Israel Studies in Europe

  Israel Studies is not an innovation at institutions of higher education in Europe. Modern Hebrew and the study of the Holy Land reach back certainly into the nineteenth century. At my own college, the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, such academic interest began with the British Foreign Office’s … Read more

Interview: Colin Shindler

Protesters against Israel’s incursion into Gaza demonstrate in Trafalgar Square in January. Anti-Israel feeling at SOAS was more noticeable during this period, says Professor Colin Shindler. But he says he has never faced antisemitism from students or lecturers As a former chemistry lecturer, Colin Shindler knows all about explosive situations. His new appointment could certainly … Read more

Opposing Partition: The Zionist Predicaments after the Shoah

INTRODUCTION In October 1947, two weeks before the vote on UN Resolution 181, the Revisionist Zionist headquarters in Paris approached the religious Zionist Mizrahi movement, the General Zionists, the Marxists of Hashomer Hatzair, and Ahdut Ha’avodah to form an anti-partition front.1 This willingness by Arieh Altman’s Revisionists to cultivate their deadly enemies on the Left … Read more

A History of Palestine

A History of Palestine: From the Ottoman Conquest to the Founding of the State of Israel, by Gudrun Kramer, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008, xiii þ 357 pp., ISBN 978-0-691-11897-0 This work is an overview of the history of Palestine up to 1948. The author, Gudrun Kra¨mer, a distinguished Professor of Islamic Studies in Berlin, … Read more

Student union calls for end to Tel Aviv centenary lectures

The student union at the School of Oriental and African Studies has passed a motion demanding the cancellation of a lecture series celebrating Tel Aviv’s centenary. The Centre for Jewish Studies at SOAS has been hosting the bimonthly lecture series in conjunction with Tel Aviv University since the start of term. The students are calling … Read more

Ben-Gurion against the Knesset

Giora Goldberg, Ben-Gurion against the Knesset (London: Routledge, 2003). Pp 338. $150.00 cloth. Ben-Gurion, of course, helped to construct and shape the state of Israel, but his actions in the arena of the Knesset, according to Giora Goldberg, led to unforeseen consequences in later years. In the early years of the state, Ben-Gurion wielded tremendous … Read more

Divide and Rule?

As reader in Israeli studies at Soas, University of London, I teach the Israel-Palestine conflict to large classes that include Palestinians, Israelis, Jews and Muslims. I do this without any difficulties in the multicultural environment at Soas, and I work hard for all my students. I am also a loyal trade unionist. While my union, … Read more