Winner of Israel award donates fund to help Palestinians

One of the winners of a prestigious Israeli award is donating her prize winnings to three Israeli human rights organisations which defend the rights of Palestinians.

Eighty-two-year-old American Jewish Professor Evelyn Fox Keller, one of nine people who received the 2018 Dan David Prize at Tel Aviv University on Sunday night, told Haaretz newspaper she would give the money to B’Tselem, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and Physicians for Human Rights.

According to Haaretz, the scientist said: “The moment she found out she had won the prize, she decided she could accept it only if she gave the money to organisations combating Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians.”

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Asked why she did not just refuse the prize, since it is granted by an Israeli university which is part of the Israeli political system, she replied, “I didn’t see it that way. I am accepting the prize in support of people who resist the system. I didn’t see what would be served by turning it down. As a political statement, it is stronger if I take the prize and give it away.”

Keller told Haaretz that when she visited Israel ten years ago she had said then that Israeli violations against Palestinians made her feel ashamed of being Jewish.

I said [then that] Israel makes me ashamed of being a Jew. Yes, I feel the same today.