Remember Those 'Canaanite Eyes'? Israeli Eyes Are Blinking

We're back to my treatment of the "Canaanite eyes" theme but to my chagrin, it's an Israeli venue now.

The announcement:


Seems a conference is taking place at the Van Leer Institute, "The Gift of the Land and the Fate of the Canaanites in Jewish Thought, from Antiquity to the Modern Period" and at the Yad Ben-Tzvi Institute there's an evening on "The Relation to the Canaanite in the Torah and in Modern Zionist Thought".

The conference description:

The Gift of the Land and the Fate of the Canaanites
in Jewish Thought, from Antiquity to the Modern Period
Jerusalem, 8th-10th of December 2009

Sponsors: The CRFJ (The French Research Center in Jerusalem), the Yad Ben-Zvi Institute and the Van Leer Institute. The conference will take place in the three institutions.

The gift of the promised Land to Israel by God is both a fundamental belief of Judaism and an idea that is not devoid of problems, some of which are addressed in the Bible itself. According to the biblical narrative, God gives to Abraham and his descendants - that is, Israel -, a land that is already settled by the Canaanites, after whose name the Land has been called. Some texts in the Torah demand that the Canaanites be expelled from the country and dispossessed, whereas others prescribe to eradicate them completely. The main reason put forward for such a radical treatment is the fear that the Israelites be contaminated by Canaanite idolatry. Other biblical texts suggest that it is the Canaanites' depravity that lies behind this harsh treatment: they are to be killed as a punishment for the abominations they have committed, which include the sacrificing of their children to their gods. On the other hand, whereas the Book of Leviticus strongly emphasizes that the Land is God 's alone, and will “vomit” even the sons of Israel if they imitate the abominations of the Canaanites, other books are more insistent on the intrinsic theologico-legal right of Israel to possess the Land. There are then different ways of thinking about the possession of the Land and the relationship with the Canaanites within the Torah, not to speak about other biblical books, such as Joshua and Judges, which are inspired by the Deuteronomistic ideology, but also shed a different light on the story.

Now, many scholars hold that the conquest never took place the way it is described in the Bible, and that the origins of ancient Israel are autochtonous to some extent. But, whether a historical account or a myth, the religious and moral issues raised by the story of the conquest persist. From a very early period onwards, ancient or traditional Jewish commentators have been concerned with the theological, ethical and political issues linked to the conquest of the Land and the fate of the Canaanites. Within the Book of Genesis itself, the story of Noah's curse against Canaan has been understood by some as a kind of explanation as to why the Canaanites were to be dispossessed by the Hebrews.

In the Hellenistic and Roman period, Jewish authors have shown a great deal of creativity and exegetical boldness in solving the problems linked to the story of the conquest. This might be partly explained by the fact that the wars waged by the Hasmoneans provoked a great deal of hostility of the neighboring peoples against Judeans/Jews, bringing into question the legitimacy of Jewish rule over the Land. Interesting answers to this challenge are to be found in Jewish literature from that period.

These issues have taken on particular poignancy following the creation of the modern state of Israel. It would therefore be of special interest to compare the ancient, medieval and modern Jewish discourses pertaining to the issue of Israel’s right to dwell in the country, as well as to the way of interacting with the non-Jewish populations living in the Land. In particular, it would be appropriate to analyze Jewish commentaries of the biblical passages that refer to the gift of the Land, its conquest and the fate of its inhabitants, in Second Temple, Rabbinic, Medieval and contemporary Jewish literature. The purpose of the conference will be to analyze and compare these discourses, focusing on classical Jewish texts and major Jewish commentators, halakhists and philosophers, up to contemporary figures. The purpose of the conference is basically to shed light on Jewish concern with these issues throughout history, as well as on Jewish exegetical and intellectual creativity in elaborating strategies to cope with them. We hope that the conference will help reaching a better understanding of the long history of Jewish reflection on the issue of Israel’s sovereignty over the Land and its relationship with the other inhabitants.
Katell Berthelot and Marc Hirshman

Participants who have already agreed to give a paper include Dr. Nili Wazana (Hebrew University), Dr. Michael Segal (Hebrew University), Dr. Ishai Rosen-Zvi (Tel Aviv University), Prof. Menahem Kister (Hebrew University), Prof. Menahem Kellner (Haifa University), Dr. Evyatar Marienberg (JTS, New York), Prof. Zeev Harvey (Hebrew University), Dr. Annabel Herzog (Haifa University), Prof. Matthias Morgenstern (University of Tübingen), Prof. Steven Kepnes (Colgate University), as well as Dr. Katell Berthelot (CNRS) and Prof. Marc Hirshman (Hebrew University).

Organizers:
Katell Berthelot, full time researcher at the CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research, France), currently appointed at the CRFJ (French Research Center in Jerusalem).
CRFJ, 3 Shimshon St., POB 547, Jerusalem 91004. Tel: 02.56.58.107 / 054.250.70.27.

Marc Hirshman, Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mandel Chair for Jewish Education, and Yad Ben Zvi Institute.

I guess the fact that Nur Masalha isn't present is a sort of consolation.