Jewish academic cancels UK visit

A Nobel prize-winning physicist cancelled a visit to London university over what he says is widespread anti-Israel sentiment in Britain.

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A Nobel prize-winning physicist cancelled a visit to a London university over what he says is widespread anti-Israel sentiment in Britain.Steven Weinberg, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, cancelled a planned appearance at London’s Imperil College in July, the Guardian reported. “I know that some will say that these boycotts are directed only against Israel, rather than generally against Jews,” Weinberg wrote in a letter explaning the cancellation. “But given the history of the attacks on Israel and the oppressiveness and aggressiveness of other countries in the Middle East and elsewhere, boycotting Israel indicated a moral blindness for which it is hard to find any explanation other than anti-Semitism.”A spokeswoman for Imperial said it was “very sad” about the professor’s decision.Weinberg, who won the Nobel prize for physics in 1979, also cancelled an appearance in 2006 at the University of Durham for similar reasons.

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