I really can see why a State University may not wish to ba associated with a publisher that is comfortable keeping blood libel in print. Although Pluto is avowedly Socialits, it seems to hve some campitalist motivations here. Shahak sells good numbers.

I will start putting together something on the process of creating and getting published an edited volume in the near future — right now, I’m neck-deep in the last set of tasks before it goes to the printer, so that’s got most my attention.

If I were publishing a book today I’d really consider the publisher’s ability to distribute electronically, not through print books– that’s where authors have the greatest chance of getting their works read.

Oneman: what about writing a post having to do with your publishing experience? Perhaps a mini-publishing ethnography from an anthro point of view? I’m sure many here would be interested to hear it, compare notes, and learn.

Here’s a recent cultural geography/urban studies/anthro study of mixed cities and structural violence in Israel that might help clarify some things.

Mixed Towns, Trapped Communities
Historical Narratives, Spatial Dynamics, Gender Relations and Cultural Encounters in Palestinian-Israeli Towns
Daniel Monterescu and Dan Rabinowitz
Series: Re-materialising Cultural Geography

Modern urban spaces are, by definition, mixed socio-spatial configurations. In many ways, their enduring success and vitality lie in the richness of their ethnic texture and ongoing exchange of economic goods, cultural practices, political ideas and social movements. This mixture, however, is rarely harmonious and has often led to violent conflict over land and identity. Focusing on mixed towns in Israel/Palestine, this insightful volume theorizes the relationship between modernity and nationalism and the social dynamics which engender and characterize the growth of urban spaces and the emergence therein of inter-communal relations.

For more than a century, Arabs and Jews have been interacting in the workplaces, residential areas, commercial enterprises, cultural arenas and political theatres of mixed towns. Defying prevailing Manichean oppositions, these towns both exemplify and resist the forces of nationalist segregation. In this interdisciplinary volume, a new generation of Israeli and Palestinian scholars come together to explore ways in which these towns have been perceived as utopian or dystopian and whether they are best conceptualized as divided, dual or colonial. Identifying ethnically mixed towns as a historically specific analytic category, this volume calls for further research, comparison and debate.

Define anti-Semitic. Are you sure you are not confusing it/conflating it with anti-Zionist? I’m not trying to shut down dialogue, but rather, to question comments that paint with a wide and sloppy brush a number of books the writer probably has not read. Khaled Hroub’s book on Hamas is critical of Hamas. He used to be a member of that organization. Israel Shahak was an academic and worked long and hard for social justice. Justice, you shall only do justice and justice is a key tenet of Judaism (from Ecclesiastes). Zionism is a whole other ball game. Free speech is wonderful and I don’t expect or demand that people will agree with me. Free speech ought, however, to be based on informed and careful consideration of the subjects under discussion, and not stoop to such comments as “grow up.”

Intellectual terrorism is when one’s views, based on long-term ethnographic research, that a particular country is engaging in actions and policies that bear a strong resemblance to Apartheid, and regularly contravene international humanitarian law, are considered sinister and beyond the limits of academic discourse and debate. For an example of such an approach to free speech, surf on over to CampusWatch.org Do some research.

Nobody is saying that every book that critisizes Israel is anti-semitic. You are the only one alleging that argument is being made. However, many of Pluto’s books are ANTI-SEMITIC. Not anti-Israel or anti-zionist, but anti-semitic. You can defend them all you want but it doesn’t say much about you. Israel Shahak is an anti-semite (look him up), and books supporting Hamas (whose charter is anti-semitic) are Jew hating books.

As far as intellectual terrorism, you are the one saying that Israel supporters are not allowed to have an opinion. I guess you think free speech is okay, as long as people agree with you. You are the one trying to shut down dialogue by using loaded terms like that.

Grow up.

To frame Shahak as anti-Semitic is to both misread his works, and to misunderstand his stakes in trying to develop a truly democratic sphere of politics within Israel.