Middle East studies in the News

The Crackpot Scholarship of Joseph Massad

by Solomonia
Solomonia.com
April 18, 2006

http://www.solomonia.com/blog/archives/008185.shtml

http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/2531

This is an edited version of a list someone just emailed me concerning some of the more "remarkable" statements made by Columbia University Professor Joseph Massad. I think you'll find it entertaining...and a bit disturbing. None of this prevents you from being on the tenure track at Columbia University. Enjoy.

My emailer writes:

Joseph Massad is Professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University. His course load includes CLME W3042 Palestinian and Israeli Politics and Societies, a difficult task for a man who does not know any Hebrew. He is currently under consideration for tenure...

10) "The Jews are not a nation." [Source]

9) "thousands of women have miscarried as result of [the Israeli Defense Force's use of] poison gas." [Source]

8) It was Israelis - not Palestinians - who shot to death the Israeli Olympic athletes in the 1972 Munich Massacre. [Source]

7) Muslim poverty results from "the racist and barbaric policies of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank." [Source]

6) "The Palestinians of today are the descendants of the ancient Hebrews." The idea that the ancient Hebrews are among the ancestors the Jews is "preposterous" and "absurd." [Source]

5) "Christian fundamentalist(s)… are the most powerful anti-Semitic group worldwide." [Source]

4) Jews in Nazi Germany were not physically abused or harassed until Kristallnacht in November 1938. [Source]

3) The ancient Hebrews did not speak Hebrew, actually "the ancient Hebrews spoke Aramaic." [Source, Source]

2) "Exodus tells the story of the Zionist hijacking of a ship from Cyprus to Palestine by a Zionist Haganah commander." (Massad's plot synopsis of Exodus, a movie about about the shipload of Holocaust refugees desperately trying to reach Israel.) [Source]

1) "Zion" is the Hebrew for "penis." [Source]

Note: Articles listed under "Middle East studies in the News" provide information on current developments concerning Middle East studies on North American campuses. These reports do not necessarily reflect the views of Campus Watch and do not necessarily correspond to Campus Watch's critique.

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