The State Attorney's Office asked the High Court Sunday to reject a petition by the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel, Professors' for a Strong Israel and the community of Ofra against granting the Israel Prize to historian Ze'ev Sternhell. The petitioners cited a 2001 article by Sternhell in which he advised Arab terrorists to target Jewish communities outside the "Green Line" and a 1988 article in which he advocated that the IDF "storm Ofra with tanks" as reasons for rejecting Sternhell as a prize recipient.
The State Attorney's reply said that the judges' committee made its decision based primarily on "professional and research-related considerations". "When weighing the sum total of Prof. Sternhell's prolific research activity and his overall contribution to Israeli society vis-à-vis the single [sic] opinion column which angered the petitioners, the scale is tipped so markedly to one direction that there is no way to compare the two." Accepting the petition would be "an injustice," the state said, because it would involve diminishing Sternhell's life's work "to the level of a sticker."
The state noted that "the position of the elements in charge of the Israel Prize is that the prize be awarded out of professional considerations and a wide perspective… away from the limelight and without public pressure, so that [they are] not influenced by these when making [their decision]. This goal will be achieved if the Minister's decision to accept the judges' panel's decision is accepted as final, barring rare and unusual circumstances".