A recent column in the Indiana Daily Student titled “In defense of Israel and Zionism” is a poor excuse for published writing, displaying what is now an endemic lack of rigor on the part of the IDS Opinion staff. The column in question relies exclusively on both appeals to emotion and references to a book called “From Time Immemorial,” a work that has been exhaustively and completely discredited by the academic community since its publication.
Israeli historian Yehoshua Porath, writing in the New York Times, called it “a sheer forgery.”
The idea advanced by the author that Arabs only came to Palestine after its 20th-century colonization is utterly ludicrous. So, too, is the fact that in all the author’s talk of borders, never once did he mention the 1967 borders established in United Nations Security Council Resolution 242. These borders are the sole legitimate borders of Israel and Palestine under international law, and yet
Israel continues to occupy and settle the West Bank in flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention.
Furthermore, the most ridiculous aspect of the column is the author’s insinuation that questioning the geography and politics of the state of Israel is somehow equivalent to antisemitism. This is so insulting to one’s intelligence as to hardly merit a response, except to say that in an academic community like IU, such nonsense should not be welcome.
The author ends her column with a typically ad-hominem insult aimed at those who disagree with her, saying they need a “basic history lesson.” Again, this hardly merits a response, except to note that in actual history lessons at IU, one should display the kind of self-respect and respect for others that is sorely lacking in the author’s work.
— Ben Jarvis
Graduate Student,
School of Public and
Environmental Affairs
Re:In defense of Isreal and Zionizm
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