Fracas Erupts Over Book on Mideast by a Barnard Professor Seeking Tenure
By KAREN W. ARENSONA tenure bid by an assistant professor of anthropology at Barnard College who has critically examined the use of archaeology in Israel has put Columbia University once again at the center of a struggle over scholarship on the Middle East.
The professor, Nadia Abu El-Haj, who is of Palestinian descent, has been at Barnard since 2002 and has won many awards and grants, including a Fulbright scholarship and fellowships at Harvard and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. Barnard has already approved her for tenure, officials said, and forwarded its recommendation to Columbia University, its affiliate, which has the final say.
It is Dr. Abu El-Haj’s book, “Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society,” that has made her a lightning rod, setting off warring petitions opposing and supporting her candidacy, and producing charges of shoddy scholarship and countercharges of an ideological witch hunt.
Archeologists are dangerous to Israel.
“There is every reason in the world to want her to have tenure, and only one reason against it — her work,” said Alan F. Segal, a professor of religion and Jewish studies at Barnard. “I believe it is not good enough.”
He said he was particularly troubled by her suggestion that ancient Israelites had not inhabited the land where Israel now stands, and he said that she had either misunderstood or ignored evidence to the contrary. “She completely misunderstands what the biblical tradition is saying,” he added. “She is not even close. She is so bizarrely off.”
See, as an archeologist she's not supposed to accord with the biblical tradition.
Honestly, I've never accepted the biblical justification for Israel's actions. Even if I thought the guys in Israel now were the direct descendants of the folks who lived in the area 3000 years ago, do we REALLY want to let people assert claims that old (remember, you're talking to a Black guy in the USofA here...I got claims that are far more recent that America finds quite unjustifiable)?
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You said it.....
...And I totally agree with it. Now I can't wait to see the Bible thumpers come rushing to the fore on this one. I just wonder how much research they do on this topic. And any scholarship critical of Israel is to be attacked (see Finklestein, Norman). Between AIPAC's buying and bullying of Congress, the spying on and stealing of American state secrets, the systematic killing and dehumanization of the Palestinian people after brazenly taking their land, and the total disregard for the lives of others who are not Jewish, well, all I can say is that that narrative is not going to last. Sad.