Thursday, May 24, 2007

And He Teaches at the Hebrew Univ. Poli. Sci. Dept.

From an interview:-

For the past six years or so, Yaron Ezrahi, a respected political theorist at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, disengaged somewhat from politics...[he] proudly describes himself as a Zionist, meaning he supports a democratic Jewish state in Israel...He also is willing to give up Arab East Jerusalem to Palestinians in exchange for peace.

Lately, Ezrahi and other members of Israel’s left have become increasingly vocal [how much more vocal can they be?] about their political views and their frustration with the government’s policies. Appearing recently in a debate on Israeli television, Ezrahi called the occupation — now in its 40th year — “a classic colonial enterprise” that uses an “apartheid system” of economic and political discrimination to separate Israeli Jews and Palestinians in the territory. He readily defends a book by former President Jimmy Carter, whose title —“Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” — provoked American Jewish critics to vilify the 39th president as an anti-Semite.

“If Carter were to give a lecture in Jerusalem and he were to say this is apartheid in the West Bank, I would say, yes, I support you. This is exactly the case,” Ezrahi said in an interview.

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