A dispute over the awarding of Israel's most important civilian award has been decided by the country's highest court - although it may not yet be settled.

The Supreme Court ordered Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton to award scientist Oded Goldreich the 2021 prize in the field of mathematics, overturning the minister's decision.

Like her predecessor, she wanted to withhold the Israel Prize from Goldreich, even though the selection committee had awarded it to him in April 2021.

The reason given was that he supported the Israel boycott movement BDS.

Christian Meier

Political correspondent for the Middle East and Northeast Africa.

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The 65-year-old, who researches at the renowned Weizmann Institute for Science and is considered a luminary in the field of cryptography, is known as a critic of the occupation of Palestinian territories.

In March 2021, Goldreich and hundreds of colleagues signed a petition to the European Union not to conduct research collaborations with Ariel University.

The university is located in the settlement of Ariel in the West Bank and was recognized by the government as a university in 2012, despite opposition from within Israel.

Goldreich also co-signed a letter of protest from numerous academics against the 2019 Bundestag resolution condemning the BDS movement.

Rerun after change of government

After right-wing groups stirred up sentiment against Goldreich, the then education minister, Yoav Gallant of the Likud party, overruled the award committee’s decision in spring 2021.

The minister wrote that by supporting the boycott movement and calling for a boycott of Ariel University, Goldreich was "spitting in the face of the State of Israel" and might even be breaking the law.

The awards committee appealed to the Supreme Court, which then gave the minister time to review the decision.

Because the professor refused to support the BDS movement.

The change of government in June only fueled another round of controversy: the new education minister, Shasha-Biton, of the centre-right New Hope party, announced in November that she shared the views of her predecessor.

In its decision on Tuesday, the Supreme Court made it clear that the minister had improperly interfered with the autonomy of the prize committee.

In her justification for the verdict, which was passed by two votes against one, the judge Yael Willner almost maliciously pointed out that the petition signed by Goldreich only demands what is also in the research agreement between Israel and the EU: namely that cooperation between institutions in exclude the occupied territories.

Willner's judge colleague Isaac Amit fundamentally opposed the politicization of the Israel Prize.

That happened long ago, however, and there are always arguments about the winners and their political views.

That is unlikely to change as long as the government tries to blur the distinction between Israeli institutions and those in the settlements.