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February 15, 2007
The Orwellian erasing of Jewish history continues
The orchestrated violent reaction to the ramp renovations at the Temple Mount raises again the persistent attempt by the Palestinians to conceal or eradicate evidence of the Jewish history of the site, throughout Islamist history a common enough policy toward the holy sites of other peoples.
[ UPDATE: Video at the end of this post explaining the purpose and construction process of the ramp. ]
Here is Dore Gold on the topic of historical revisionism, talking about his new book The Fight for Jerusalem.
This attempt at wholesale rewriting of history has so permeated global discourse that a Jewish columnist for a well-respected newspaper can write with a straight face:
. . . . Israel itself is a mistake. . . . the idea of creating a nation of European Jews in an area of Arab Muslims (and some Christians) has produced a century of warfare and terrorism of the sort we are seeing now. Israel fights Hezbollah in the north and Hamas in the south, but its most formidable enemy is history itself.
I dissected the many historical inaccuracies in this paragraph and the subsequent ones, here. Stung by being characterized as anti-Israel by the AJC paper, he claims to be "a defender of Israel," yet has swallowed whole the myths about Israel's provenance, which he passes on to students.
"I think that his lecture was very honest and fair," said Basel Hamdan, a first-year politics student [at NYU]. . . .Hamdan said he felt Cohen's columns about Israel were brave, especially when he called it a "mistake." "I thought that that was a very courageous thing for him to write, and I respect him for that," he said.
It wasn't courageous, it was inexcusably ignorant insofar as it was based on historical falsehoods, and as damaging to Jews as Holocaust revisionism, which most people are rightfully appalled at.
Rewriting Jewish history for political purposes may get a sanction from academia with a tenure appointment in the anthropology department at Barnard, still under review. (If you are an alumnus, you may want to express concerns to the College. A caveat and list of contacts are at the end of this post.)
The applicant, Nadia Abu El Haj, is an assistant professor of anthropology at Barnard, and a member of the controversial MEALAC faculty. She has written a book which purports to be an examination of how Israeli archeologists "construct a narrative" which supports "the Zionist myth" by destroying evidence to the contrary.
To make her case, she asserts not only that their findings are false, but deliberately false, that - contrary to enormous amounts of factual evidence - there is no connection between Jews today and whatever ancient Israelite nation existed, that Israeli archeologists deliberately destroy evidence of Palestinian history in Israel (this is a nice bit of projection, considering that Palestinians do exactly that to Jewish artifacts), and then she actually defends destruction of Jewish artifacts by Palestinians.
The issue is not her politics but her scholarship (which seems to be merely an extension of her politics - Solomonia notes that Abu El-Haj was one of only 106 professors at Columbia to sign a divestment petition in 2003 (21 of the signers were from the Anthropology Department), and she also signed a petition just prior to the Iraq War alleging that Israel would take advantage of the war drawing media coverage away from Israel to enact mass deportation of Palestinians. There is zero evidence that this was Israeli policy and in fact it didn't happen - so much for scrupulous regard for facts).
This article goes into detail about her false claims and her lack of qualifications to examine her subject matter (for example, she doesn't speak Hebrew, and only visited one dig).
A respected archeologist who led digs in Israel responds to an excerpt from her book.
Another archeologist dissects the book at length.
A professor of history and religion reviews the book.
More reviews from fellow scholars are quoted here and here.
A Baptist pastor says she should get tenure "if only because of her willingness to pursue original thinking."
Other scholars quote her work, assuming it is accurate because it was published by the University of Chicago and becuase she teaches at Barnard. So the falsehoods spread.
Via Jameel, some contact info for relevant authorities at Columbia/Barnard. Before conveying any concerns, you should read this letter to alumni from the President of Barnard, and shape your message accordingly. People who are not alumni should not contact Barnard, that will only backfire. But if you know alumni - or respected archeologists - you might want to bring this to their attention.
Marilyn Chin '74
Director of Barnard Alumnae Affairs
(212) 854-2005
mchin@barnard.edu
Derek Wittner '65
Dean of Alumni Affairs and Development
Tel: (212) 870-2741
daw8@columbia.edu
Office of the President, Judith Shapiro
109 Milbank Hall,
Tel: (212) 854-2021
jshapiro@Barnard.Edu
Video explaining the purpose and construction process of the ramp.
Judith | 02/15/07 at 08:34 PM | Categories: - Temple Mount blogburst
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Comments
I think one of the issues that we as Jews need to take to the forefront is we need to do more to promote the history of the Jews who have always been in the Middle East specifically in Israel. There is very little history that is often discussed about the Jews who have always had a presence in Israel. There is now a growing amount of promotion of books about Samaritan Israeli history.
I think the more we promote Mizrahi Jewish history to the world, the harder it is for people to claim that we don't have a right to be here.
Ehav Ever | July 24, 2007 01:16 PM
