Israel Shahak

Israel Shahak (April 28, 1933 – July 2, 2001) () was a Professor of Chemistry at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the former president of the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights, and an outspoken critic of the Israeli government and of Israeli society in general.

Biography

Born in Warsaw, Poland, Shahak was the youngest child of a cultured Polish Jewish family. After Nazi Germany occupied Poland, his family was forced into Warsaw Ghetto. His brother escaped and joined the Royal Air Force (only to be shot down), and his father disappeared. His mother paid a poor Catholic family to hide him, but when her money ran out he was returned, and in 1943 they were both sent to Belsen concentration camp. Israel Shahak was liberated in 1945, and shortly thereafter emigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine, where he volunteered for a kibbutz but was turned down.

After graduating from high school Shahak served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in an elite regiment. Pallis, Elfi. Israel Shahak, The Guardian, July 6, 2001. 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 a teacher and researcher in chemistry at Hebrew University, where he remained until his retirement in 1990. He published many scientific papers, mostly on organic fluorine compounds.

After the 1967 Six-Day War Shahak became critical of Israel's treatment of Palestinians, and a supporter of a Palestinian state. He wrote a number of works that are popular among anti-Zionists and which argue that Israeli law and society contains entrenched attitudes of Jewish supremacism.

Shahak died in Israel at the age of 68 due to complications from diabetes. In his obituary in The Guardian Elfi Pallis described him as "an old-fashioned liberal".

Politics and works

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 and Edward Said.

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 co-authored with Norton Mezvinsky Jewish Fundamentalism In Israel, published in 1999. They introduce the latter by stating "We realize that by criticizing Jewish fundamentalism we are criticizing a part of the past that we love. We wish that members of every human grouping would criticize their own past, even before criticizing others."

Despite the fact that Shahak was a victim of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, and although professing a strong opposition to racism and anti-Semitism, For example, he writes in Jewish History: "Modern racism (of which antisemitism is part) although caused by specific social conditions, becomes, when it gains strength, a force that in my opinion can only be described as demonic." his books can be found (in violation of his copyright) on Holocaust denial websites widely considered anti-Semitic, The E.U. Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia, Anti-Defamation League, Stephen Roth Institute,American Jewish Committee,^*" target="_blank" >the Southern Poverty Law Center,Political Research Associates, ^*and" target="_blank" >various academics (e.g. [http://www.york.cuny.edu/~drobnick/holbib1.html) have described these websites and groups as anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi hate sites/groups that engage in Holocaust Denial. such as Radio Islam, "Bible Believers", CODOH, and "Historical Review Press".

In the introduction to the 2002 edition of the book Norton Mezvinsky, Shahak's co-author on Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, writes that anti-Semites and anti-Semitic groups "utilize unduly Shahak's criticisms in trying to justify their hatred of Jews. They have continued to do this either by citing and/or using out-of-context some of Shahak's points. They allege that what Shahak wrote confirms their generalizations about the 'evil nature' of Jews."

Critics

Shahak's 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. Mathis, Andrew. The Interpretational Errors of Israel Shahak, June 8, 2000. URL accessed May 12, 2006. Jakobovitz, Immanuel. A Modern Blood Libel--L'Affaire Shahak, Tradition, Volume 8, Number 2, Summer 1966. Student, Gil. Shabbat and Gentile Lives, AishDas Society website, 2001. URL accessed May 12, 2006. Edward Said's Documented Deceptions, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, August 1999. URL accessed July 7, 2006. The Anti-Defamation League has listed Shahak as one of four authors of polemics in its paper The Talmud in Anti-Semitic Polemics. The Talmud in Anti-Semitic Polemics, Anti-Defamation League, February 2003. URL accessed May 12, 2006. Steven Plaut and the Conservative Voice have described him as an "anti-semite". Plaut, Steven. The Jihadnik Prof at UC-Santa Barbara, FrontPageMag.com, June 7, 2005. URL accessed July 9, 2006. Neuwirth, Rachel. The Chomsky File, The Conservative Voice, January 6, 2005. URL accessed July 9, 2005.

Footnotes

External links

Complete Online Database of Shahak's Articles & Books
Obituary from The Guardian newspaper, UK
With Israel Shahak’s Death, A Prophetic Voice Is Stilled from the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs

Criticism

A Modern Blood Libel--L'Affaire Shahak by Immanuel Jakobovits, in Tradition, Volume 8, Number 2, Summer 1966
The Interpretational Errors of Israel Shahak by Andrew Mathis
The Jews are Bad! by Werner Cohn
Shabbat and Gentile Lives Gil Student on Shahak's claims

1933 births | 2001 deaths | Anti-Semitism | Humanists | Israeli scientists