Israel’s ivory towers of oppression
JVL Introduction
The Israeli war machine is integrated into academia in various ways, discussed by Maya Wind in her new book on the subject, Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom. It is published by Verso and reviewed by Mike Phipps on Labour Hub, reposted below.
These forms of integration include, for instance, doing research that directly or indirectly advances the work of the Israeli military, helping to construct narratives in support of Israeli land claims through the erasure of Arab and Muslim history, or systematically undermining critical academic research, teaching and discussion of Israeli settler colonialism as well as physically preventing certain forms of behaviour or protest.
In Palestinian universities the role of the war machine is so much simpler. It is one of outright repression.
RK
This article was originally published by Labour Hub on Tue 19 Mar 2024. Read the original here.
Israel’s ivory towers of oppression
Mike Phipps reviews Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom, by Maya Wind, published by Verso.
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Israel is a military state!
Fascinating. Thanks.
A couple of days ago I was reading a Modern Poetry in Translation (MPT) collection from 1993, covering the Second International Poets Festival in Jerusalem and in the light of current events two things really stood out.
Firstly, the poets and academics were overwhelmingly Jewish – only two of the forty writers represented were Arab (identified as Israeli Arab) and none were identified as Palestinian. And none of the voices were critically engaged with the state of Israel.
Critical voices do exist, and certainly did exist in 1993, and at the Festival, but they are entirely absent from the MPT collection. A number of Palestinian writers I recognised, who had participated or been represented via recitals at the Festival, were excluded from the MPT collection.
It’s a minor thing compared to the oppression detailed Maya Wind’s book and Mike’s review, but it’s part and parcel of the same process.
Excellent overview
Israel’s shameful behaviour needs to be widely portrayed
Good timing, I hear there’s a more academic version of Joan Peters ‘From Time Immemorial’ starting to do the rounds by an author called Rivka Shpak Lissak, arguing that Palestinians are recent immigrants.