Twenty scientists, including an Israeli professor, are urging their counterparts to boycott the International Physics Olympiad set to be held in Israel in July.
The International Physics Olympiad is the top international physics competition for high school students. It includes competitors from some 80 countries.
According to The Jewish Press, Professor Emeritus Emmanuel Dror Farjoun of the Einstein Institute of Mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is among the letter's signatories.
The letter, published on the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement's official website, was signed by Farjoun and 19 other academics who called Israel an "apartheid state" and urged foreign students and the organizers to boycott the event.
"We call on all students and mentors from all over the world not to participate in the next International Physics Olympiad in Israel. We call on the boards of other International Science Olympiads to refrain from organizing their future contests in Israel, as long as it continues its military occupation and apartheid policy, in defiance of international law," the letter read.
According to the report, Farjoun, who is the only Israeli academic to lend his support to the call to boycott the olympiad, has been a supporter of the BDS movement since 2006.
In the past, he even supported an academic boycott of the Hebrew University, where he taught.
Matan Peleg, CEO of the right-wing Im Tirtzu organization said Farjoun's move was indicative of the fact that the Hebrew University "is plagued by a moral and ethical crisis."
"It is disgraceful that Hebrew University, which is supposed to be a beacon of academic light, has become a political incubator of anti-Zionist professors who devote their lives to attacking the State of Israel," he said.
