Professor Stephen Hawking retracted a retraction on Wednesday reaffirms support of Israel boycott.

Professor Stephen Hawking retracted a retraction on Wednesday reaffirms support of Israel boycott.(JPost).

London ­ - In a crazy twist of events, Professor Stephen Hawking retracted a retraction on Wednesday saying that support for an boycott of Israel was the real reason behind his decision to pull out of the fifth President's Conference in Jerusalem, and not on health grounds having been advised by doctors not to fly,

Earlier on Wednesday his spokesman at the University of Cambridge denied that support for an academic boycott of Israel was the catalyst and said that he withdrew on medical grounds.

"Professor Hawking has decided to cancel his planned visit to Israel on the advice of doctors," the spokesman said.

However a letter sent by Hawking to the organizers of the conference suggested that pressure from Palestinian academics forced him to withdraw.

"I have received a number of emails from Palestinian academics," Hawking said in the letter. "They are unanimous that I should respect the boycott. In view of this I must withdraw from the conference."

When this was put to his spokesman, he told the Post that he was unaware of this line in the letter and reaffirmed that medical reasons was the sole reason for cancelling. The spokesman said he would look into the letter.

Later on Wednesday, the University of Cambridge withdrew its original statement attributing it to health reasons and confirmed it was because of support for the call to boycott Israel. “We have now received confirmation from Professor Hawking’s office that a letter was sent on Friday to the Israeli President’s office regarding his decision not to attend the Presidential Conference, based on advice from Palestinian academics that he should respect the boycott," a spokesman at the University of Cambridge said. “We had understood previously that his decision was based purely on health grounds having been advised by doctors not to fly," the spokesman added.

Hmmm.....Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. - Albert Einstein.Read the full story here.