Regional Cooperation Minister Ofir Akunis (Likud) on Sunday responded to Science and Technology Minister Izhar Shay (Blue and White) who said he does not intend to prevent brain researcher Prof. Yael Amitai from being appointed as a member of the Israel-Germany Research Fund.
Akunis, the former Minister of Science and Technology, stopped the appointment of Amitai in recent years after it was revealed that she had in the past signed a petition calling on IDF soldiers to refuse to serve in Judea and Samaria.
"Despite all my efforts over the past two years to extract from a her statement against refusal to obey orders, or to back down from her signing of a political petition by academics calling for refusal to serve orders, Ms. Amitai insists on her wrongful act, which was done during the Al-Aqsa Intifada which killed many hundreds of Israeli citizens simply because they were Jews," Minister Akunis said.
“I am proud that I stood up for my principles and values and for representing myself in the Supreme Court after the Attorney General and the State Attorney's Office refused to do so,” he continued.
"I still hope and believe that Minister Shay will find the way to choose another academic who will proudly and willingly represent the State of Israel in the Israel-Germany Research Fund and will no longer say that 'she does not represent the State', as she has repeatedly said," Akunis added.
The comments came after Shay discussed the appointment of Amitai in an interview with the Knesset Channel in which he said, "Expressing one’s position, as long as it is legal, should not interfere with scientific considerations."