In this episode of the Occupied Thoughts podcast, FMEP president Lara Friedman speaks with Professor Rebecca Ruth Gould, author of the newly published book, Erasing Palestine: Free Speech & Palestinian Freedom. The discussion digs into Professor Gould’s own experience being attacked for an article she authored on Israel/Palestine, and more broadly into the ongoing campaign using the IHRA definition of antisemitism as a weapon to delegitimize and suppress criticism of Israel/Zionism, Palestinian voices, and Palestine rights activism in the UK and around the world.
Recorded on September 29, 2023
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Resources
Rebecca Ruth Gould’s books include Erasing Palestine: Free Speech and Palestinian Freedom (Verso, 2023), The Persian Prison Poem: Sovereignty and the Political Imagination (Edinburgh University Press, 2021), and Writers and Rebels: The Literature of Insurgency in the Caucasus (Yale University Press, 2016). She has written on the challenges of defining antisemitism and respecting free speech for Prospect Magazine, Jacobin, Political Quarterly, The New Arab, and Middle East Eye, among other venues. She is Distinguished Professor of Comparative Poetics and Global Politics, at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. For more on Professor Gould see her website and follow her on X – @rrgould
Articles by Rebecca Ruth Gould
- Why we all need a more precise, practical definition of antisemitism (Middle East Eye, 9/8/23)
- I Was Smeared as an Antisemite for Criticizing Israel’s Occupation of Palestine (Jacobin, 8/26/23)
- Speaking the truth about Israel in US congress (The New Arab, 8/9/23)
- The IHRA Definition of Antisemitism: Defining Antisemitism by Erasing Palestinians (The Political Quarterly, Volume 91, Issue 4, Oct 2020)
Interviews with Rebecca Ruth Gould on her book, Erasing Palestine
- When Zionists redefine ‘antisemitism’ into a political cudgel – The IHRA definition of antisemitism is designed to muzzle criticism of Israel. It should be rejected in favor of a more historically informed discussion on Zionism’s origins in European antisemitism. (Interview in The Real News Network with Marc Steiner, 9/26/23)
- More interviews on YouTube
Reports mentioned in the podcast
- Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom in UK Higher Education: The Adverse Impact of the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism (European Legal Support CENTER and the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, September 2023)
- Targeting Free Speech & Redefining Antisemitism: How Pro-Israel Actors Are Using US Laws to Attack Palestinian Activism & Solidarity (by Lara Friedman, published on July 1, 2023 in The University of the Pacific Law Review, Volume 54, Issue 4, Symposium: Israel, Palestine & The First Amendment)
FMEP resources on the IHRA definition & the controversy around it