I read with regret Yaakov Ahimeir's Monday op-ed ("The minister should change his mind"), which discussed Science and Technology Minister Ofier Akunis' decision to reject neurologist Professor Yael Amitai from the German-Israel Foundation for Scientific Research and Development because of her support for conscientious objectors. Ahimeir called it political discrimination and urged Akunis to change his mind.
But Akunis' principled decision has nothing to do with politics. If he had blocked Amitai's appointment to the foundation because she belonged to a certain political party, it would have been a mistake reminiscent of the Mapai establishment's wrongs toward members of the right-wing Irgun and Lehi undergrounds in the first decades after the state was established. But Akunis doesn't know to which party, if any, the professor belongs. His rejection of her candidacy is based not on her political activity but her actions – questioning the legitimacy of IDF service and encouraging others not to serve.
To set the record straight, we should mention that Amitai herself linked her work and her extremist worldview. The petition encouraging soldiers to disobey orders that she signed was titled the "Scientists' Petition," and claimed to represent the scientific community in Israel. She was the one who sullied the world of science with dangerous ideology, a world that is supposed to be independent and objective.
But it is even more important to note that not all worldviews are legitimate for someone who seeks a government appointment and wants to represent their country, which means all of us. How, for example, would we treat a minister's decision not to appoint someone who openly supported the idea of a supreme race? Would we want someone who believed in the inherent superiority of whites or blacks or any other race to represent the nation? Amitai's case is no less serious because discourse in Israel condemns her views and because she urges soldiers to break the law.
Is it reasonable for someone who supports damaging nature to be appointed to a conference as the representative of the Society for the Preservation of Nature in Israel? Anyone who wants to represent their country should share its values. Amitai's calls for soldiers to conscientiously object to serving beyond the Green Line demonstrate that her radical values contradict those of the State of Israel. She preached lawbreaking and attacked Israel's legitimacy, and so she cannot serve as an official representative of Israel in an international forum, no matter its size.
Israel has never discriminated against those who hold left-wing worldviews and still doesn't. There was actually strong discrimination against right-wingers, and even nowadays a conservative viewpoint is enough to keep someone out of the cultural elite.
A glance at the ranks of Israeli academia is enough to prove that no one is hurting the livelihood of members of the Left or stopping even the most extreme among them from advancing professionally. But it's common on the Israeli Left to bite the hand that feeds them, to deny Israel's legitimacy while aspiring to represent it. It's time to put an end to this tradition and Akunis deserves to be praised for his courage in doing so. It's not the minister who needs to change his mind; it's the scientists who told lies about the IDF and all of us.
