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Israel Shahak (April 28, 1933 - July 2, 2001) was a Professor of Chemistry at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and an outspoken critic of the Israeli government and of Israeli society in general.
Biography
Born in Warsaw, Poland, Shahak survived the Belsen concentration camp and emigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine in 1945, shortly before the establishment of the State of Israel. A critic of Zionism and a supporter of a Palestinian state, he wrote many books that are influential among some anti-Zionists and which argue that Israeli law and society contains entrenched attitudes of Jewish Supremacism.
Shahak served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) after graduating from high school. After completing service with the IDF, he attended Hebrew University where he received his doctorate in chemistry. In 1961, he left Israel for the United States to study as a postdoctoral student at Stanford University. He returned two years later to become an instructor in chemistry at Hebrew University, where he remained until his retirement in 1990.
On July 2, 2001, he died in Israel at age 68 due to complications from diabetes.
Politics
Shahak reports having been radicalized first by the Suez War and his feeling of betrayal by David Ben-Gurion's push to occupy the Sinai Peninsula, then continuing through his time in the United States. Following the Six-Day War of 1967, Shahak joined the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights; he was elected president of the League in 1970.
He began publishing translations of the Hebrew press into English, alongside his own commentaries, arguing that Western activists needed better knowledge about conditions in Israel, and that the English-language editions of Hebrew newspapers were being intentionally distorted for Western audiences. This practice, along with writing letters to the editor, remained staples of his work for decades.
He became a well-known activist in international circles, co‐authoring papers and giving joint speaking engagements with American activist Noam Chomsky, and winning plaudits from Christopher Hitchens.
In 1994, he wrote Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years, in which he argued that traditional Orthodox Judaism was a chauvinistic religion, and that this chauvinism had been carried over into many aspects of contemporary Israeli society, particularly in what he perceived as institutionalized racism and human rights abuses against Palestinians. He went on to write Open Secrets: Israel's Nuclear and Foreign Policies published in 1997, and Jewish Fundamentalism In Israel published in 1999, with Norton Mezvinsky.
Though a victim of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust himself, Shahak's writings and books can be found verbatim (and in violation of his copyright) on websites such as "Radio Islam" and "Bible Believers". The ADL, Stephen Roth Institute, AJC, and the Southern Poverty Law Center, have described these websites as anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi hate sites that engage in Holocaust Denial. [1] (http://www.adl.org/poisoning_web/rami.asp) [2] (http://www.tau.ac.il/Anti-Semitism/asw98-9/australia.html) [3] (http://www.ajc.org/InTheMedia/Publications.asp?did=503&pid=1203) [4] (http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?sid=83) [5] (http://www.tau.ac.il/Anti-Semitism/asw99-2000/belgium.htm)
Critics
His books and articles have been controversial. His critics have accused him of fabricating incidents, "blaming the victim", distorting the normative meaning of Jewish texts, and misrepresenting Jewish belief and law. [6] (http://andrew.mathis.net/shahak.html) [7] (http://www.edah.org/backend/coldfusion/search/otherworks.cfm?authorid=433) The Anti-Defamation League has listed Shahak as one of four authors of polemics in its paper The Talmud in Anti-Semitic Polemics. [8] (http://www.adl.org/presrele/asus_12/the_talmud.pdf)
Quote
- [On the accusation of being a selfhating Jew]
- "That is a Nazi expression. The Nazis called Germans who defended Jewish rights self-hating Germans."
Further reading
- Oded Yinon (translated by Israel Shahak) Zionist Plan for the Middle East, Association of Arab-American University Graduates, Inc., June, 1982, paperback ISBN 0937694568
- Israel Shahak and Noam Chomsky, Israel's Global Role: Weapons for Repression (Studies in Geophysical Optics and Remote Sensing), Association of Arab-American University Graduates, Inc., April 1982, paperback, ISBN 0937694517
- Israel Shahak, Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years, Stylus Publishing, LLC, December, 1994, trade paperback, ISBN 0745308198
- Israel Shahak, Open Secrets: Israeli Foreign and Nuclear Policies, Stylus Publishing, December, 1997, hardcover, 193 pages, ISBN 0745311520
- Israel Shahak and Norton Mezvinsky, Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel (Pluto Middle Eastern Series), Pluto Press (UK), October, 1999, hardcover, 176 pages, ISBN 0745312810; trade paperback, Pluto Press, (UK), October, 1999, ISBN 0745312764; 2nd edition with new introduction by Norton Mezvinsky, trade paperback July, 2004, 224 pages, ISBN 0745320902
- Israel Shahak, Israel's Global Role : Weapons for Repression (Special Reports, No. 4), Association of Arab-American University Graduates, 1982, paperback
External links
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