American mathematician David Mumford on Monday announced he was donating his share of the prestigious Israeli Wolf Foundation Prize in Mathematics to Birzeit University in the PA, near Ramallah. He explained to reporters that he sees this as an opportunity to assist “the Palestinian people to survive and thrive.”

He explained this money will assist in providing students in the PA to achieve a higher education elsewhere and thereby acquire the necessary skills to move ahead in their life, adding “most students in the West Bank and Gaza do not have an opportunity to go elsewhere for an education.”

Dr. Mumford, a professor emeritus of Harvard University, shared the 2008 prize with two others professors from Princeton University.

Prior to receiving the prize from President Shimon Peres, Mumford was in touch with Birzeit and Gisha, an Israeli organization that advocates on behalf of PA residents for freedom of movement, with both groups agreeing to take his prize money.

Mumford concluded that unlike during his visit to Israel in 2005, when he saw a chance of hope — that hope appears to have vanished for PA residents today.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)