attacks on scientific research and higher education.

 

“This process will not necessarily spare our own organization, whose first president was the great Martin Buber. It is not outlandish to imagine a day coming, when aligning themselves with the government and supporting its conduct will be among the criteria for election of members to The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities – and that it is even possible that membership of those already elected to it, but who do not meet this criterion, would be revoked.

 

“So here is the advice I wish to give the government – not merely as an ordinary citizen, but principally by virtue of my position in the Academy, according to law: Desist. Turn back. Stop the revolution and cancel these destructive plans while it is still possible. Reverse your intention to upset the delicate balance between the branches of government while leaving the ordinary citizen and the minorities among us without legal protection. And please, please, undo the process of divvying up the educational system and transferring significant portions thereof into the hands of individuals who have alsmot nothing in common with the values of openness, tolerance, and love of humanity. Instead, make it your priority to strive incessantly for a state founded upon truth, a state that is moral and ethical, whose conduct ensues from the proper education of its citizens on the fundamental values that ought to be taken for granted in an enlightened country: progress, full civil equality, individual rights– any individual – liberty, justice, abiding by the law, and, of course, peace.

 

“To conclude …: What we are seeing today is utterly irrational behavior of Israel’s decision-makers, which is not in the state’s best interests whatsoever. Quite the opposite. It must be stopped immediately, and the sooner, the better,” said Prof. Harel.

 

Watch a video recording of Prof. Harel’s complete remarks (Hebrew):