Professor George Pearson Smith is a Nobel Prize-winning American biologist, and a Curators' Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. Prof. Smith is a humanist and supports UNRWA USA’s scholarship program. He believes Palestine refugees deserve a life of dignity filled with education and empowerment. 

If you’re interested in being featured with your own match or initiative for Palestine refugees, please email us at info@unrwausa.org.

What excites you about your research, what drives you to support UNRWA USA? 

I taught and conducted research at the University of Missouri for 40 years starting in 1975. One of the research projects turned out to be a big deal: a technology called phage display. In 2018, I and another scientist, Greg Winter, shared half of the Nobel Prize in chemistry for our work developing this technology. 

By no means were Greg and I solely responsible for this development, however. It emerged over decades among a worldwide network of scientists sharing ideas and resources, rather than from individual people like Greg and me. I think this is true of all scientific discoveries and technological innovations. In my Nobel lecture, I said that I was accepting this great honor on behalf of the global phage-display community. 

Retirement has allowed me to spend more time on human rights and social justice issues. Palestine is one of the biggest issues that's been a major concern of mine since 2002, specifically after the assault of Jenin refugee camp in 2002. 

Unsurprisingly given my academic background, I particularly value UNRWA’s long-standing and highly successful role in the education of Palestine’s children. This function above all must not be allowed to wither for lack of international support.

What draws you to Palestine and specifically relative to other social justice issues?

Until quite late in life, I was ignorant of Palestine. I was a Vietnam War resister in the sixties and seventies. National liberation movements, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, were certainly part of the conversation in the anti-war movement, but only a minor part—not enough to mobilize people at a significant scale. It was not until I married my wife in 1979 that Palestine began very slowly becoming an issue in my worldview. She’s Jewish, and we raised our sons as Jews. As they were preparing for their Bar Mitzvahs, I became more involved in our synagogue as a non-religious member and began to read about Jewish history and culture. That’s the context in which the ongoing Nakba (as we call it now) came slowly into focus, though I didn’t use that term until maybe 2005. As I said before, not until the Israeli assaults in Jenin and elsewhere in the West Bank did I become an outright opponent of the entire Zionist enterprise.   

I think anyone paying attention to Jewish culture's history will eventually come to the same position as I did. And unless you have some extremely strong pull in the other direction, you see the terrible injustice—it becomes hard to avoid it.

What draws you to the cause of Palestinian refugees specifically, as opposed to Palestine as a wider issue? 

Well, roughly half of the Palestinian people—about 7 million—are permanently exiled from their homes or their entire homeland since 1948. The exodus during the Nakba was the biggest injustice of them all, but countless other injustices followed.

The situation of Palestine refugees is horrible in some places, especially in Lebanon. But the intolerable injustice is not confined to the most squalid refugee camps. The Palestinian people as a whole, whether or not they have official status as refugees, have been denied their freedom for more than 70 years. In a very real sense, they’re all refugees—banished from their homeland to make way for another people.

Why do you think it's important for scientists in particular to care about Palestine and Palestine refugees? 

I'm a member of Scientists for Palestine, which is an international organization started in the United States. The organization's goal is to help integrate Palestinian scientific culture more fully into the global scientific culture. That culture is a vital part of modern life, and segregating great segments of the Palestinian people from the global community of science is not only intolerable impoverishment of Palestinians, it’s also impoverishment of the global community.

It's really hard now for refugees to participate in that community, whether or not they’re officially classified as such.  Even in the ostensibly self-governing occupied West Bank, the military rule imposes many obstacles to education. It’s extraordinarily hard to get basic lab materials and equipment for teaching science students, for example. Yet, despite these obstacles, the universities do an excellent job of educating their technology students. This is in part thanks to UNRWA, and its efforts to keep Palestinian children educationally prepared for modern life. 

In your opinion, what's the most important work that this organization does? 

To me, I believe that education is key to UNRWA’s mission. UNRWA is also a vital source of information about Palestine refugee issues. 

Do you have any messages to share with UNRWA USA supporters?

I would tell supporters that your support to UNRWA USA shows solidarity with Palestine refugees. Of all the ways you can express solidarity, donating to UNRWA USA is one of the best. 

My family and I donate to a number of causes, and supporting UNRWA USA is one of the most important ones. 

If you’re interested in being featured with your own match or initiative for Palestine refugees, please email us at info@unrwausa.org.