Speaking out against Israel’ s handling of the Palestinian conflict is the best act of solidarity one can show towards Israelis and the Jewish people, argued Tanya Reinhart in the latest of the Sydney Ideas lecture series.
Israel’ s current policies threaten not just the Palestinians and its Arab neighbours, but also the Israelis themselves, she said. “In the long run, this war over land is suicidal.”
Drawing on the struggle of civil rights leader Nelson Mandela, Professor Reinhart suggested that “consistent, international, non-violent political action can lead Israel to make political concessions”.
Professor Reinhart, eminent Israeli academic, author and linguist, is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics and Media Studies at Tel-Aviv University and Professor of Linguistics at the University of Utrecht in The Netherlands.
For more information, visit:
www.seymour.usyd.edu.au/ideas/index.shtml (Homepage of the Sydney Ideas lecture series.)
The recent passing of Tanya Reinhart is a sad loss to the movement for Palestinian liberation and peace in the Middle East. Dr. Reinhart was a tireless critic of her own government’s actions and policies. Grounded in a fundamental respect for the dignity of all humans, her writings and speeches helped illuminate alternatives to the conflict. Her voice, like that of the late Dr. Edward Said, will be missed.
Today’s podcast is a discussion with Tanya Reinhart from October 9, 2006. Erica Vowles produced it for The Wire, a current affairs program broadcast on community radio in Australia.
The Hamas-led Palestinian government remains unable or unwilling to form a government of unit with the Fatah party. Fatah is seen as more moderate and the move was aimed at breaking the international embargo that has seen the Palestinian government starved of food and money since Hamas was voted democratically into office earlier this year. The sticking point for the international community remains Hamas’ refusal to acknowledge the right of the state of Israel to exist. One visiting Israeli academic believes we must look beyond the obvious and acknowledge that the situation in Palestinians territories is a problem that will not go away, unless the International community provides enough support and pressure to force both sides to embrace peace. Professor Tanya Reinhart, Professor of Linguistics and Media Studies at Tel Aviv University and author of The Road Map to Nowhere, Israel/Palestine since 2003 discussed how most Israelis view the Gaza disengagement of 2005.
For more information, visit:
www.thewire.org.au
www.tau.ac.il/~reinhart/ (Dr. Reinhart’s faculty page at Tel Aviv University)
Tanya Reinhart is a professor emeritus of linguistics and cultural studies at Tel Aviv University and currently Global Distinguished Professor of Linguistics at NYU and a professor at the University of Utrecht. She has written several books on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, has a column in Israel’s largest daily, Yideot Aharonot, and has had many articles published in international journals. Her latest book, The Roadmap to Nowhere: Israel/Palestine Since 2003, is published by Verso Press.
This interview was conducted in April 2006, shortly after the Israeli elections, and Prof. Reinhart discusses the implications of the election win by Olmert’s Kadima Party, the Labor party’s agreement to join in a coalition government, historical background about Amir Peretz, the current head of the Labor party, the ongoing international sanctions against the Hamas led Palestinian government, the international community’s relations with Israel and support for the continuation of the Occupation of Palestinian land, the opportunities and limits of the international and local movement against Israeli policies, and background about her support of academic boycott and its relation to leaving her position as professor at Tel Aviv University.
Prof. Reinhart was interviewed by Bryan Atinsky of the Alternative Information Center (AIC).
For more information, visit:
www.alternativenews.org
www.tau.ac.il/~reinhart/