How is the ongoing conflict in Israel and Palestine impacting the interior world of academia? For one, it’s driving a wedge between Holocaust scholars, according to a new article in the Journal of Genocide Research, and that rift has been deepening since Oct. 7, 2023.
Rather than merely being a “historical or methodological” disagreement, writes Shira Klein, the division “revolves around academics’ role in the world today, particularly the public stand they choose to take on Palestine/Israel and Zionism.”
Although two camps have emerged — those who support the Palestinians and those who support Israel — the scholars within each camp exist on “more of a spectrum,” Klein explains.
On the furthest edge of the pro-Israel camp are scholars who defend the Israeli state’s policies, who have also defended the war on Gaza. On the other end are the scholars who have lodged staunch criticisms of Israeli policies and its war on the Palestinian coastal enclave.
Because Holocaust scholars spend their time examining both genocide and war crimes, Klein adds, the public is often keen on hearing their opinions on Israel and Palestine. But beneath the surface, the academic divide stems, in part, from a longstanding disagreement about whether the Holocaust was a one-of-a-kind genocide or one among many.
Each camp contains a broad range of views, Klein points out. In the pro-Israel camp, some criticize Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, for instance, while others defend every facet of the Israeli state’s policies.
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What specific toll did the events of Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas fighters launched an attack in the southern part of present-day Israel that killed more than 1,000 people, take on this divide among Holocaust scholars?
First of all, according to Klein, the violence on that day, the deaths, and global reactions “launched Holocaust scholars into the public eye more than ever before.”
Many scholars lined up to condemn both the Hamas attacks and Israel’s almost-immediate military campaign, but the divisions mounted among the camps.
Pro-Palestinian Holocaust scholars undertook a campaign of op-eds, petitions, and social media advocacy — many even took to TikTok and Instagram — while also releasing public statements and organizing public education events like webinars.
These scholars “swiftly condemned Israel’s brutal response, above all its indiscriminate bombing of entire neighborhoods, accompanied by promises of politicians and army generals to wreak destruction,” Klein recounts.
Holocaust scholars in the pro-Israel camp, meanwhile, also jumped into action. In the initial months following the Oct. 7 attack, Klein explains, these “scholars justified Israel’s massive military offensive against Gazans, whether by saying so explicitly, or by choosing to focus solely on Hamas’s brutality and saying little to nothing about Israeli violence.”
This group focused its attention on Hamas’s actions, often leaving out details of how destructive Israel’s attacks on Gaza were, and many insisted that the primary context for considering the conflict was the history of the Holocaust.
Klein predicts that the issue, although it in some ways resembles rifts of the past, will become the “new dominant divide” among Holocaust scholars. “The present debate has real-life consequences, especially since [Oct. 7], as Holocaust scholars have a hand in shaping public opinion about what governments should do,” she concludes. “With genocide and war crimes on the table, the stakes have never been higher.”
