Susanna Terracini, honor your courage and coherence in opposing the academic boycott of Israel

A Susanna Terracini, world-famous mathematician and distant descendant of the President of the Constituent Assembly, Umberto Terracini, it certainly cannot be said that courage and coherence are lacking. He demonstrated his courage by not worrying at all about being the only voice of the Academic Senate of the University of Turin to speak out against the boycott of scientific collaboration with Israeli universities, called for by pro-Palestinian students. “I am against academic boycotts – he declared to Sheet – because I think that collaborations between scientists and exchanges between students are a factor that brings understanding and, potentially, peace”. And never mind if other Turin academics did not have the same courage to oppose on Tuesday a motion that prohibits the participation of the Turin university - the only one in Italy - in a call for collaboration with universities and research institutes of Israel. But there is also indisputable coherence in Terracini's position: “History shows us the value of academic openness: just think of the scientists who communicated on both sides of the Iron Curtain. As soon as the Berlin Wall a community of solidarity was created in which scientists from the West helped those from the East in a difficult moment." “I hope that in the future – added the scientist – we can overcome the hateful rhetoric” which exists both in the Palestinian and Israeli camps. Professor Terracini's gesture and words seem to have induced some of her colleagues to repent, if it is true that some professors at the University of Turin have finally argued that the scientific boycott of the State of Israel alone falls fully within the scope of anti-Semitism" and “it tarnishes the teachers who opposed fascism”. Well said and applause to Professor Terracini.