The Long Tradition of American Jewish Critiques of Israel and Their Suppression

As protests against Israel’s geocidal attack on Gaza and increased dispossession and violence on the West Bank grow into encampments that have sprung up across the globe, they have been suppressed by college administrators and national political leaders alike as being anti-Semitic and harmful to Jewish students. The US House of Representatives has just passed a bill endorsing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism as including criticism of the State of Israel.

In this context, there could be no better time to discuss a new book by Professor Geoffrey Levin, Our Palestine Question. In this fascinating and revealing study, Levin documents longstanding criticisms of the State of Israel, and of Zionism, by both Jewish American individuals and organizations, dating back to the early 20th century. In varying degrees, since the founding of the State of Israel, American Jews have argued for Palestinian rights, for their enfranchisement, for their repatriation, and some for a Palestinian state. In this episode of Speaking Out of Place we discuss the debates and controversies over the decades.

We are grateful that Professor Joel Beinin, an eminent historian and participant in many of these debates, is here with us, as well as prominent Jewish American activist Simone Zimmerman, who is co-founder of If Not Now and who appears in the documentary film, “Israelism.”

Joel Beinin is the Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History and Professor of Middle East History, Emeritus at Stanford University. His research and teaching have been focused on the history and political economy of modern Egypt, Palestine, and Israel, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. He has written or edited twelve books. In 2001-02 he served as president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America.

For many years Joel Beinin was a member of the editorial committee of the Middle East Research and Information Project, which provides critical reporting and analysis of state power, political economy, social hierarchies, and popular struggles in the Middle East and US policy in the region. More recently, he is a non-resident fellow of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), an American non-profit organization that advocates for democracy and human rights in the Arab world.

Geoffrey Levin is assistant professor of Middle Eastern and Jewish Studies at Emory University in Atlanta. His research interests lie at the intersection of Jewish, Arab, and modern US. histories. 

Prior to joining Emory's faculty, Levin was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University's Center for Jewish Studies. He holds a PhD in Jewish history from New York University. Our Palestine Question, published by Yale University Press last November, is his first book. The book has been discussed media outlets including The Washington Post, The Guardian,+972 Magazine, and Jewish Currents, and it is now available as an audiobook.

Simone Zimmerman is an organizer and strategist based in Brooklyn, New York, and the co-founder of the Jewish anti-apartheid organization IfNotNow. Her personal journey is currently featured in the film Israelism, about a younger generation of American Jews who have been transformed by witnessing the reality in the West Bank and connecting with Palestinians.