You certainly got my attention with that subject heading.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/23/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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Home / Mideast Peace / Scholars Protest Israel Hosting International
Genocide Conference
Scholars Protest Israel Hosting International Genocide Conference
May 23, 2016 By Richard Silverstein 1 Comment
The International Network of Genocide Scholars will host its fifth annual
conference in Israel at the Hebrew University next month. The title of the
event will be Intersections: Holocaust Scholarship, Genocide Research, And
Histories of Mass Violence. On the one hand, Israel is a natural choice to
host a conference on the Holocaust since it arose in part out of the ashes
of the Nazi genocide against Jews. Israel’s Yad Vashem Museum is a primary
international depository for, and commemoration of the Holocaust.
David Ben Gurion: willing to dance with the Nazi devil to advance Israel’s
interests
But on the other hand, such a choice raises a host of unsettling questions:
first among them is: how do you deal with the question of Israeli “mass
violence” against Palestinians and, for that matter, all of the front-line
states Israel has attacked repeatedly in the decades following the 1948
War?
Though most scholars agree that Israel’s Occupation regime hasn’t risen to
the level of genocide, the seeds of a future catastrophe of that magnitude
have been planted. Will they germinate? Anyone’s guess. But why should
genocide scholars sit in solemn deliberation in such a country where
violence smites Palestinian victims every day?
Second, how do you deal with the attempts at collaboration between the
pre-1948 Zionist leadership–including figures like David Ben Gurion–and the
Nazis? I wouldn’t mind if I knew this question would be debated at the
conference. But I strongly doubt it will.
Third, how do you deal with the problematic relationship between Diaspora
Jewry, which suffered overwhelmingly during the Holocaust, and Israel,
which
only reached out to help Jews in any numbers after the catastrophe ended?
Remember Ben Gurion, who said:
”If I knew that it was possible to save all the children of Germany by
transporting them to England, and only half by transferring them to the
Land
of Israel, I would choose the latter, for before us lies not only the
numbers of these children but the historical reckoning of the people of
Israel.”
Hebrew University’s Mt. Scopus campus, site of genocide conference, is in
occupied East Jerusalem
He can gussy this sentiment up in ponderous concepts like “the historical
reckoning of the people of Israel,” but the truth is that it is precisely
such choices that mark a decisive break, a profound alienation between the
Zionism of Ben Gurion and the Diaspora. Under such a philosophical
concept,
the two must be at war with each other. The truth is that there is no
actual war. But there is a constant, simmering Cold War between them which
neither side fully acknowledges or attempts to repair, which only makes
things worse.
Fourth, how do you deal with the problem of Israel and Zionism which view
the Holocaust as the result of the lack of sovereignty of the Jewish
people,
and hence see that catastrophe as an inexorable result of Jewish
vulnerability in the Diaspora?
Though I’m not a genocide scholar, I’d be interested to know how such a
field deals with relations between genocide survivors and those within
their
ethnic community after they return from from the Killing Fields. In the
case of Israel, the relationship is exceedingly ambivalent. As many
readers
know, Israel has let many of the remaining survivors live in destitution
(50,000 by last count), offering them very limited financial support.
There
are many reasons for this, but chief among them is the Zionist attitude
toward Holocaust and Diaspora. It is something many would rather forget.
Israelis see themselves as apart from and superior to the Diaspora. The
Holocaust survivors are a constant reminder that they are not, that their
fate is inextricably bound up in those of European Jewry.
The final problematic aspect of hosting a genocide conference in Israel is
that it has refused for decades to acknowledge the Armenian genocide.
Until
recently, this was due to Israel’s close alliance with Turkey, which itself
was the lead denier of the Armenian Holocaust. But even after the
relationship with Turkey soured in 2010, Israel has continued to refuse to
recognize any other genocide than the extermination of European Jewry.
This
is profoundly troubling and a violation of historical truth. Why should
the
validity of one’s own national suffering be diminished in any way by the
recognition of the suffering of another nation?
Who’s going to tackle this–or any of the other troublesome subjects I
raised
above–at this conference? The lack of discussion means to me that the
organizers either were short-sighted or too frightened to delve into such
troubling questions concerning their host nation, Israel.
Several hundreds scholars are releasing a protest statement criticizing
the
international organization for agreeing to host the scholarly meeting in
Israel. This is the text of the letter:
As a group of scholars, we are deeply concerned that the International
Network of Genocide Scholars (INoGS) is lending its name and reputation to
Israel’s occupation and ongoing colonization of Palestine by holding its
annual conference, scheduled for June 26-29, at the Mt. Scopus campus of
the
Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Israel’s actions against the Palestinian people – from the Nakba to the
ongoing displacement of Palestinians from their lands, and from repeated
military offensives against Gaza to the ongoing blockade – are increasingly
being viewed through lenses of ethnic cleansing and genocide linked to
settler colonialism. It is therefore shocking that INoGS plans to hold its
2016 Global Conference at the Mt. Scopus campus of the Hebrew University
that is partially built on stolen Palestinian land in occupied East
Jerusalem. Additionally, the conference is sponsored by five Israeli
academic institutions, including the Hebrew University, which have been
deeply complicit in Israel’s decades-long oppression of Palestinians.
Billing the conference as held in ‘Jerusalem, Israel’ demonstrates that
INoGS is turning a blind eye to Israel’s illegal annexation of the city,
condemned unanimously by the international community, and to the ongoing
campaign of dispossession against indigenous Palestinians as Israel seeks
to
erase their historic and diverse presence in the city through plunder and
expulsion.
The significance of all this cannot be lost on genocide scholars.
The call for this conference has been issued while Israel’s state terrorism
is being exposed to the world. Israeli police, military and fundamentalist
settler lynch mobs have been savagely attacking Palestinian protestors and
committing crimes with impunity.
New repressive and discriminatory Israeli laws and a dominant culture of
racism and intolerance have created a culture of impunity, with Israel’s
occupation forces now adopting a shoot-to-kill policy against Palestinian
child and youth protesters in situations where they pose no serious threat…
We urgently call on InoGS to act in a principled way by cancelling the
Jerusalem venue for their conference and transferring it to a location in
another country.
We furthermore urge scholars and professionals to reflect upon the ethical
and legal implications of participating in a conference organized by
complicit institutions and taking place…on occupied land–and to boycott
this
event should it go ahead under these circumstances.
‘Never again’ means never again for everyone.
The Call for Papers from the Network does indicate an effort to acknowledge
ongoing mass violence against Palestinians in language like this:
…Bringing the INoGS conference to Jerusalem, a city in which foundational
collective traumas intersect and are experienced in everyday life, offers
an
opportunity to engage with the main theme of the conference: Intersections:
Holocaust Scholarship, Genocide Research, and Histories of Mass Violence.
The meeting will include two roundtable panels that delve into this subject
as well:
Collective Traumas and National Identities will include papers on Jews,
Palestinians, as well as other cases
Studying Genocide in a Site of Conflict and Violence will address the
challenges of researching and teaching the Holocaust, genocide, and mass
violence in Israel in the midst of the ongoing conflict between Jews and
Palestinians
But one has to wonder what sort of balance the event program will offer
when
only two members of the academic steering committee for the conference are
Israeli Palestinian. The remainder are Israeli Jews.
The scholars’ letter makes clear that the principles of BDS are involved in
the signatories decision to denounce Israel’s hosting of the conference.
On
this note, a number of the Israeli institutions serving as sponsors are
deeply implicated in the Occupation. Their scientific and social science
research serves as a bulwark of the Israeli military and intelligence
apparatus. How about the secret research conducted at some of these
institutions which develop Israel’s weapons of mass destruction? One
wonders
if anyone will deliver a paper at this conference offering a critique of
the
role of Israeli academia in facilitating the violence against, and
oppression of the Palestinian people.
I e mailed and tweeted INoGS’ president and its Twitter account for a
comment or statement of their position in this matter. As of publication,
no one had replied.
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Tikun Olam תיקון עולם
Promoting Israeli democracy, exposing secrets of the national security
state
You are here: Home / Mideast Peace / Scholars Protest Israel Hosting
International Genocide Conference
Scholars Protest Israel Hosting International Genocide Conference
May 23, 2016 By Richard Silverstein 1 Comment
The International Network of Genocide Scholars will host its fifth annual
conference in Israel at the Hebrew University next month. The title of the
event will be Intersections: Holocaust Scholarship, Genocide Research, And
Histories of Mass Violence. On the one hand, Israel is a natural choice to
host a conference on the Holocaust since it arose in part out of the ashes
of the Nazi genocide against Jews. Israel’s Yad Vashem Museum is a primary
international depository for, and commemoration of the Holocaust.
http://i2.wp.com/peterreynolds.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/ben-gourion.jpg?s
sl=1http://i2.wp.com/peterreynolds.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/ben-gourion.j
pg?ssl=1
David Ben Gurion: willing to dance with the Nazi devil to advance Israel’s
interests
But on the other hand, such a choice raises a host of unsettling questions:
first among them is: how do you deal with the question of Israeli “mass
violence” against Palestinians and, for that matter, all of the front-line
states Israel has attacked repeatedly in the decades following the 1948
War?
Though most scholars agree that Israel’s Occupation regime hasn’t risen to
the level of genocide, the seeds of a future catastrophe of that magnitude
have been planted. Will they germinate? Anyone’s guess. But why should
genocide scholars sit in solemn deliberation in such a country where
violence smites Palestinian victims every day?
Second, how do you deal with the attempts at collaboration between the
pre-1948 Zionist leadership–including figures like David Ben Gurion–and the
Nazis? I wouldn’t mind if I knew this question would be debated at the
conference. But I strongly doubt it will.
Third, how do you deal with the problematic relationship between Diaspora
Jewry, which suffered overwhelmingly during the Holocaust, and Israel,
which
only reached out to help Jews in any numbers after the catastrophe ended?
Remember Ben Gurion, who said:
”If I knew that it was possible to save all the children of Germany by
transporting them to England, and only half by transferring them to the
Land
of Israel, I would choose the latter, for before us lies not only the
numbers of these children but the historical reckoning of the people of
Israel.”
http://i0.wp.com/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Skopusberg_mit_
Universitaet.jpg?ssl=1http://i0.wp.com/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/common
s/5/5d/Skopusberg_mit_Universitaet.jpg?ssl=1
Hebrew University’s Mt. Scopus campus, site of genocide conference, is in
occupied East Jerusalem
He can gussy this sentiment up in ponderous concepts like “the historical
reckoning of the people of Israel,” but the truth is that it is precisely
such choices that mark a decisive break, a profound alienation between the
Zionism of Ben Gurion and the Diaspora. Under such a philosophical concept,
the two must be at war with each other. The truth is that there is no
actual
war. But there is a constant, simmering Cold War between them which neither
side fully acknowledges or attempts to repair, which only makes things
worse.
Fourth, how do you deal with the problem of Israel and Zionism which view
the Holocaust as the result of the lack of sovereignty of the Jewish
people,
and hence see that catastrophe as an inexorable result of Jewish
vulnerability in the Diaspora?
Though I’m not a genocide scholar, I’d be interested to know how such a
field deals with relations between genocide survivors and those within
their
ethnic community after they return from from the Killing Fields. In the
case
of Israel, the relationship is exceedingly ambivalent. As many readers
know,
Israel has let many of the remaining survivors live in destitution (50,000
by last count), offering them very limited financial support. There are
many
reasons for this, but chief among them is the Zionist attitude toward
Holocaust and Diaspora. It is something many would rather forget. Israelis
see themselves as apart from and superior to the Diaspora. The Holocaust
survivors are a constant reminder that they are not, that their fate is
inextricably bound up in those of European Jewry.
The final problematic aspect of hosting a genocide conference in Israel is
that it has refused for decades to acknowledge the Armenian genocide. Until
recently, this was due to Israel’s close alliance with Turkey, which itself
was the lead denier of the Armenian Holocaust. But even after the
relationship with Turkey soured in 2010, Israel has continued to refuse to
recognize any other genocide than the extermination of European Jewry. This
is profoundly troubling and a violation of historical truth. Why should the
validity of one’s own national suffering be diminished in any way by the
recognition of the suffering of another nation?
Who’s going to tackle this–or any of the other troublesome subjects I
raised
above–at this conference? The lack of discussion means to me that the
organizers either were short-sighted or too frightened to delve into such
troubling questions concerning their host nation, Israel.
http://i1.wp.com/ososabiouk.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/international-law-is
rael-gaza.jpg?ssl=1http://i1.wp.com/ososabiouk.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/i
nternational-law-israel-gaza.jpg?ssl=1Several hundreds scholars are
releasing a protest statement criticizing the international organization
for
agreeing to host the scholarly meeting in Israel. This is the text of the
letter:
As a group of scholars, we are deeply concerned that the International
Network of Genocide Scholars (INoGS) is lending its name and reputation to
Israel’s occupation and ongoing colonization of Palestine by holding its
annual conference, scheduled for June 26-29, at the Mt. Scopus campus of
the
Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Israel’s actions against the Palestinian people – from the Nakba to the
ongoing displacement of Palestinians from their lands, and from repeated
military offensives against Gaza to the ongoing blockade – are increasingly
being viewed through lenses of ethnic cleansing and genocide linked to
settler colonialism. It is therefore shocking that INoGS plans to hold its
2016 Global Conference at the Mt. Scopus campus of the Hebrew University
that is partially built on stolen Palestinian land in occupied East
Jerusalem. Additionally, the conference is sponsored by five Israeli
academic institutions, including the Hebrew University, which have been
deeply complicit in Israel’s decades-long oppression of Palestinians.
Billing the conference as held in ‘Jerusalem, Israel’ demonstrates that
INoGS is turning a blind eye to Israel’s illegal annexation of the city,
condemned unanimously by the international community, and to the ongoing
campaign of dispossession against indigenous Palestinians as Israel seeks
to
erase their historic and diverse presence in the city through plunder and
expulsion.
The significance of all this cannot be lost on genocide scholars.
The call for this conference has been issued while Israel’s state terrorism
is being exposed to the world. Israeli police, military and fundamentalist
settler lynch mobs have been savagely attacking Palestinian protestors and
committing crimes with impunity.
New repressive and discriminatory Israeli laws and a dominant culture of
racism and intolerance have created a culture of impunity, with Israel’s
occupation forces now adopting a shoot-to-kill policy against Palestinian
child and youth protesters in situations where they pose no serious threat…
We urgently call on InoGS to act in a principled way by cancelling the
Jerusalem venue for their conference and transferring it to a location in
another country.
We furthermore urge scholars and professionals to reflect upon the ethical
and legal implications of participating in a conference organized by
complicit institutions and taking place…on occupied land–and to boycott
this
event should it go ahead under these circumstances.
‘Never again’ means never again for everyone.
The Call for Papers from the Network does indicate an effort to acknowledge
ongoing mass violence against Palestinians in language like this:
…Bringing the INoGS conference to Jerusalem, a city in which foundational
collective traumas intersect and are experienced in everyday life, offers
an
opportunity to engage with the main theme of the conference: Intersections:
Holocaust Scholarship, Genocide Research, and Histories of Mass Violence.
The meeting will include two roundtable panels that delve into this subject
as well:
Collective Traumas and National Identities will include papers on Jews,
Palestinians, as well as other cases
Studying Genocide in a Site of Conflict and Violence will address the
challenges of researching and teaching the Holocaust, genocide, and mass
violence in Israel in the midst of the ongoing conflict between Jews and
Palestinians
But one has to wonder what sort of balance the event program will offer
when
only two members of the academic steering committee for the conference are
Israeli Palestinian. The remainder are Israeli Jews.
The scholars’ letter makes clear that the principles of BDS are involved in
the signatories decision to denounce Israel’s hosting of the conference. On
this note, a number of the Israeli institutions serving as sponsors are
deeply implicated in the Occupation. Their scientific and social science
research serves as a bulwark of the Israeli military and intelligence
apparatus. How about the secret research conducted at some of these
institutions which develop Israel’s weapons of mass destruction? One
wonders
if anyone will deliver a paper at this conference offering a critique of
the
role of Israeli academia in facilitating the violence against, and
oppression of the Palestinian people.
I e mailed and tweeted INoGS’ president and its Twitter account for a
comment or statement of their position in this matter. As of publication,
no
one had replied.
