From heroine to heretic
Until October this year, Prof. Ada Yonath was completely unknown to the general public, though highly respected by scientific colleagues. This changed abruptly when the Nobel Committee in Stockholm announced her as this year's Laureate of the prize in Chemistry. The announcement was balm to the wounded Israeli nationalist feeling, after suffering so many blows in the international arena.
Few understood Yonath's explanations of her research into the structure and function of the ribosome, one of the basic building blocks of life, and of how a unique microbe found nowhere but in the Dead Sea proved to be the source of invaluable insights. But it did not matter -- her winning the Nobel was reason enough to celebrate, just like when an Israeli team wins a championship in football or baseball.
The more right-wing among the professor's new admirers received a rude shock, however, when she made a reference to a non-scientific subject during an interview with the Army Radio: "In my view, we should release all Palestinian prisoners -- and not only in order to gain the release of [captured Israeli soldier] Gilad Shalit from the Hamas. It's not clear to me why we're holding these Palestinian terrorists, or rather those whom we call 'terrorists'. We should have released them long ago.
"Keeping Palestinians incarcerated for extended periods of time would not help Israeli security. Quite the contrary: there are enough people who are currently free on the other side and who are able to hurt us. And when a man sits in our jails for a number of years, his friends and family become angry. That is how we create new terrorists. Instead of keeping thousands in prison, we need to think about ways to reduce their motivation to kill and be killed."
In answer to the interviewer's question she emphasized that "terrorism does not come from 'blind hatred' or 'a terrorist ideology'. The motivation is simply lack of hope. These people see no chance for a better future. Therefore, they don't care whether others live. Therefore, they will jump at the opportunity to go to Heaven and gain a bit of honour. This doesn't happen to people with a life and hope. We have it in our power to change the situation."
Again Yonath made headlines, and commentators who a day before had admired her genius now grumbled that "the professor should stick to her specialty -- not stray into other fields."
"But, if I did not have an open mind, I would never have taken up basic scientific research", responded the unperturbed Yonath.
