- Let's start with a passage from Alan Dershowitz's latest
book, The Case for Israel, now slithering into the upper tier of Amazon's
sales charts. On page 213. we meet Dershowitz, occupant of the Felix Frankfurter
chair at Harvard Law School, happily walloping a French prof called Faurisson,
charged by the FF prof from Harvard U as being a fraud and a holocaust
denier: "There was no extensive historical research. Instead there
was the fraudulent manufacturing of false antihistory. It was the kind
of deception for which professors are rightly fired--not because their
views are controversial, but because they are violating the most basic
canons of historical scholarship.."
-
- You want an example of Dershowitz's canons of scholarship,
base rather than basic?
-
- On pages 233-4, he writes, "In September 1970, King
Hussein of Jordan killed and injured more Palestinians in one month than
Israel has during three years of responding to the suicide bombing intifada."
The corresponding endnote reads: "Estimates vary as to the number
of Palestinians killed during "Black September," with some estimates
as high as 4,000." His two cited sources for this claim? a Sony movie,
One Day in September, and a chronology for a high school course outline
on the Middle East conflict.
-
- If Justice Frankfurter had fuelled decisions with this
kind of scholarship he'd have been citing Marvel Comics as useful repositories
of case law and precedent. If, in writings off the bench, he'd used the
sort of research procedures displayed elsewhere in Dershowitz's Case for
Israel he'd probably have been forced off the Supreme Court for ethical
considerations of a sort that I imagine Harvard's president, Lawrence Summers,
will soon be pondering in the case of Prof. Dershowitz.
-
- Let me now usher into the narrative an important member
of our cast in this drama: "From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the
Arab-Jewish Conflict Over Palestine", a 60l- page book by Joan Peters,
published in l984. Peter's polemical work strove to buttress the old Zionist
thesis that the land of Israel had been "a land without people, awaiting
a people without land". There was no substantial Palestinian presence,
Peters claimed, <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1902593774/counterpunchmaga>before
the Jewish return. Initially given an ecstatic reception by publications
such the New York Times the book was soon discredited as a charnel house
of disingenuous polemic. The coup de grace was administered by Professor
Yehoshua Porath in the New York Review of Books for January 16 and March
27, 1986.
-
- Though neither Peter's nor her book appear in the index
to The Case for Israel, they do get a mention in note 3l of chapter 2,
where Dershowitz cites the work of a 19th century French geographer called
Cuinct, and adds, "See Joan Peters, From Time Immemorial (Chicago,
JKAP Publications, 1984). Peters's conclusions and data have been challenged.
See Said and Hitchens, p. 33. I do not in any way rely on them in this
book. "Them" clearly refers to Peters' conclusions and data.
-
- This brazen declaration is preceded in chapters one and
two by wholesale, unacknowledged looting of Peters' research. I have before
me a devastating comparative archive of these plagiarisms, compiled by
Norman Finkelstein, author of "The Holocaust Industry: The Exploitation
of Jewish Suffering" and "Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine
Conflict". Here are but four instances, out of no less than 20 thus
far discovered in the first two chapters alone.
-
- "In the sixteenth century," Dershowitz remarks
on the seventeenth page of his book, "according to British reports,
"as many as 15,000 Jews" lived in Safad, which was a "center
of rabbinical learning." Source cited by Dershowitz: Palestine Royal
Commission Report, pp. 11-12. Turn now to page 178 of Ms. Peters' book,
published nineteen years earlier: "Safad at that time, according to
the British investigation by Lord Peel's committee, "contained as
many as 15,000 Jews in the 16th century," and was "a centre of
Rabbinical learning." Source cited by Ms Peters: Palestine Royal Commission
Report, pp. 11-12. Originality displayed by Dershowitz: downgrading Rabbinical
to a lower case r.
-
- Same page of Dershowitz: "[A]ccording to the British
consul in Jerusalem, the Muslims of Jerusalem "scarcely exceed[ed]
one quarter of the whole population." Source cited: James Finn to
Earl of Clarendon, January 1, 1858.
-
- Peters (page 197): "In 1858 Consul Finn reported
the "Mohammedans of Jerusalem" were "scarcely exceeding
one-quarter of the whole population." Source cited: James Finn to
Earl of Clarendon, January 1, 1858.
-
- Dershowitz (page 18): "In 1834, Jewish homes in
Jerusalem "were sacked and their women violated." Source cited:
Jacob de Haas, History of Palestine (New York: 1934), p. 393.
-
- Peters (page 183): [I]n 1834, [] "Forty thousand
fellahin rushed on JerusalemThe Jews were the worst sufferers, their homes
were sacked and their women violated." Source cited: Jacob de Haas,
History of Palestine (New York: 1934), p. 393.
-
- Dershowitz (page 20): "Nor could the Jew seek redress,
as the report observed: 'Like the miserable dog without an owner he is
kicked by one because he crosses his path, and cuffed by another because
he cries out--to seek redress he is afraid, lest it bring worse upon him;
he thinks it better to endure than to live in the expectation of his complaint
being revenged upon him.' Source cited: Wm. T. Young to Viscount Palmerston,
May 25,1839.
-
- Peters (page 187): [T]he life for Jews described in 1839
by British Counsel Young: "[] Like the miserable dog without an owner
he is kicked by one because he crosses his path, and cuffed by another
because he cries out--to seek redress he is afraid, lest it bring worse
upon him; he thinks it better to endure than to live in the expectation
of his complaint being revenged upon him." Source cited: Wm. T. Young
to Viscount Palmerston, May 25, 1839.
-
- Dershowitz ( page 26): "A Christian historian has
reported that several villages throughout Palestine "are populated
wholly by settlers from other portions of the Turkish Empire within the
nineteenth century. There are villages of Bosnians, Druzes, Circassians
and Egyptians." Source cited: James Parkes, Whose Land? (1971), p.
212.
-
- Peters (page 156): "In some cases villages [in Palestine]
are populated wholly by settlers from other portions of the Turkish Empire
within the nineteenth century. There are villages of Bosnians, Druzes,
Circassians and Egyptians," one historian has reported. Source cited:
James Parkes, Whose Land?, (1971) p. 212.
-
- Dershowitz (page 26): "Four years later, it was
reported that "depopulation is even now advancing." Source cited:
J.B. Forsyth, A Few Months in the East (Quebec: 1861), p. 188.
-
- Peters (page 159): "In the 1860s, it was reported
that "depopulation is even now advancing." Source cited: J.B.
Forsyth, A Few Months in the East (Quebec: 1861), p. 188.
-
- Dershowitz (page 27): J.L. Burkhardt [sic] reported that
as early as in the second decade of the nineteenth century, "Few individualsdie
in the same village in which they were born. Families are continually moving
from one place to anotherin a few years they fly to some other place, where
they have heard that their brethren are better treated." Source cited:
John Lewis Burckhardt, Travels in Syria and the Holy Land (New York: 1983),
p. 299.
-
- Peters (163): "John Lewis Burckhardt graphically
described the migratory patterns he found in the early 1800s: "[]
Few individualsdie in the same village in which they were born. Families
are continually moving from one place to another [] in a few years [] they
fly to some other place, where they have heard that their brethren are
better treated." (p. 163) Source cited: John Lewis Burckhardt, Travels
in Syria and the Holy Land (London: 1882), p. 299.
-
- For those, on the monkeys-writing-Shakespeare analogy,
who may speculate that Dershowitz somehow replicated Peters's researches
unknowingly, I should add that in two very long passages, one from a letter
from Wm. T. Young to Col. Patrick Campbell (May 25, 1839), and the other
from Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad, Dershowitz reproduces the quotes with
ellipses in exactly the same place as Peters.
-
- Dershowitz (page 18):
-
- The British consul, William Young, in a report to the
British Foreign Office [] painted a vivid and chilling picture of the life
of the Jews in Jerusalem in 1839: "I think it is my duty to inform
you that there has been a Proclamation issued this week by the Government
in the Jewish quarter--that no Jew is to be permitted to pray in his own
house under pain of being severely punished--such as want to pray are to
go into the Synagogue.. There has also been a punishment inflicted on a
Jew and Jewess--most revolting to human nature, which I think it is my
duty to relate. In the early part of this week, a House was entered in
the Jewish Quarter, and a robbery was committed--the House was in quarantine--and
the guardian was a Jew--he was taken before the Governor--he denied having
any knowledge of the thief or the circumstances. In order to compel him
to confess, he was laid down and beaten, and afterwards imprisoned. The
following day he was again brought before the Governor, when he still declared
his innocence. He was then burned with a hot iron over his face, and various
parts of the body--and beaten on the lower parts of his body to the extent
that the flesh hung in pieces from him The following day the poor creature
died. He was a young Jew of Salonica about 28 years of age--who had been
here but a very short time, he had only the week before been applying to
enter my service. A young man--a Jew--having a French passport was also
suspected--he fled--his character was known to be an indifferent one--his
mother, an aged woman, was taken under suspicion of concealing her son--she
was tied up and beaten in the most brutal way. I must say I am sorry and
am surprised that the Governor could have acted so savage a part--for certainly
what I have seen of him, I should have thought him superior to such wanton
inhumanity--but it was a Jew--without friends or protection--it serves
well to show, that it is not without reason that the poor Jew, even in
the nineteenth century, lives from day to day in terror of his life."
Source cited: Wm. T. Young to Colonel Patrick Campbell, May 25, 1839.
-
- Peters (page 184):
-
- In May 1839, for instance, the complaints registered
with the British Foreign Office by Consul Young in Jerusalem were appalling.
In one day, in one report: "I think it is my duty to inform you that
there has been a Proclamation issued this week by the Government in the
Jewish quarter--that no Jew is to be permitted to pray in his own house
under pain of being severely punished--such as want to pray are to go into
the Synagogue. There has also been a punishment inflicted on a Jew and
Jewess--most revolting to human nature, which I think it is my duty to
relate--In the early part of this week, a House was entered in the Jewish
Quarter, and a robbery was committed--the House was in quarantine--and
the guardian was a Jew--he was taken before the Governor--he denied having
any knowledge of the thief or the circumstances. In order to compell him
to confess, he was laid down and beaten, and afterwards imprisoned. The
following day he was again brought before the Governor, when he still declared
his innocence. He was then burned with a hot iron over his face, and various
parts of the body--and beaten on the lower parts of his body to that extent
that the flesh hung in pieces from him. The following day the poor creature
died. He was a young Jew of Salonica about 28 years of age--who had been
here but a very short time, he had only the week before been applying to
enter my service. A young man--a Jew--having a French passport was also
suspected--he fled--his character was known to be an indifferent one--his
mother, an aged woman, was taken under suspicion of concealing her son--she
was tied up and beaten in the most brutal way. I must say I am sorry and
am surprised that the Governor could have acted so savage a part--for certainly
what I have seen of him, I should have thought him superior to such wanton
inhumanity--but it was a Jew--without friends or protection--it serves
well to show, that it is not without reason that the poor Jew, even in
the nineteenth century, lives from day to day in terror of his life."
Source cited: Wm. T. Young to Colonel Patrick Campbell, May 25, 1839.
-
- Dershowitz (pages 23-4)
-
- Mark Twain, who visited Palestine in 1867, offered this
description: "Stirring scenes . . . occur in the valley [Jezreel]
no more. There is not a solitary village throughout its whole extent--not
for thirty miles in either direction. There are two or three small clusters
of Bedouin tents, but not a single permanent habitation. One may ride ten
miles hereabouts and not see ten human beings. . . . Come to Galilee for
that . . . these unpeopled deserts, these rusty mounds of barrenness, that
never, never, never do shake the glare from their harsh outlines, and fade
and faint into vague perspective; that melancholy ruin of Capernaum: this
stupid village of Tiberias, slumbering under its six funereal palms. .
. . We reached Tabor safely. . . .We never saw a human being on the whole
route. Nazareth is forlorn. . . . Jericho the accursed lies in a moldering
ruin today, even as Joshua's miracle left it more than three thousand years
ago; Bethlehem and Bethany, in their poverty and their humiliations, have
nothing about them now to remind one that they once knew the high honor
of the Savior's presence, the hallowed spot where the shepherds watched
their flocks by night, and where the angels sang, 'Peace on earth, good
will to men,' is untenanted by any living creature. . . . Bethsaida and
Chorzin have vanished from the earth, and the 'desert places' round about
them, where thousands of men once listened to the Savior's voice and ate
the miraculous bread, sleep in the hush of a solitude that is inhabited
only by birds of prey and skulking foxes." Source cited: Mark Twain,
The Innocents Abroad (New York: 1996), pp. 349, 366, 375, 441-442.
-
- Peters (pages 159-60)
-
- Mark Twain [] visited the Holy Land in 1867. In one location
after another, Twain registered gloom at his findings: "Stirring scenes
. . . occur in the valley [Jezreel] no more. There is not a solitary village
throughout its whole extent--not for thirty miles in either direction.
There are two or three small clusters of Bedouin tents, but not a single
permanent habitation. One may ride ten miles hereabouts and not see ten
human beings. [] Come to Galilee for that . . . these unpeopled deserts,
these rusty mounds of barrenness, that never, never, never do shake the
glare from their harsh outlines, and fade and faint into vague perspective;
that melancholy ruin of Capernaum: this stupid village of Tiberias, slumbering
under its six funereal palms. . . . We reached Tabor safely. . . .We never
saw a human being on the whole route. Nazareth is forlorn. . . . Jericho
the accursed lies in a moldering ruin today, even as Joshua's miracle left
it more than three thousand years ago; Bethlehem and Bethany, in their
poverty and their humiliations, have nothing about them now to remind one
that they once knew the high honor of the Savior's presence, the hallowed
spot where the shepherds watched their flocks by night, and where the angels
sang, 'Peace on earth, good will to men,' is untenanted by any living creature.
. . . Bethsaida and Chorzin have vanished from the earth, and the 'desert
places' round about them, where thousands of men once listened to the Savior's
voice and ate the miraculous bread, sleep in the hush of a solitude that
is inhabited only by birds of prey and skulking foxes." Source cited:
Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad (London: 1881), pp. 349, 366, 375, 441-442.
-
- No, I'm afraid it's beyond doubt, and any jury would
remain unpersuaded by charges of prosecutorial malfeasance from Dershowitz's
defending counsel: he plagiarized Peters , while simultanously claiming
he hadn't used her for any historical material. One fraud ripping off another,
the former at last giving the latter justifiable grounds for arguing maltreatment.
-
- Amidst this orgy of plagiarism, Dershowitz understandably
gets confused about sources . Claiming to be inspired by George Orwell,
in her book Peters coined the term "turnspeak" to signal an inversion
of reality. Dershowitz is apparently so nervous of citing Peters in any
way that he credits the term "turnspeak" to Orwell, accusing
critics of Israel of "deliberately using George Orwell's 'turnspeak'".
-
- Over to you President Summers, or will the man so happy
to dress down Prof Cornel West be more timid when it comes to confronting
the occupant of the Felix Frankfurter chair?
-
- <http://www.counterpunch.org/>
- <http://www.counterpunch.org/>http://www.counterpunch.org/
|
