More than 1300 scientists from 40 countries – including physicists, mathematicians, biologists, chemists, medical doctors, engineers and social scientists working in academia and in industry – adopted a declaration “against genocide and in support of Palestine”.
They also established a new International Union of Scientists Against War and Misuse of Science, appealing to “scientists of all countries to raise their voices against wars and the destruction of humanity”.
International convention
This was the outcome of an international convention of scientists hosted online by the Breakthrough Science Society (BSS) of India, a non-profit social welfare organisation. The convention was organised by an international committee of 19 members from nine countries.
The keynote speaker was Richard Falk, emeritus professor of international law at Princeton University, who served as United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Palestine from 2008 to 2014.
Falk, who turned 93 in November, said he found the initiative “to be a glimmer of light in a dark sky” at a time when “the peoples of the world are exposed as never before to the concrete reality of genocide” due to extensive media coverage of the Gaza war.
7 October atrocities deplored
The declaration states that the signatories “mourn all violent deaths and deplore atrocities against all non-combatants of any ethnicity and nationality, including the attacks on October 7”.
Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza after Hamas fighters entered Israeli territory on 7 October and killed 1,200 Israeli civilians and soldiers. They also took 240 hostages.
The Israeli military response, involving thousands of air strikes and a ground invasion in the 25-mile (41 km) long Gaza Strip, has killed about 18,000 people, 70% of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and has created a humanitarian crisis, with most of the area’s 2.3 million inhabitants forced to flee their homes.
’Indiscriminate bombing’ condemned
The declaration condemns “Israel’s actions that include the indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas of Gaza, the cutting off of electricity, fuel, water, and medical supplies, the destruction of hospitals, schools, universities and refugee camps in Gaza”, describing these as “war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and genocide as defined by the Genocide Convention and the International Criminal Court”.
The UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted in 1948, says genocide is characterised by the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”. It lists “killing”, “causing serious bodily or mental harm”, and “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part” as acts of genocide.
’Lasting solution’ needed
Warning that the Gaza conflict can expand into “a regional or world war”, the declaration adopted on 9 December call “for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, for Palestinians to be treated with equal human rights as all people, and for international support for the rebuilding of Gaza”.
The signatories “call for a lasting political solution for both Israelis and Palestinians to live together peacefully side by side in dignity, with equal rights”.
They “commit to support our Palestinian colleagues and students, who remain steadfast in building scientific research and education in Palestine and abroad under incredibly hard conditions”.
And they say they “believe that science and scientists have a key role to play in delivering freedom for all”.
Weaponisation of science
Going beyond the current conflict in Gaza, the declaration states that “constant warfare is being waged in different parts of the globe” and that “global arms sales have driven the militarization of societies, the normalisation of war and the expansion of armed conflicts”.
The signatories note “a relentless rise in the funding of scientific and technological research for militaristic ends” and say they are “deeply concerned about the increasing weaponisation of science and technology, with a devastating effect on humanity”.
Falk noted that in his long career he had worked alongside scientists of “global stature”, such as Robert Oppenheimer and Freeman Dyson, and said he was “intrigued” by “the degree to which outstanding scientists were enticed by the opportunity to have an impact on government policy”.
He identified two kinds of “scientific personality” prone to developing an “unhealthy connection” with the militarist establishment – those who got “career excitement” out of developing weaponry because they considered it a “real world” activity; and those who “didn’t know a great deal about politics” but were “indoctrinated” into believing they somehow contributed to a “better world”.
Lessons of war ‘not learned’
He finds it ironic that war never produces the desired political results.
“In Vietnam, which lasted almost a decade, the US had complete military dominance, yet lost the war. In Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Syria, all of these venues, military intervention produced devastation, but didn’t satisfy the objectives of those who invested many lives and trillions of dollars in controlling political outcomes,” Falk said.
Why, then, were these not “pedagogic experiences”? he asked.
“One has to understand that the lessons of political defeat cannot be learned by military governing elites because the vested interests are too strong. It would undercut the profitability of the arms industry, and the power it carries within the governmental bureaucracy,” Falk said.
“The military-industrial complex underpins the economies of many nations, driving a vicious cycle of increasing military budgets, profits of arms manufacturers, and arms trade, with little accountability or benefit to public society,” the declaration states.
‘Helpless structures’ of war prevention
Falk said one of the revelations of the Gaza war has been the “helplessness of formal structures of war prevention”.
On 8 December, the UN Security Council failed to adopt a resolution that would have demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza due to a veto cast by the United States, following a debate earlier in the day that was urgently called for by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
“The UN was in a sense designed to fail because it gave the five most powerful countries in the world the authority to block any kind of effective response that might oppose militarism and aggressive and criminal undertakings in the course of war,” Falk commented.
He welcomed the convention, and the resulting declaration and union.
“There is an awakening in many domains, not just among scientists. If the peoples of the world do not take responsibility, nothing effective will be done to curtail the menace of militarism and war.”
