Cary Nelson - Israel Denial: Anti-Zionism, Anti-Semitism, & the Faculty Campaign Against the Jewish State

ISRAEL DENIAL

Anti-Zionism, Anti-Semitism, & The Faculty Campaign Against the Jewish State

CARY NELSON

Copublished by

THE ACADEMIC ENGAGEMENT NETWORK

&

INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS

This book is a co-publication of the

Academic Engagement Network

Washington, DC

https://academicengagement.org

and

Indiana University Press

Office of Scholarly Publishing

Herman B Wells Library 350

1320 East 10th Street

Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA

Iupress.indiana.edu

Copyright 2019 by Cary Nelson

All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.

Manufactured in the United States of America

Cataloging information is available from the Library of Congress

ISBN 978-0-253-04505-8 (cloth)

ISBN 978-0-253-04504-1 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-253-04506-5 Mobi (ebook)

ISBN 978-0-253-04507-2 Webpdf (ebook)

ISBN 978-0-253-04508-9 ePub (ebook)

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ISRAEL DENIAL

Israel Denial is the first book to offer detailed analyses of faculty publications supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement; it contrasts them with options for promoting peace. These faculty have devoted a major part of their professional lives to delegitimizing the Jewish state. While there are beliefs they hold in commonincluding the conviction that there is nothing good to say about Israelthey also develop unique arguments to recruit converts to their cause. Israel Denial is also the first book to give substantial attention to anti-Zionist pedagogy. No effort to understand the BDS movements impact on the academy and public policy can be complete without the insight offered here.

A substantial number of American university professors have dedicated themselves to achieving the elimination of the Jewish state. And Cary Nelson has done the worst possible thing that could ever be done to those people. He has read them. He has quoted their writings. He has analyzed the arguments. It is a demolition. It is bracing to see. It is inspiring.

PAUL BERMAN, author of The Flight of the Intellectuals and other books

The Academic Engagement Network is pleased to support publication of Cary Nelsons Israel Denial. The book is an intellectual tour de force, challenging work by leading scholars in the BDS movement who seek to shape public understanding of and teaching about Israel. If Holocaust denial promotes a false account about what occurred during World War II, failing all evidentiary tests, Israel denial reveals the academic invention of a nearly similar fictive account of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, one designed to demonize Israel and dehumanize its people. Nelson brilliantly documents the shoddy, self-referencing nature of much of this scholarship. He identifies the impact these publications have on standards of academic integrity, on politicized teaching by BDS loyalists, and on the influence still others exercise in several prominent university presses. But Nelson is much more than a critic of BDS scholarship. He helps us see how the two-state solution can be revived, how both peoples desires for national sovereignty can be accommodated.

KEN WALTZER, Michigan State University, Executive Director, AEN

Cary Nelsons book is as important for the academy itself as it is for the study of the Israel-Palestine conflict. A distinguished scholar of literature and a major leader of the American academy, he has never wavered in defense of the values critical to sustaining the scholarly enterprise. Thus, with regard to Israel and its conflict with Palestinians, he recognized the need to document the absolute loss of the values upholding academic standards. A complicated battle over land has been turned into a morality tale accusing Israel of the very crimesgenocide, ethnic cleansinghistorically unleashed against Jews. Israel Denial is a book of tremendous significanceas much a rescue of the academy as a meticulous analysis of what has become the major discourse distorting the study of Israel. His chapterslike those on Saree Makdisi and Jasbir Puardemonstrate an incredible range of knowledge. They also show how careful he is with his own collection of data. This book deconstructs a conventional wisdom that has been stitched together with false analogies, misused data, and just plain ignorance in the mainstream media. On the one hand, Israel Denial is dispiriting in showing how deeply politics can intrude on and compromise intellectual projects. On the other hand, the book demonstrates what can be achieved with traditional scholarly skills and honesty. For that, all of us should be grateful to Cary Nelson.

DONNA ROBINSON DIVINE, Smith College; President, Association for Israel Studies

In Israel Denial, Cary Nelson sets out to take anti-Zionist faculty positions seriously and address them in detail. He accomplishes that objective and much, much more. Israel Denial is the most wide-ranging and incisive analysis of the academic movement to delegitimize and demonize Israel. With characteristic grace and insight, Nelson thoroughly exposes and refutes the arguments for boycotting the Jewish state, while also exploring pathways to actual peace and reconciliation.

STEVEN LUBET, Northwestern University School of Law, author of Interrogating Ethnography: Why Evidence Matters and other books.

Once again, Cary Nelson steps up to the plate in the fight against BDS. Israel Denial presents detailed and thorough analyses of individual and collective academic publications in support of this dogmatic and intimidating movement. While it is sometimes difficult to blame young students, ignorant of the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for joining in the de-legitimization of the Jewish state, it is incomprehensible that faculty should devote their academic work and professional lives to justifying their anti-Israel ideology. Yet effective countering of the BDS movement warrants deep study and full understanding of the narratives and tactics academics use in the de-legitimizing campaign. Kudos to Cary Nelson on producing a brilliant book that challenges these anti-Israel publications and unmasks the false, misleading, and distorted nature of the facts and arguments faculty use in their allegedly scholarly work.

RIVKA CARMI, M.D., President, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev