Shorts: World

Nobel laureates press for end to academic sanctions

london (jta) | Twenty-one Nobel Prize winners published an open letter calling on a British teachers union to overturn its academic boycott of Israel.

"Academic freedom has never been the property of a few and must not be manipulated by them," the letter read. "Therefore, mixing science with politics, and limiting academic freedom by boycotts, is wrong."

Signed by laureates including Shimon Peres, Elie Wiesel and Israeli scientists Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover, the letter expressed the hope that "academic reasoning will overcome political rhetoric."

The controversial motion, passed last month by Britain's Association of University Teachers, called for the severing of ties with Haifa and Bar-Ilan universities but was expected to be overturned at the AUT's meeting this week.




Demonstrators urge Israel boycott

london (jta) | Demonstrators at a pro-Palestinian rally in London demanded that their country launch a wide-ranging boycott of Israel.

The event, which drew British lawmakers, trade unionists and Muslim leaders, saw newly elected legislator George Galloway, a vociferous critic of the Jewish state, call for Israeli-made goods to be shunned and for stores selling such items to be picketed.




Russian Jews want cemetery left alone

moscow (jta) | Authorities in the Russian city of Kaliningrad temporarily halted construction on the site of an abandoned Jewish cemetery, a Jewish group said. The Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia reported the news this week.

The Jewish community, which wants the cemetery recognized as a historical monument, is asking for a halt to all future construction on the site. The remnants of a cemetery — human remains and old tombstones with Hebrew inscriptions — were discovered this month during excavation work for a shopping mall. The community arranged for unearthed remains to be reburied this week in another Jewish cemetery.