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Terry Newman: U of T prof warns Palestine Studies Centre may prioritize activism over scholarship

Levine argues the proposed centre may exclude Israeli perspectives, embrace one-sided anti-colonial narratives and sideline open discussion

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A political science professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) is voicing opposition to a proposed Centre for Palestine Studies (CPS) on his campus.

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In a letter responding to the proposal, Renan Levine, an associate professor of political science, argued that the planned department appears to be more focused on political activism and a one-sided view centred on Palestinian stories and anti-colonialism than on open, broad research and real discussion about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Terry Newman: U of T prof warns Palestine Studies Centre may prioritize activism over scholarship Back to video

In the Feb. 26 letter written in response to a proposal for the new department, Levine says he would normally be excited about the prospect of such a centre, but that this one is deeply flawed.

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Levine says that several of his colleagues already teach courses and have written books and articles about Israel and the Palestinians, yet “no one from UTSC’s department of political science was included in the list of 36 potential faculty affiliates.”

Levine also takes issue with what he describes as the “narrow parameters” for scholarship and scholars in the department. Referencing statements in the proposal, Levine writes:

“The proposal promises that CPS will continue a tradition of research into ‘Palestinians as a people who narrate their own reality,’ excluding scholarship that contradicts Palestinian narratives. The centre’s work promises to include examinations of ‘indigeneity in the context of settler sovereignty.’

“Scholarship treating Israelis as a people with a competing claim of indigeneity, or as a group that fails to conform to theories of settler-colonialism benefiting a distant metropole (even if there are similarities) will not find a home within CPS.”

Levine argues that because “the proposal expects CPS faculty to include those who study Palestine and Palestinians, or those who are ‘thematically’ linked ‘through an interest in colonialism,’ ” the centre will not represent a variety of viewpoints, and therefore will not exemplify what multidisciplinary academic ventures should be.

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Moreover, he notes that “78 per cent of the 36 scholars listed as future CPS affiliates, and half of the 14 people listed as proponents of this project … are publicly committed to the 2004 call made by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.”

In signing this boycott, these academics pledged that they would not write letters of recommendation for students who are interested in studying in Israel and will not participate in study abroad initiatives in Israel. And their boycott will continue “until Israel ends its occupation of Palestine, recognizes the equal rights of Palestinians citizens of Israel, upholds the right of return of Palestinian refugees and the liberation of the Palestinian people is achieved.”

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Levine argues that the new department could take UTSC in the opposite direction of Harvard and Columbia. Columbia is looking to make its Middle East scholarship more social science-based, by adding positions in economic analysis and policy, as well as joint positions that would be shared by members of the departments of political science and economics, as well as between Jewish and Israeli studies.

Similarly, Levine points out that while the proposal applauds Harvard’s Presidential Task Force on Combating Anti-Muslim, Anti-Arab and Anti-Palestinian Bias, it ignores Harvard’s recommendations, such as utilizing “multiple speakers representing a range of views,” along with engaging in constructive and meaningful dialogue and interfaith initiatives.

Levine worries that funding for future campus events on Israel and the Palestinians may fall under the purview of the CPS, and that it may discriminate against pro-Israel speakers, in violation of U of T’s statement on freedom of speech, which requires departments to “allow the fullest range of debate” and “not limit that debate by preordaining conclusions.”

Levine says that the proposed centre should “enable scholars in ‘Palestine Studies’ to speak to scholars who might publish in ‘Israel Studies,’ and vice versa, rather than engaging in profane insults of the other.”

Levine points to a screenshot from an X post, which has since been taken offline, from one of his colleagues, Esmat Elhalaby, an assistant professor of transnational history at UTSC and one of the listed affiliated faculty members, in which he writes: “99 percent of what is uttered about palestinians in america or israel s–t is standard anyway f–k em all.”

Yet insults may not be the worst thing that concerned academics at UTSC need to worry about, if other CPS scholars think along the same lines of Elhalaby.

On Oct. 27, 2023, Elhalaby wrote a blog post that revealed his views about the October 7 attacks, writing, “If partisans of Hamas and other Palestinians in Gaza ‘opened the gates of hell’ at dawn on October 7, they did so to leave the hell that Israel made for them and which the world tacitly approved.”

On Nov. 29, 2023, he posted an image on X that appears to have been made by a Dutch pro-Palestinian group. It features five armed Palestinian fighters in casual clothing, wearing keffiyeh scarves and holding rifles with bayonets, charging forward to attack a large, menacing green dinosaur with the word “Zionism” written on its tail and blood on the ground beneath it. The caption, written in Arabic and Dutch, reads: “The Palestinian people are capable of liberating their homeland. Support the Palestinian People’s Struggle!”

pic.twitter.com/bLLQj7PWx0— Esmat Elhalaby (@thaqafatalhind) November 30, 2023

pic.twitter.com/bLLQj7PWx0

Contacted by National Post, the University of Toronto’s media relations department said that because the “consultation is ongoing, (U of T) won’t comment on the merits of individual submissions or on specific individuals referenced in correspondence,” and insisted that the proposed centre would be required to “operate under university policies, including commitments to academic freedom and freedom of expression.”

Asked about Elhalaby’s posts, the university refused to comment on him specifically, saying only that, “Individual faculty members may hold and express a wide range of views as long as they comply with relevant laws and university policies.”

Will the proposed CPS be a place where open dialogue between scholars with different viewpoints about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will occur? Or will it be singularly focused on anti-Zionist narratives, as Levine fears. Time will tell whether Levine’s concerns are warranted.

National Posttnewman@postmedia.comTwitter.com/TLNewmanMTL

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