Haifa University’s decision not to grant an honorary doctorate to Economics Nobel Prize laureate Yisrael Aumann because of his political views has aroused an extensive, stormy debate in Israel’s academic community. The academic boycott on Israel has been gaining ground lately. On this backdrop, those who are critical of the Haifa University decision — motivated by political and not professional reasons — perceive it as intrinsically similar in essence, to the line adopted by the people in favor of academic sanctions against Israel.

Israeli university heads and academics, currently subject to an extensive boycott offensive, have claimed that a boycott is not a legitimate tool in a sphere in which everything is measured and evaluated according to research, development, scientific or technological breakthroughs and contribution to society and to the academic community. And then, along came Haifa University and, with one fell swoop, abandoned the key argument of separation of politics and academia.

Aumann, a brilliant mathematician and world-famous expert in game theory as well as a Nobel laureate, is a pronounced right-winger. His statements and expressions against Arabs are well-known, and to his credit it should be noted that he has never tried to hide his views. Even during the media festival that revolved around him after he won the most important academic prize in the world, Aumann did not try to hide his views. Aumann is also an Orthodox Jew who believes in the right of the Jews to all the "land of Israel" and expresses his views in every place and at every opportunity.

In the Israeli academic world that is sometimes accused of super-leftism, Aumann is viewed as unusual and very different from his colleagues — not only in his views but also due to the fact that he does not keep them to himself.