Comments on: Pro-Israel Campaign to Deny Nadia Abu El-Haj Tenure

By: Jay Draiman

Jay Draiman — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 01:04:32 +0000

[comment deleted for violating comment rules]

By: Richard Silverstein

Richard Silverstein — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:56:39 +0000

Emma is not an archaelogist (nor does she know how to spell) OR anthropologist. She doesn’t know jack about either field. Professor Abu El Haj (unless you know her personally, it is insulting to address her by her first name) follows an anthropological methodology. Emma doesn’t. Moron…your ignorance will not save you.

By: Emma

Emma — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:12:51 +0000

Nadia is not an archeologist [sic].
Her book is not about archeology [sic].
Archeologists follow a specific methodology, Nadia doesn’t.
Kapos…this web-site won’t save you.

By: Richard Silverstein

Richard Silverstein — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 09:12:51 +0000

I want you either to provide PROOF that all “right-wing pro-Israel nationalists” do all the nefarious things you claim, or to retract your claims

I seem to have hit a raw nerve. I didn’t say ALL right wing pro israel nationalists demand that I write according to their agenda. Such a statement would be absurd because many, if not most of them don’t even know I exist. I meant that most of those fitting that description who comment here at this blog at one time or another berate me for not writing about some Arab outrage or another and use this as evidence that I’m either an Arab lover or hater of my own people. Sorry for hitting that nerve & hope this clarifies my thinking.

And let’s be clear about what an ad hominem attack IS. It’s not what you say it is. It’s an attack against a person rather than their argument. And what I wrote was not a personal attack therefore not ad hominem.

By: imjudy

imjudy — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 08:44:17 +0000

Richard, there you go again with the ad hominem attacks that you claim you don’t use. Here is your quote….

—————————-

What I do love about right wing pro-Israel nationalists is that they are actually insulted when you don’t address their own agenda in your writing.

——————————–

I want you either to provide PROOF that all “right-wing pro-Israel nationalists” do all the nefarious things you claim, or to retract your claims. As a matter of fact, I have enountered “progressives” who are liars , cheats, dishonest and all the other epithets you have used against “right-wing pro-Israel nationalists. On the other hand, I know “progressives” who are honest, upright people. Again, either you provide PROOF that ALL “right-wing pro-Israel nationalists” have all the bad characteristics you mention or retract your ad hominem attacks.

By: Richard Silverstein

Richard Silverstein — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 04:43:59 +0000

I DO value and give importance to the dozen or so experts who have commented on El Haj’s shoddy work.

NO, you give “value & importance” only to those “experts” who have savaged her work. Many other scholars have spoken highly favorably of her work. You have ignored them as inconvenient to yr ideological agenda.

As for her knowing Hebrew – the book is riddled with mistakes in Hebrew – simple, basic words she got wrong.

I’m waiting…what are they. One review that trashed her mentioned that she mistook nachal for neve. I haven’t even researched this to validate that the charge is correct. But that’s one possible mistake. What are the others? And DO pls quote fr. her text & provide page numbers to allow us to judge for ourselves whether your judgement is valid or not.

She makes no mention of the momentous damage done by the bulldozers on the Temple Mount

What I do love about right wing pro-Israel nationalists is that they are actually insulted when you don’t address their own agenda in your writing. Who says Abu El-Haj’s has to take into account yr obssessions? Who says she has to address what you find important? She addresses what she finds important. You have yr own megaphone at IsraelInsider. Go scream bloody murder about Arab perfidy there all you want. But don’t expect Abu El-Haj to kowtow to you or yr concerns.

The more they look, the more they will, indeed, see and read and smell something rotten.

Actually, the more one looks at your work and petition the more rotten it smells.

I first heard about Abu El Haj from a Barnard graduate

Please DO tell us where SHE first heard of Abu El Haj. I’m waiting for the answer…

By: Montag

Montag — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 01:45:43 +0000

Richard, reminds me of a case a few years ago in which an author got a letter from the Turkish Embassy criticizing his mention of the “Armenian Genocide” in his book. What shocked the author is that along with the Embassy’s letter was an accidentally enclosed letter from a scholar TO the embassy, advising them on how to deal with the author in order to maintain the fiction that there was no historical consensus on the genocide as a proven fact. Ironically, the quisling scholar had suggested that they ignore the author’s book because it was not that important.

What shocked the author was that in the correspondence from the scholar to the embassy the genocide WAS treated as a historical fact! So they knew they were promoting a lie. Of course the author publicized the scholar’s letter, which indicated that he was prostituting his expertise in order to promote a lie. Needless to say, his name was MUD among his peers from then on.

The same tactic is being used here–if you throw enough manure against the wall some of it will stick.

By: Zhu Bajie

Zhu Bajie — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 00:29:35 +0000

Well, I *am* an archaeologist, or used to be. It was obvious that certain periods (like the late Iron Age or the Hellenistic/Roman periods) get a lot of attention and Ummayad period sites don’t. Eg, I visited Khirbet MInya, a lovely small Ummayad palace on the banks of the Sea of Galilee. It’s famous for its mosaics, but they were not at all protected from tourists wanting to take away bits of stone. I have no idea if anything is left now, 20 years later.

Not that there’s not lots of conservation problems with other periods.

Languages: Israeli archaeologists publish both in Hebrew and English. Probably French and German as well.

As for the tenure problems, I’m glad I live in China now. I don’t get tenure, but I don’t face a political inquisition, either.

Zhu Bajie, going up and down and to and fro in the world