The High Court reversed Shasha-Bitton's decision and ruled: The Israel Prize will be awarded to Prof. Goldreich

The judges ordered the Minister of Education to revoke her decision to deprive Goldreich of the award he called for boycotting Ariel University and supporting the boycott movement.

Goldreich: "Hopefully the ruling will repair the damage done."

Shasha-Bitton: "I am sorry for the judges' decision"

Uri Sela

29/03/2022

Tuesday, 29 March 2022, 14:45 Updated: 14:58

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The judges reversed the decision.

Prof. Goldreich (Photo: Official Website, Wikipedia)

The Supreme Court today (Tuesday) reversed the decision of Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Bitton and decided to order it to act on the recommendation of the Israel Prize Committee for the year 5731, and to grant it to Prof. Oded Goldreich in the field of mathematics research and computer science

. "After Shasha-Bitton announced that she would deprive Prof. Goldreich of the prize, Judge Yael Wilner considered that Shasha-Bitton's decision to deny the prize did not comply with the criteria outlined in the court's ruling over the years." The committee, speaking in two voices, "she explained." One vote - in the framework of the cooperation agreement, the de facto minister, being part of the government, deviated the Judea and Samaria region from the application of academic cooperation between Israel and the European Union.

In her other voice, the minister decided to deprive Prof. Goldreich of the Israel Prize for calling for the same exception. "

"I am sorry for the High Court's decision." Shasha-Bitton (Photo: Flash 90, Yonatan Zindel)

Judge Yitzhak Amit agreed with Judge Wilner. "The Minister noted in her decision that Prof. Goldreich's statements sought to infringe on the freedom of academic expression, but in my opinion, her violation of the academic freedom of expression of the award from Prof. Goldreich is much more severe."

"Judge Noam Solberg held a minority opinion and believed that the High Court was not allowed to intervene in the Education Minister's decision.

" "I am glad that the High Court of Justice has decided to overturn the Minister's decision and I hope that this will repair, even slightly, the enormous damage that this affair has caused to freedom of expression and the prestige of the Israel Prize."

Minister Shasha-Bitton expressed regret over the High Court's decision.

"A person who calls for a boycott of an Israeli academic institution does not deserve a state award from the State of Israel, whatever his achievements may be and whatever his political views may be."

Elhanan Fleheimer, chairman of the National Association of Students, also joined in. "Giving a person reading Brish Gali a boycott of a university academic institution with tens of thousands of students and alumni in Ariel is a shameful and irresponsible decision," he said. We see the phenomenon of geographical boycott with utter contempt. "

More on Walla!

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

To the full article

The events began in March last year, when the Israel Prize Committee decided to award Goldreich the prize, for his work on computational complexity.

After then-Education Minister Yoav Galant (Likud) revealed 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.

In August, High Court judges overturned Galant's decision, ordering a return to current minister Shasha Bitton. In November, Shasha-Bitton announced that she did not intend to change Galant's decision. She said then.

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