Benny Morris and Britain's Shame
Among all the disturbing news items I've seen this week, this one ranks at the top. Giulio Meotti's account of the near-lynching of Israeli historian Benny Morris in London is enough to make me vomit:
He was walking with his wife towards the LSE, when he was accosted by a group of keffiyah-ed Muslims who, recognising him, started hurling abuse, shouting and screaming in his face that he was a “fascist,” “murderer,” “racist” and that UK shouldn’t have let him speak. ...
When Morris finished his lesson on Israel’s war of 1948, he was unceremoniously bundled away through the back exit of the faculty, past the garbage cans, out of fear for his safety if he left the building in the normal manner. ...
“I felt like a Jew in Berlin in the 20’s,” a shaken Morris told me. “Freedom of expression has been severely limited in Europe about the conflict in the Middle East. Israel is an absolute taboo in Europe, as well as criticism of Islam and of the Arab world."
Let me provide context to this. Have a look at the comment thread below my post on Mike and Bob from Hama. Judith and I are discussing the historiography of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Benny Morris is a key figure in this controversy--a member of a group of Israeli historians known as the "New Historians," along with Avi Shlaim (with whom Judith and I both studied) and Ilan Pappe. Morris is the author of The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949. It's an important piece of scholarship and a serious effort to answer the question, "Were Palestinians expelled?" He concluded that indeed, in some cases, they were. For this, he was pilloried by many Israelis for betraying an official national narrative.
When I studied in Britain, Benny Morris's work was part of the core assigned reading on the Arab-Israeli conflict--as it should be. He was considered an important Left-wing historian--as he is. I hardly endorse every word that comes out of Benny Morris's mouth, but I feel confident in saying that anyone with any serious interest in the birth of the Palestinian refugee crisis needs to understand what he said.
If Benny Morris cannot safely lecture on this subject in a British university, all rational inquiry and discussion in Britain has been shut down. There is no way seriously to discuss this subject without considering Morris's research.
Today's Zaman recently ran an interesting interview with him. Today's Zaman's leanings are strongly pro-AKP. Whatever my criticism of the paper and of constraints upon freedom of expression in Turkey, I cannot but see this as evidence that Turkey may now have a more open climate of speech than Britain.
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Comments :
Sep '10
Re: Benny Morris and Britain's Shame
That's amazing Claire. You're right. He's a leftie and the last person you would think radical Islamists would turn on, but they have.
Farewell, Brittania.
Aug '10
Re: Benny Morris and Britain's Shame
"I cannot but see this as evidence that Turkey may now have a more open climate of speech than Britain."
Ain't sayin' much is it ?
Jul '11
Re: Benny Morris and Britain's Shame
The scorpion and the frog come to mind regarding radical islamists, Was not Daniel Pearl there to help?
Jul '10
Re: Benny Morris and Britain's Shame
Have you been following what happens to any speaker not safely left of Stalin on American campuses?
May '10
Re: Benny Morris and Britain's Shame
What struck me most about this story when I read about it last week was that no one intervened as Morris was being heckled on the street. Passers-by probably had no idea who Morris was, but they did not tell the people screaming in his face to back away and calm down. Is it apathy or is it fear?