Gilbert Achcar ( ar, جلبير الأشقر; 5 November 1951) is a Lebanese
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
academic and writer. He is a Professor of Development Studies and International Relations at the
School of Oriental and African Studies
SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury ar ...
of the
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
.
His research interests cover the Near East and North Africa, the
foreign policy of the United States
The officially stated goals of the foreign policy of the United States of America, including all the bureaus and offices in the United States Department of State, as mentioned in the ''Foreign Policy Agenda'' of the Department of State, are ...
, Globalization, Islam, and
Islamic fundamentalism
Islamic fundamentalism has been defined as a puritanical, revivalist, and reform movement of Muslims who aim to return to the founding scriptures of Islam. Islamic fundamentalists are of the view that Muslim-majority countries should return t ...
.
He is also a Fellow at the
International Institute for Research and Education
The International Institute for Research and Education (IIRE) is a research and educational centre based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It conducts training and publishes research for and by progressive activists around the world.
The institute was ...
.
Career
Born in Senegal, Achcar was raised in Lebanon where he obtained degrees in philosophy and the social sciences at the
Lebanese University
The Lebanese University (LU) (, ) is the only public university in Beirut, Lebanon. It is ranked #701–750 worldwide in terms of education.
The creation of the Lebanese University was an idea first mentioned in the speech of the former Minist ...
and was a member of the
Revolutionary Communist Group. He took up residence in France in 1983, and completed his doctorate in social history and international relations at the
University of Paris VIII
Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis (french: Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis) is a public university in Paris, France. Once part of the historic University of Paris, it is now an autonomous public institution.
It is one of the th ...
, where, in 1991, he began teaching political science, sociology and international relations. In 2003 he took up a research position at the
Marc Bloch
Marc Léopold Benjamin Bloch (; ; 6 July 1886 – 16 June 1944) was a French historian. He was a founding member of the Annales School of French social history. Bloch specialised in medieval history and published widely on Medieval France ov ...
Centre in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, which he maintained until he assumed a professorship at
SOAS
SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury are ...
.
''The Arabs and the Holocaust''
Achcar's ''The Arabs and the Holocaust'', published in 2010, analyzes the collaboration between Arab leaders and the Nazis and the impact of those relationships on modern Arab-Israeli relationships, and, according to
Tariq Ali
Tariq Ali (; born 21 October 1943) is a Pakistani-British political activist, writer, journalist, historian, filmmaker, and public intellectual. He is a member of the editorial committee of the ''New Left Review'' and ''Sin Permiso'', and con ...
, it dismantles in a scholarly way the simplistic myths that emerged in the wake of the establishment of the State of Israel. In the book, Achcar argues that it is ironic Israel preferred to deal with a "notorious Jew-hater" like
Anwar Sadat
Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat, (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 ...
, who regarded Jews as a "treacherous people", instead of
Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein, . (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian politician who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-re ...
, and it preferred
Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud Abbas ( ar, مَحْمُود عَبَّاس, Maḥmūd ʿAbbās; born 15 November 1935), also known by the kunya Abu Mazen ( ar, أَبُو مَازِن, links=no, ), is the president of the State of Palestine and the Palestinian Natio ...
to
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini (4 / 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat ( , ; ar, محمد ياسر عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني, Mu ...
, though aware of the former's remarks on the Holocaust, and he questions
'Is it an accident that Israel's rulers chose to sign treaties with Anwar Sadat rather than Nasser, and preferred Abbas over Arafat? Or is it a sign of elective affinities between Jew haters and Arab haters, whose vision of the world is the same, only stood on its head?'
"Statist Zionism is a
Janus
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus ( ; la, Ianvs ) is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces. The month of January is named for Janu ...
," Achcar adds, with "one face towards the Holocaust, the other toward the
Nakba
Clickable map of Mandatory Palestine with the depopulated locations during the 1947–1949 Palestine war.
The Nakba ( ar, النكبة, translit=an-Nakbah, lit=the "disaster", "catastrophe", or "cataclysm"), also known as the Palestinian Ca ...
," in that it faces not only the persecutions suffered in the Holocaust but also the subsequent oppression it has inflicted on Palestinians. Achcar concludes that genuine dialogue can only arise if both realities are confronted.
Tariq Ali
Tariq Ali (; born 21 October 1943) is a Pakistani-British political activist, writer, journalist, historian, filmmaker, and public intellectual. He is a member of the editorial committee of the ''New Left Review'' and ''Sin Permiso'', and con ...
'The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives by Gilbert Achcar,'
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
26 June 2010.
According to
Tony Greenstein
Tony Greenstein is a British left-wing activist and writer. An anti-fascist and former squatter, he was a founder member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and stood for parliament as a representative of the Alliance for Green Socialism. In 2 ...
, writing in ''
Holy Land Studies
The ''Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies'' (formerly ''Holy Land Studies'') is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal published by Edinburgh University Press. The editor-in-chief is Nur-eldeen Masalha, who co-founded the journal wit ...
'', the book is "based on a considerable body of research" and strongest point is its treatment of the understanding of the Holocaust in Arab society. Greenstein argues that Achcar sometimes engages in
special pleading
Special pleading is an informal fallacy wherein one cites something as an exception to a general or universal principle, without justifying the special exception. It is the application of a double standard.
In the classic distinction among mate ...
in favor of Zionism. In ''
Race & Class
''Race & Class'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal on contemporary racism and imperialism. It is published quarterly by Sage Publications on behalf of the Institute of Race Relations and is interdisciplinary, publishing material across the h ...
'',
Ralph M. Coury describes the book as magisterial in its "ability to integrate a story of Arab intellectual and political diversity with the story of how this diversity has often been reduced to a monolithic caricature", but he suggests that the author may overstate the role of narratives. Anaheed Al-Hardan, in ''
British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
The ''British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Routledge on behalf of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies. It was established in 1974 as the ''British Society for Middle Eastern Studie ...
'', described the book as "a powerful and nuanced indictment of what is an essentialising and demonising discourse on the Arabs and the Holocaust".
''The Arabs and the Holocaust'' was reviewed unfavorably by
Jeffrey Herf
Jeffrey C. Herf (born April 24, 1947) is an American historian of Modern European, in particular, modern German history. He is Distinguished University Professor of modern European at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Biography
He was born ...
, who wrote in ''
The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...
'' that the book undermines its virtues with "superficial, unfair, and unreliable readings of those with whom he disagrees" and that such attacks do not contribute to scholarship.
Matthias Küntzel of the
Canadian Institute for the Study of Antisemitism The Canadian Institute for the Study of Antisemitism (CISA) is one of seven institutes in the world dedicated to the scholarly study of antisemitism. Founded in 2010 by Canadian historian Catherine Chatterley, the Institute is a national organizat ...
, described the book as one "in which an author from the political left seeks to protect the dogmas of Western anti-Zionism from the reality of Arab antisemitism." Writing for ''
Mondoweiss
''Mondoweiss'' is a news website that began as a general-interest blog written by Philip Weiss on ''The New York Observer'' website. It subsequently developed into a broader collaborative venture after fellow journalist Adam Horowitz joined it ...
'',
Miriyam Aouragh reviewed it positively, calling it "a reasoned intervention that at once disputes anti-Arab racism and develops a strong set of arguments against the notion 'Arab anti-Semitism'."
[Miriyam Aourag]
'Gilbert Achcar’s book on Arabs and the Holocaust,'
Mondoweiss
''Mondoweiss'' is a news website that began as a general-interest blog written by Philip Weiss on ''The New York Observer'' website. It subsequently developed into a broader collaborative venture after fellow journalist Adam Horowitz joined it ...
26 August 2010
Bibliography
* Author: ''La nouvelle Guerre froide : le monde après le Kosovo'', 1999. English translation included as two chapters in Tariq Ali (ed.): "Masters of the Universe". NATO’s Balkan Crusade, 2000".
* Editor: ''The Legacy of
Ernest Mandel
Ernest Ezra Mandel (; also known by various pseudonyms such as Ernest Germain, Pierre Gousset, Henri Vallin, Walter (5 April 1923 – 20 July 1995), was a Belgian Marxian economist, Trotskyist activist and theorist, and Holocaust survivor. He fo ...
'', 1999.
* Author: ''Eastern Cauldron: Islam, Afghanistan, Palestine and Iraq in a Marxist Mirror, 2004'' (''L'Orient incandescent : le Moyen-Orient au miroir marxiste'', 2003.
* Author ''The Clash of Barbarisms: The Making of the New World Disorder'' (''Le choc des barbaries : terrorismes et désordre mondial'', 2002 and 2006.
* Editor: The Israeli Dilemma: A Debate between Two Left-Wing Jews. Letters between Marcel Liebman and Ralph Miliband (Le dilemme israélien. Un débat entre Juifs de gauche), 2006.
* Author with
Michel Warschawski: The 33-Day War: Israel’s War on Hezbollah in Lebanon and its Consequences, 2007.
* Author with
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...
''Perilous Power. The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy,'' (2007/2008) rev.ed. Routledge, 2015.
* Author: ''The Arabs and the Holocaust'', 2010.
* Author
''The People Want: A Radical Exploration of the Arab Uprising,''(trans.) University of California Press, 2012.
* Author
''Marxism, Orientalism, Cosmopolitanism'' Haymarket Books, 2013.
* Author
''Morbid Symptoms: Relapse in the Arab Uprising,''Stanford University Press, 2016.
References
External links
Profile at School of Oriental and African Studies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Achcar, Gilbert
Lebanese emigrants to France
Living people
1951 births
Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis alumni
Academics of SOAS University of London