London, Feb 16, IRNA – Two British museums are being urged to cancel plans to hold so-called ‘Israel Days of Science’ events next month which are seen as a public relations exercise by the Zionist regime following its latest slaughter of over 1,300 Palestinians in Gaza.
The calls are being led by many academics, including Labour MP, Professor Ian Gibson (pictured), who said the events at the Science Museum in London and Manchester Museum of Science and Industry in north-west England were “an attempted celebration of Israel.”
“In the immediate aftermath of the indiscriminate slaughter and attempted annihilation of all the infrastructure of organised society in Gaza, how can this ‘celebration’ be allowed to borrow some respectability from the use of these distinguished institutions?” Gibson asked.
“What reaction can be expected from the many young people, already disaffected from science, who will associate the science museums with this Israeli public relations exercise?” he said in a joint letter to the Guardian newspaper Monday, signed by nearly 400 others, including several professors.
The call for cancellation comes as students have joined in daily protests against Israel’s massacres and has led to sit-in demonstrations being staged at more than 20 British universities in what has been described as a revival of the ‘Spirit of 1968’ at the height of anti-Vietnam war rallies.
The two museums have argued that they are not sponsoring the controversial Israel Days of Science on March 3 and 7, but they have “merely hired out their premises.”
“This subtle distinction is unlikely to be appreciated by the many thousands of all ages and faiths who have repeatedly taken to the streets round the country to protest against Israeli war crimes in Gaza,” the letter said.
“The event is promoted by the Zionist Federation and is designed to showcase the scientific achievements of seven Israeli universities. But all of these are complicit in the Israeli occupation and in the policies and weaponry so recently deployed to such disastrous effect in Gaza,” it said.
As one example, the head of Tel Aviv University’s security studies programme was said to be a former director of the R&D directorate of the Israel ministry of defence, who holds the rank of major-general in the Israel Defence Forces and is a member of the Knesset.
Student groups expressing solidarity with the besieged Palestinians have also launched a campaign to petition the chairs of the Boards of Trustees at the two museum to cancel the events.