Israelis at
Non-Israeli Universities
UCLA - Gabriel Piterberg (Dept. of
History) smears Israel on the International Lecture Circuit
[Turkey's not anti-Semitic enough these days.
While in Istanbul, Piterberg was quoted by the Hürriyet Daily news
as 'referring to the conflict as the "colonization of Palestine"
during a lecture in Istanbul on Saturday.']
On the colonization of Palestine, Piterberg
connected the history of the settlement with the colonization of
other countries such as the U.S. and South Africa. He drew
comparisons between the ways both countries sought to collect
massive amounts of land and dispel the natives, and he detailed the
problems that persisted in each.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=visiting-academic-criticizes-israeli-settlements-2010-07-03
Visiting academic criticizes Israeli
settlements
ISTANBUL — Hürriyet Daily news
Saturday, July 3, 2010
An U.S.-based academic who grew up in Israel criticized Israeli
settlements, referring to the conflict as the "colonization of
Palestine" during a lecture in Istanbul on Saturday.
“Palestine and Israel need to be understood in two features,”
said Gabriel Piterberg, a professor of Near East history at the
University of California in Los Angeles. “First, this is a conflict
between settlers and indigenous people. Second, this is an
unresolved settler situation where the settlers are incomparably
more powerful, and the natives have not disappeared and will not
disappear."
Born in Argentina and raised in Israel, Piterberg fought against
the Palestinian Liberation Organization during his required military
service, but his lecture Saturday at Sabancı University, titled "The
Zionist Colonization of Palestine in the Comparative Context of
Settler Colonialism," centered on his pro-Palestinian take on the
decades of hostility.
Piterberg said he welcomed the opportunity to speak in Turkey;
ties between Ankara and Tel Aviv grew increasingly tense after
Israeli commandos raided a Gaza-bound aid ship and killed eight
Turks and one American of Turkish descent.
“This country is more critical of Israel than most,” Piterberg
said. “The opposite atmosphere of this would be the U.S. It would be
very hard to give a lecture like this there."
Piterberg first defined the study of comparative settler
colonialism and then analyzed the works of two prominent early
Zionists, Haim Arlozorov and Arthur Ruppin.
On the colonization of Palestine, Piterberg connected the history
of the settlement with the colonization of other countries such as
the U.S. and South Africa. He drew comparisons between the ways both
countries sought to collect massive amounts of land and dispel the
natives, and he detailed the problems that persisted in each.
Piterberg also pointed out the flaws in Arlozorov’s basic
argument that an “interethnic joint merger can’t work.” He
criticized Arlozorov’s belief in the separation and subjugation of
the Palestinian economy by the Israelis.
Anti-Semitism and “outright racism” were inherent in Ruppin's
work, which was intended to “renew the purity of the Jewish race,”
Piterberg said. He also made a connection between Ruppin’s work and
the social scientists directly involved in the Holocaust.
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