Now/here Man
You said, “I don’t seem to fit anywhere” I can relate to that— Fourteen years teaching at the university as a statusless adjunct No tenure No bulging curriculum vitae full of books, articles, papers, conferences,…
Category: Intellectuals
The Politics of Dispossession
for Sharifa Barakat “The climax to this campaign occurred when, in West Beirut, Israeli soldiers carted off Palestinian archives, destroyed the private libraries and homes of prominent Lebanese nationalists and Palestinian personalities, and literally heaped…
Weekend Meditation
A recent conversation with Sharifa led me to look again at one of Said’s many penetrating studies… 1. In fact, there is no way that I know of apprehending the world from within American culture…
A Policy of Terror
A Comment on Norman Finkelstein’s ‘This Time We Went Too Far’: Truth & Consequences of the Gaza Invasion (OR Books, 2010) We are approaching the second anniversary of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in December 2008 into January…
Book Recommendation: Gideon Levy
I highly recommend Gideon Levy’s new book, The Punishment of Gaza. Reading it reminded me of something Noam Chomsky wrote in 1996: “Those who came to be honored much later as the Prophets received rather different…
The Work Goes on
Recently I learned that Norman Finkelstein was denied entry to Israel and banned from coming there for ten years. Reading about this, I thought of Antonio Gramsci, a leader of the Italian Communist Party…
Righteous Jews
for Hedy Epstein A reflection on Roane Carey and Jonathan Shanin, ed., The Other Israel: Voices of Refusal and Dissent (New York: The New Press, 2002). 1. When I came back from Palestine after working…
On Edward Said
Edward Said died last fall, and his loss has been felt throughout the Arab world. When I was in Palestine, in both Gaza City and Ramallah, there were posters all over the place commemorating Said’s …