Education Minister Yoav Kisch said he will not allow the Israel Prize to be awarded to sociologist Eva Illouz because of a petition she filed with others in 2021 urging the International Criminal Court not to trust Israel to investigate war crimes allegations itself.

Kisch on Monday sent a letter to the prize committee members instructing them to reconsider their selection.

In 2021, the ICC said it would open a probe of actions by Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. In May of that year, over 180 Israeli scientists, intellectuals and public figures asked the ICC’s chief prosecutor at the time, Fatou Bensouda, not to rely on Israel to investigate the accusations against it. According to Haaretz, 10 previous Israel Prize winners also put their names to the appeal.

“Independent of academic achievements,” Illouz filed a “serious and unusual request to an international institution that is acting against Israel, against IDF soldiers and members of the security forces, and casts aspersions on the country’s basic systems,” Kisch said in a statement Monday.

His move against Illouz........

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