The University of California, Los Angeles has invited BDS-supporter Cornel West to be the keynote speaker at an event in honor of Abraham Joshua Heschel. In an open letter to West, Judea Pearl, a professor of computer science at UCLA, urges him to decline the invitation:
No matter how eloquent your speech and how crafty your words, the audience you will face at UCLA will not be able to take them too seriously in light of your recent decision to become a leading propagandist for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. You have to forgive us for being pedantic in these matters, and perhaps not as flexible and nuanced as one might hope, but our history has taught us the importance of devising crisp and visible litmus tests to distinguish friends from foes. It so happens, and you know it as well as we do, that the term BDS has become our most reliable litmus test. In other words, we have come to equate promoters of BDS ideology with those who seek the destruction of Israel, hence the demise of the Jewish people.
Read more on Jewish Journal: http://www.jewishjournal.com/judea_pearl/article/an_open_letter_to_cornel_west