Sara M. Roy is an American
political economist
Political economy is the study of how economic systems (e.g. markets and national economies) and political systems (e.g. law, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied phenomena within the discipline are systems such as labour m ...
and
scholar
A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researc ...
. She is a Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
.
Roy's research and over 100 publications focus on the
economy of Gaza
The economy of Gaza City was dependent on small industries and agriculture. After years of decline, economic growth in Gaza is now on the rise, boosted by foreign aid.David Waine"Palestinians Lure Banks With First Sukuk Bills: Islamic Finance," ...
and more recently on
Hamas
Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam ...
.
Reviewing her 2007 ''Failing Peace: Gaza and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict'',
Bruce Lawrence writes that "Roy is the leading researcher and most widely respected academic authority on Gaza today," and she considers the
Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...
her second home.
She has also studied Palestinian politics and the broader
Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
Biography
Roy was born and raised in
West Hartford
West Hartford is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, west of downtown Hartford. The population was 64,083 at the 2020 census.
The town's popular downtown area is colloquially known as "West Hartford Center," or simply "The ...
, where she attended
Hall High School. She received her undergraduate degree from
Harvard College
Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...
. She currently resides in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
.
She is the daughter of Jewish parents who survived the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
. In a lecture she stated that "the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
has been the defining feature of my life" as part of the Second Annual Holocaust Remembrance Lecture, which she delivered at the
George W. Truett Theological Seminary
George W. Truett Theological Seminary is a Baptist theological seminary in Waco, Texas. The seminary, named after Southern Baptist preacher George Washington Truett, was founded in 1993 as part of Baylor University and is affiliated with the Ba ...
at
Baylor University
Baylor University is a private Baptist Christian research university in Waco, Texas. Baylor was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Texas and one of the ...
. Roy had been invited by Center for American and Jewish Studies founding director
Marc H. Ellis to connect her family's experience in the Holocaust to her academic work on the
Palestinian people
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
.
Roy explained that both her parents had survived the Holocaust, but that 100 members of her extended family, who had resided in the Jewish
shtetl
A shtetl or shtetel (; yi, שטעטל, translit=shtetl (singular); שטעטלעך, romanized: ''shtetlekh'' (plural)) is a Yiddish term for the small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jewish populations which existed in Eastern Europe before ...
s of
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
, had been killed. Her father, Abraham, was one of the seven known survivors of the
Chelmno extermination camp, while her mother, Taube, survived
Halbstadt (
Gross Rosen) and
Auschwitz. In an article in ''
CounterPunch
''CounterPunch'' is a left-wing online magazine. Content includes a free section published five days a week as well as a subscriber-only area called CounterPunch+, where original articles are published weekly. ''CounterPunch'' is based in the Unit ...
'', Roy wrote that while her mother was confined in the
Lodz ghetto she endeavoured to hide children destined for deportation to the Nazi extermination camps, but they were seized and despatched to
Auschwitz.
[Sara Roy]
'A Letter to Biden on Gaza'
Counterpunch
''CounterPunch'' is a left-wing online magazine. Content includes a free section published five days a week as well as a subscriber-only area called CounterPunch+, where original articles are published weekly. ''CounterPunch'' is based in the Unit ...
21 May 2021
Roy earned an
Ed.D.
The Doctor of Education (Ed.D. or D.Ed.; Latin ''Educationis Doctor'' or ''Doctor Educationis'') is (depending on region and university) a research or professional doctoral degree that focuses on the field of education. It prepares the holder for a ...
with a specialization in
International Development from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
's
Graduate School of Education in 1988.
Having visited Israel many times when she was growing up, she added, "
was perhaps inevitable that I would follow a path that would lead me to the Arab-Israeli issue", providing several examples of parallels between
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
treatment of Jews and Israeli soldiers' treatment of Palestinians which, in her opinion, "were absolutely equivalent in principle, intent, and impact: to humiliate and dehumanize."
[, reprinted in ]
She further developed these themes in the 2008
Edward Said
Edward Wadie Said (; , ; 1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American professor of literature at Columbia University, a public intellectual, and a founder of the academic field of postcolonial studies.Robert Young, ''Whit ...
Memorial Lecture at
Adelaide University
The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...
, in which she commented that ''"Israel's occupation of the Palestinians is not the moral equivalent of the Nazi
genocide
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Lat ...
of the Jews. It does not have to be. The fact that it is not in no way tempers the brutality of the repression, which has become frighteningly normal. Occupation is about the domination and dispossession of one people by another. It is about the destruction of their property and the destruction of their soul. At its core, occupation aims to deny Palestinians their humanity by denying them the right to determine their existence, to live normal lives in their own homes. And just as there is no
moral equivalence
Moral equivalence is a term used in political debate, usually to deny that a moral comparison can be made of two sides in a conflict, or in the actions or tactics of two sides.
The term had some currency in polemic debates about the Cold War, an ...
or symmetry between the Holocaust and the occupation, so there is no moral equivalence or symmetry between the occupier and the occupied, no matter how much we as Jews regard ourselves as victims."''
Career
Roy spent time doing dissertation fieldwork in
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
and in the
Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...
as a research assistant to the third
West Bank
The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
Data Base Project. She was part of a non-official survey led by
Meron Benvenisti
Meron Benvenisti ( he, מירון בנבנשתי, 21 April 193420 September 2020) was an Israeli political scientist who was deputy mayor of Jerusalem under Teddy Kollek from 1971 to 1978, during which he administered East Jerusalem and served as ...
, whose goal was to examine the impact of Israel's national unity coalition government on the West Bank and to a lesser extent the Gaza Strip. Roy prepared a background paper about the Gaza Strip for the Project in 1986, before submitting, in 1988, her doctoral thesis entitled ''Development under occupation: a study of United States government economic development assistance to the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, 1975-1985''.
Roy is also the author of ''The Gaza Strip Survey '' (1986) and ''The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De‐development '' (1995, 2001, 2016).
She is the editor of ''The Economics of Middle East Peace: A Reassessment'' (1999). Her 2011 study of Hamas, political Islam and the Islamic social sector in Gaza won a 2012 British-Kuwait Friendship Society Prize in Middle Eastern Studies.
Roy's work has appeared in the ''
Journal of Palestine Studies
The ''Journal of Palestine Studies (JPS)'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal established in 1971. It is published by Taylor and Francis on behalf of the Institute for Palestine Studies, having previously been published by the University ...
'', ''
Current History
''Current History'' is the oldest extant United States-based publication devoted exclusively to contemporary world affairs. The magazine was founded in 1914 by George Washington Ochs Oakes, brother of ''The New York Times'' publisher Adolph Ochs ...
'', ''
Middle East Journal
''The Middle East Journal'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the Middle East Institute ( Washington, D.C.). It was established in 1947 and covers research on the modern Middle East, including political, economic, and socia ...
'', ''
Middle East Policy
''Middle East Policy'' is an academic peer-reviewed journal on the Middle East region in the field of foreign policy founded in 1982, published quarterly by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Middle East Policy Council. Its current editor is Anne Jo ...
'', ''
International Journal of Middle East Studies
The ''International Journal of Middle East Studies'' is a scholarly journal published by the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), a learned society.
See also
* Middle East Research and Information Project
* Association for ...
'', ''
American Political Science Review
The ''American Political Science Review'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering all areas of political science. It is an official journal of the American Political Science Association and is published on their behalf by Cambri ...
'', ''
Critique
Critique is a method of disciplined, systematic study of a written or oral discourse. Although critique is commonly understood as fault finding and negative judgment,Rodolphe Gasché (2007''The honor of thinking: critique, theory, philosophy''p ...
'', ''
Chicago Journal of International Law
The ''Chicago Journal of International Law'' is a semiannual, student-edited law review published by the University of Chicago Law School since spring 2000. The journal publishes articles covering international law, international relations, and re ...
'', ''
Index on Censorship'', ''
La Vanguardia
' (; , Spanish for "The Vanguard") is a Spanish daily newspaper, founded in 1881. It is printed in Spanish and, since 3 May 2011, also in Catalan (Spanish copy is automatically translated into Catalan). It has its headquarters in Barcelona and i ...
'', ''
Le Monde Diplomatique'', the ''
London Review of Books'', and ''
The Lancet
''The Lancet'' is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal and one of the oldest of its kind. It is also the world's highest-impact academic journal. It was founded in England in 1823.
The journal publishes original research articles, ...
''.
[
In March 2012 she authored "Gaza: Treading on Shards" in '']The Nation
''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...
''.
Roy has served on the Advisory Boards of American Near East Refugee Aid and the Center for American and Jewish Studies at Baylor University
Baylor University is a private Baptist Christian research university in Waco, Texas. Baylor was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Texas and one of the ...
and on the Board of Directors of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program - U.S. branch.[
In addition to her academic work, Roy has served as a consultant to international organizations, the U.S. government, human rights organizations, private voluntary organizations, and private business groups working in the Middle East.][
Roy features in New Zealand filmmaker Sarah Cordery's 2016 documentary feature film '' notes to eternity'', in which she addresses her Jewish heritage and long-standing work on the Israel-Palestine conflict. '' notes to eternity'' screened at the Belfast Film Festival in 2017.
]
Claim of censorship
Roy drew public attention when a book review she had written of Mathew Levitt's book ''Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad'' was rejected by Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...
’s ''The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs
''The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs'' is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal of international relations established in 1975. It is managed by students at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University). It is also an online for ...
''. After the editor-in-chief accepted the piece, he wrote to inform Roy that the article had been reviewed for "objectivity," and that "all reviewers found the piece one-sided" and then rejected it, but apologized "for the way in which this process was carried out." ''Middle East Policy
''Middle East Policy'' is an academic peer-reviewed journal on the Middle East region in the field of foreign policy founded in 1982, published quarterly by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Middle East Policy Council. Its current editor is Anne Jo ...
'' later published the review with Roy's note on the affair which described the rejection as a "blatant . . . case of censorship
Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...
."
Publications
Books
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Articles
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roy, Sara
Living people
American Jews
Harvard University faculty
Year of birth missing (living people)
American women political scientists
American political scientists
Harvard Graduate School of Education alumni
Harvard College alumni
Hall High School (Connecticut) alumni
American women academics
21st-century American women