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

FAIN: FT-254708-17

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

Research and writing leading to publication of a book on Palestinian research into Zionism and the role of that research in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

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 an NEH Summer Stipend, I will travel to Beirut and Jerusalem to gain access to archives, libraries, and the many scholars of the PLO, Palestinian intellectual history, and the conflict based there.

Associated Products

"The First Report on the Palestine Refugees": The PLO and the Balfour Declaration (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: "The First Report on the Palestine Refugees": The PLO and the Balfour Declaration
Author: Jonathan Marc Gribetz
Abstract: This conference presentation studied the perspectives of the PLO Research Center on the Balfour Declaration in the years surrounding the 1967 War.
Date: 11/02/2017
Conference Name: The Balfour Declaration Centenary conference at the Israel Academy of the Humanities and Social Sciences

Jews and Israel in the Imagination of the PLO (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Jews and Israel in the Imagination of the PLO
Author: Jonathan Marc Gribetz
Abstract: In this paper, I gave an overview of the project and discussed in detail the PLO's research on the Babylonian Talmud.
Date: 12/03/2017
Conference Name: "Antisemitism and Islamophobia: Between Academic Research and Political Agendas" conference at Tel Aviv University

Jews and Israel in the Imagination of the PLO (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Jews and Israel in the Imagination of the PLO
Author: Jonathan Marc Gribetz
Abstract: I presented an overview of the project and focused particularly on the PLO Research Center's writings on the Babylonian Talmud.
Date: 12/03/2017
Conference Name: “Antisemitism and Islamophobia: Between Academic Research and Political Agendas,” Workshop, Tel Aviv University

The PLO Research Center (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: The PLO Research Center
Abstract: I presented on the debate in 1982-1983 over the legitimacy of Israel's seizure of the library and archive of the PLO Research Center.
Author: Jonathan Marc Gribetz
Date: 01/26/2018
Location: Forum Baer, Tel Aviv University

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