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Shasha Bitton decided not to award the Israel Prize to Professor Goldreich

After the High Court overturned former Education Minister Galant's decision not to award the award to Goldreich due to the signing of a petition calling for a boycott of Ariel University, the education minister announced that the decision stands.

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• Yifat Shasha-Bitton

Sonia Gorodisky

Thursday, 18 November 2021, 10:30 Updated: 10:52

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In the video: The Minister of Education in the Knesset Education Committee (Photo: Knesset Channel)

Education Minister Yifat Shasha Bitton announced today (Thursday) that she has decided not to award the Israel Prize in Mathematics and Computer Science Research to Professor Oded Goldreich.

In doing so, Shasha Bitton upheld the decision of the previous Minister of Education, Yoav Galant.

In August, High Court judges overturned Galant's decision to deprive Goldreich of the award following his signing of a petition calling for a boycott of Ariel University. The judges ordered that the decision be returned to current minister Shasha Bitton.

More on Walla!

The High Court annulled Galant's decision to deny Prof. Goldreich the Israel Prize

To the full article

Professor Goldreich (Photo: Official Website, Wikipedia)

"Prof. Goldreich's signature on the petition calling for a boycott of an Israeli academic institution is an exceptional case that justifies the choice not to award the candidate the prize, despite his outstanding and impressive professional achievements in his field of research," said Minister Shasha Bitton.

"As Minister of Education and Chairman of the MLAG, I cannot award the Israel Prize for academic achievements, impressive as they may be, to those who call for a boycott of an Israeli academic institution."

The coalition began to criticize the minister's decision.

MK Michal Rosin (Meretz) wrote on her Twitter account: "The Israel Prize is given for academic excellence, not for political positions.

My dear government - where is the change? "

"Exception".

Shasha Bitton (Photo: Knesset Spokeswoman, Noam Moskowitz)

In March, the Israel Prize Committee decided to award the prize to Goldreich for his work on computational complexity.

After Galant found out that Goldreich had signed an appeal to the German parliament to repeal the recognition of the BDS movement as an antisemitic movement, alongside signing a petition calling for a boycott of Ariel University, he appealed to the award committee to reconsider its grant.

Consequently, the Committee appealed to the Supreme Court and the interim ruling, the court approved the Minister of check within 30 days whether the views of Professor Goldrajch illegal to prevent harm to the country through boycotts and thus justify not approve this recommendation.

In July she informed Shasha-lining that will not become Following her announcement, the Attorney General wrote in his opinion to the High Court that the decision to deny the award does not stand a legal test.

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