Resources

Silence of the boycotting anthropologists

By Dr. A. Mark Clarfield, Sidonie Hecht Professor of Geriatrics and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

I have always been fascinated by the field of anthropology . Who wouldn’t be, given that the discipline is based on the “study of man” [used in its non sexist sense of “person” of course]. And the world loves the field too. Just look at all the movies, novels and journalistic articles which have accompanied anthropology over the last hundred years. In fact, I was so interested in this discipline that in the third year of medical residency (and I was certainly busy enough then) I actually took an undergraduate course in physical anthropology and boy did I ever enjoy that.

Read more at The Times of Israel

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Academic boycotts and anti-normalization

Ills of anti-normalization / By Ghaith al-Omari

“That many Palestinians are now questioning the value of coexistence initiatives is understandable. The lack of a credible peace process, the dwindling prospects of a two-state solution, and Israeli policies in the West Bank and Gaza have greatly weakened the credibility of these initiatives. Nevertheless, the methods and objectives of anti-normalization movement should raise serious concern among Palestinians.

The increasingly direct and sometimes violent methods of anti-normalization activists are aimed at preventing Palestinians from relating to Israelis. They also discourage healthy debate. This movement ignores the Palestinians’ unique and rich history of political diversity and instead seeks to impose the kind of uniformity that has traditionally plagued other Arab societies. Anti-normalization activists have a right to hold their own views, but they should not be able to prevent other Palestinians from dissenting or exercising their right to engage in joint activities with Israelis. Preventing Palestinians and Israelis from interacting directly would deprive the Palestinians—individually and collectively—of the opportunity to gain a deeper, more textured, and ultimately more accurate understanding of Israel.”

Read the post at the TTN website here

 

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Anthropology in Israel

IAA Resolution: End the Occupation, Oppose Academic Boycott, Support Dialogue

On June 11th this year the Israeli Anthropological Association passed a resolution calling upon the Israeli government to take key steps to bring about a just and viable future for Israelis and Palestinians. These include ending the occupation of the West Bank, efforts to rebuild Gaza, implementing equal rights for Israeli Palestinian citizens, and viable solutions to the tragedy of Palestinian refugees.

At the same time it calls upon anthropologists and others to recognize the important role that moderate segments in Israeli society—including academics—have played in the difficult struggle for peace in the region, to resist conflating academic institutions with government policies and actions, and to oppose initiatives to boycott universities in Israel.

 

Selected Israeli anthropological books of interest

About anthropology in Israel:

Ethnographic Encounters in Israel: Poetics and Ethics of Fieldwork

Edited and with an introduction by Fran Markowitz

http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/product_info.php?products_id=806875

Raucher on Markowitz, ‘Ethnographic Encounters in Israel: Poetics and Ethics of Fieldwork’: https://networks.h-net.org/node/28655/reviews/63884/raucher-markowitz-ethnographic-encounters-israel-poetics-and-ethics

 

Toward an Anthropology of Nation Building and Unbuilding in Israel

Edited and with an introduction by Fran Markowitz, Stephen Sharot, and Moshe Shokeid
Afterword by Alex Weingrod

http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Toward-an-Anthropology-of-Nation-Building-and-Unbu,675965.aspx

Eller on Markowitz, Sharot, and Shokeid: http://wings.buffalo.edu/ARD/cgi/showme.cgi?keycode=6425

 

In the Company of Others: The Development of Anthropology in Israel

By: Orit Abuhav

http://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/company-others

 

About the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

 

Conscientious Objectors in Israel: Citizenship, Sacrifice, Trials of Fealty

By: Erica Weiss

http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15212.html

 

Remembering Palestine in 1948: Beyond National Narratives

By: Efrat Ben-Ze’ev

http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/middle-east-history/remembering-palestine-1948-beyond-national-narratives

 

Silencing the Sea: Secular Rhythms in Palestinian Poetry

By: Khaled Furani

http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=10544

 

Mixed Towns, Trapped Communities: Historical Narratives, Spatial Dynamics, Gender Relations and Cultural Encounters in Palestinian-Israeli Towns

Edited by: Daniel Monterescu and Dan Rabinowitz

http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9780754647324

 

Coffins on Our Shoulders: The Palestinian Citizens of Israel Today

By: Dan Rabinowitz and Khawla Abu-Baker

http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520245570

 

Anthropology and the Palestinians (Hebrew)

By: Dan Rabinowitz

http://www.vanleer.org.il/he/node/1484

 

Overlooking Nazareth: The Ethnography of Exclusion in a Mixed Town in Galilee

By: Dan Rabinowitz

http://www.cambridge.org/il/academic/subjects/anthropology/social-and-cultural-anthropology/overlooking-nazareth-ethnography-exclusion-galilee?format=PB

 

Bedouin Century: Education and Development among the Negev Tribes in the Twentieth Century

By: Aref Abu-Rabia

http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title.php?rowtag=AburabiaBedouin