With engaged scholarship and an exciting contribution to the field of Israel/Palestine studies, queer scholar-activist Corinne Blackmer stages a pointed critique of scholars whose anti-Israel bias pervades their activism as well as their academic work. Blackmer demonstrates how the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement that seeks to delegitimize and isolate Israel has become a central part of social justice advocacy on campus, particularly within gender and sexuality studies programs. The chapters focus on the intellectual work of Sarah Schulman, Jasbir Puar, Angela Davis, Dean Spade, and Judith Butler, demonstrating how they misapply critical theory in their discussions of the State of Israel. Blackmer shows how these LGBTQ intellectuals mobilize queer theory and intersectionality to support the BDS movement at the expense of academic freedom and open discourse.
Queering Anti-Zionism: Academic Freedom, LGBTQ Intellectuals, and Israel/Palestine Campus Activism
Discussion Questions
In Queering Anti-Zionism, Corinne Blackmer addresses the ideologies and propaganda of academics at the intersections of critical studies, queer discourse, and Israel studies. In this creative and academically rich work, Dr. Blackmer offers multiple responses to the ways in which the BDS movement is misrepresenting itself by providing specific answers to each of a select few thinkers who have become prominent in post-modern thought.
This book offers the field of Jewish higher education and the area of Jewish queer identity the support to respond to what have become mounting attacks and suggests language, framings, and narrative cases to bridge the growing acrimony with dialogue and engagement that is grounded in the reality of the lived experiences of LGBTQ Israelis. Where so many seek to simplify and vilify, Queering Anti-Zionism mandates rich nuance and intellectual rigor on what is both a personal and human rights conversation.
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