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| Anti-Israel protests against Nobel prize award
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Professor Robert Aumann who received the Nobel economics prize on Saturday night
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Israeli academic Professor Robert Aumann received the Nobel economics prize at a glitzy ceremony in Stockholm on Saturday night.
But the award was marred by a large group of intellectuals who called for the prize to be withdrawn because of Aumann’s support for the Israeli “occupation” of Palestinian land.
Aumann, 75, was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1930, lived in America from the age of eight and moved to Israel in 1956.
He was given the award jointly with American professor Thomas Schelling for their work on the “Game theory”, an analysis of relations between factors which has been used to analyse economics as well as the causes of war.
Withdrawal call
Although no mention of the protest was made at the award ceremony, attended by some 1,600 people, around 1,000 critics had already signed a petition sent to the Swedish Academy to express their disgust at the decision to give Aumann and Schelling the award.
 Wars and other conflicts are among the main sources of human misery
Robert Aumann | Describing Aumann, who works at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, as a member of a hawkish think tank, the critics wrote: “Aumann uses his analysis to justify the Israeli occupation and the oppression of the Palestinians.“
And accusing Schelling of encouraging American policy including the war in Vietnam, the letter continued: “Neither of these individuals has contributed anything that improves the human condition; rather, they have contributed to the misery of millions."
The authors of the petition, which was signed by academics from around 50 countries including the US, Israel and around Europe, said the Swedish Academy, which decides on the recipients of Nobel prizes, should “reverse your decision to reward Professors Schelling and Aumann”.
“We request that you find people who have truly advanced the health and welfare of humanity, as has always been the intention of the Nobel prize,” the petition read.
Royal ceremony
Despite the situation, Aumann was delighted to accept the award at the ceremony which started just minutes after the end of the Jewish Sabbath on Saturday night.
Aumann uses his analysis to justify the Israeli occupation and the oppression of the Palestinians
The petition | In all, Aumann brought 34 family members to Sweden for the ceremony - including his second wife Batya, the sister of his late wife Esther, whom he married only a week ago. The entire group stayed in a hotel very close to the concert hall where the ceremony was held and entered through a back door to ensure they were seated before the arrival of Swedish King Karl XVI Gustaf.
Sitting in the audience were Queen Silvia, Prince Carl Philip and the Princesses Victoria, Madeleine and Lilian. Aumann and Schelling were presented with their economics prize by Jorgen Weibull, member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Science and chairman of the Nobel Prize Economics Committee.
It is a big mistake to say that war is irrational
Robert Aumann | Aumann had spoken about his war theory at his nobel prize lecture, delivered in Stockholm on Thursday night.
"Wars and other conflicts are among the main sources of human misery," said Aumann, and they have been with us "ever since the dawn of civilization. Nothing has been more constant in history than war."
In looking at war, we must ask, -- what are its characteristics, what are the common denominators and what are the differences." In this way, the study of war can be seen, if done properly, as "pure, basic science," argued Aumann.
Aumann insisted that war must be looked at as a rational phenomenon. "It is a big mistake to say that war is irrational," he said. People and nations go to war to pursue what they feel to be in their best interests. “Once we understand that war is rational,” said Aumann, we can at least somehow address the problem.”
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