He was a friend of the noted linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky , and communicated with the Jewish American writer Elie Wiesel through a letter , in which he criticized Israel 's involvement in the Guatemalan genocide and , satirically , Wiesel 's silence on any issue concerning Israel 's terrorist activities world-wide . As described by Chomsky : " In the mid-1980s , Salvador Luria , a friend of mine who is a Nobel laureate in biology and politically active , knew about this i.e. , the genocide . It was n’t a big secret . He asked me to collect articles from the Hebrew press which described Israel ’s participation in genocidal attacks in Guatemala — not just participation , it ’s a leadership role — because he wanted to send it to Elie Wiesel with a polite letter saying : as a fellow Nobel laureate , I would like to bring this to your attention . Could you use your influence — he did n’t ask him to say anything , that ’s too much , but privately could you communicate to the people you know well at a high level in Israel and say it ’s not nice to take part in genocide . He never got a response . " . It is unclear whether Chomsky knew of any direct evidence linking Israel to the genocide , however
Guatemalan genocide
Guatemalan genocide
Salvador Luria