Reading Herzl in Beirut: The PLO's Research on Judaism and Israel

FAIN: FEL-273362-21

Jonathan Marc Gribetz
Princeton University (Princeton, NJ 08540-5228)

Completion of a book on the history of a research center and library formerly maintained in Beirut, Lebanon by the Palestine Liberation Organization. 

In mid-September 1982, just as they invaded West Beirut, Israeli forces raided a high-rise in the Lebanese capital. Though the building belonged to the Palestine Liberation Organization, the targets inside were neither militants nor weapons. The Israeli soldiers were there to capture a library—a library that was filled with books about Jews, Zionism, and Israel. Reading Herzl in Beirut, the monograph I am writing, is a book about that library, the institution that collected it (the PLO Research Center), the researchers who used it, the scholarship they produced in it, and, ultimately, the impact of the knowledge produced there on the course of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. How did learning about the enemy inform Palestinian politics and the acceptance of a two-state solution? With the generous support of an NEH Fellowship, I will complete my manuscript, under contract with Princeton University Press, during a year based in Jerusalem, with visits to Beirut, Ramallah, and Cyprus.

Associated Products

Studying Zionism and Israel in the PLO (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Studying Zionism and Israel in the PLO
Abstract: The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), founded in 1964, became famous, or infamous, over the decades primarily for its militants and its politicians. There was another group in the organization, however, that was less well known but no less important: PLO researchers. In 1965, the PLO established a Research Center in Beirut, Lebanon, dedicated to carefully analyzing what it referred to as "the Palestine Problem," a crucial element of which was "knowing the enemy." This meant researching Jews, Judaism, Zionism, and Israel. Professor Gribetz introduces the PLO Research Center and discuss the importance of this group of activist researchers and intellectuals on the history of the PLO.
Author: Jonathan Marc Gribetz
Date: 10/24/2022
Location: Wagner College

Between Knowing the Enemy and Fighting the Enemy: The PLO Research Center in Beirut (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Between Knowing the Enemy and Fighting the Enemy: The PLO Research Center in Beirut
Abstract: A lecture on the ways in which the PLO Research Center navigated the tension between the effort to understand the enemy and the effort to combat the enemy.
Author: Jonathan Marc Gribetz
Date: 05/17/2022
Location: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Reading Herzl in Beirut (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Reading Herzl in Beirut
Abstract: The annual Levtzion Memorial Lecture at the Center for Islamic Studies
Author: Jonathan Marc Gribetz
Date: 05/22/2022
Location: Hebrew University of Jerusalem

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