Tony at Across the Bay has taken up the challenge of responding to the substance of the article which Rashid Khalidi did or did not plagiarize and who's scholarship he does or does not agree with. Going beyond the plagiarism issue, Tony crafts a hum-dinger of a post delving into the archaeological and ethno-historical record to examine what become, with the politics stripped away, some very odd a-historical claims.

Across the Bay: Ethnohistory, Ideology, and Modern Politics

To get up to speed, my last post on the Khalidi issue is here, and it contains links to the previous postings on the subject.

By odd coincidence, two of the commenters refer approvingly to Nadia Abu el-Haj's book, Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society, a scathing review of which I posted below in the post entitled Applauding the destruction of Joseph's Tomb at Columbia? (el Haj, of course, being the clapper in question), as a way of proving how, in fact, it's the Israelis that are intentionally and wrecklessly destroying non-Jewish history in the sites under their control in an excercise of some sort of cultural and historical imperialism.

I am given to understand from sources that I trust that el Haj actually presents precious little evidence (if any) for such thoughtless destruction. In fact, Israeli archaeologists take great pride in their respect for the antiquities of all the many cultures under their care, as characterized in this response by the Deputy Director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Dr. Uzi Dahari, to a similar slander by another Columbian (visiting, at the time), Dr. Clair Smith: Another Columbia Professor with an anti-Israel Agenda.

Contrast to what we know on the record of Palestinian behavior toward the respect of other cultures' antiquities, from the destruction of Joseph's Tomb noted above, to the outright bulldozing and trashing of untold quantities of treasure lost forever in the heart of the Temple Mount. See: Archaeological Damage at the Temple Mount

Why do I trust my Israeli contacts and put them on a higher plain than the rumours spread by those espousing a Palesinian Nationalist agenda? The usual. Israel is a free society, with academics, press and diletentes of all political pursuasions who are entitled and unafraid to pursue their own agendas. With this many people looking over each other's shoulders, it leads to responsible and high-level peer (and otherwise) reviewed scholarship. The Palestinian narrative is one that spreads from a fear society, where academics are overtly expected to toe the political line, and those who don't face ostracism and sanction, up to and including violence -- witness the veiled threats issued to Sari Nusseibeh who broke ranks to speak out against the British AUT's boycott against certain Israeli academic institution.

Does Israeli academia tend to focus on Israeli history? Of course! But that's a natural product of what Israeli academics are interested in, and is a far cry from the outright bulldozing of antiquities that don't fit their pre-determined national narrative. Those who imply they do so are engaged in projection on a massive scale.

Anyway, here's that link to Tony's scholarly post again.