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'''Gilbert Achcar''' ({{lang-ar|جلبير الأشقر}}; born 1951) is a [[Lebanon|Lebanese]] academic, writer, and [[socialist]]. He is a Professor of Development Studies and International Relations at the [[School of Oriental and African Studies]] of the [[University of London]].
'''Gilbert Achcar''' ({{lang-ar|جلبير الأشقر}}; 5 November 1951) is a [[Lebanon|Lebanese]] academic, writer, and [[socialist]]. He is a Professor of Development Studies and International Relations at the [[School of Oriental and African Studies]] of the [[University of London]]. His research interests cover the Near East and North Afrioca, the foreign policy of the United States, Globalisation, Islam, and [[Islamic fundamentalism]].


He lived in Lebanon until moving to [[France]] in 1983. He taught politics and international relations at the [[University of Paris VIII]] until 2003, when he took up a position at the [[Marc Bloch]] Centre in [[Berlin]]. He is a frequent contributor to ''[[Le Monde Diplomatique]]'', ''[[ZNet]]'', and ''[[International Viewpoint]]''.
He is a frequent contributor to ''[[Le Monde Diplomatique]]'', ''[[ZNet]]'', and ''[[International Viewpoint]]''.


Gilbert Achcar is a Fellow at the [[International Institute for Research and Education]].
Gilbert Achcar is also a Fellow at the [[International Institute for Research and Education]].


==Positions==
==Career==
Achcar was born and raised in Lebanon where he obtained degrees in philosophy and the social sciences at the [[Lebanese University]]. He took up residence in France in 1983, and completed his doctorate in social history and international relations at the [[University of Paris VIII]], where, in 1991, he began teaching political science, sociology and international relations. In 2003 he took up a research position at the [[Marc Bloch]] Centre in [[Berlin]], which he maintained until he assumed a professorship at [[SOAS, University of London|SOAS]].


==Positions==
In March 2011, he wrote an article for [[ZNet]] that provoked a debate within the international left on the position towards the [[coalition intervention in Libya]] for humanitarian reasons.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.zcommunications.org/libya-a-legitimate-and-necessary-debate-from-an-anti-imperialist-perspective-by-gilbert-achcar|title=Libya: a legitimate and necessary debate from an anti-imperialist perspective|first1=Gilbert|last1=Achcar|date=24 March 2011|publisher=[[ZNet]]}}</ref> He gave his support in March 2013 to the campaign of film director [[Ken Loach]] and activist [[Kate Hudson (activist)|Kate Hudson]] for a new left-wing party in the UK.<ref>{{cite web|first1=Ken|last1=Loach|first2=Kate|last2=Hudson|first3=Gilbert|last3=Achcar|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/25/labour-party-left|title=The Labour party has failed us. We need a new party of the left|date=25 March 2013|publisher=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>
In March 2011, he wrote an article for [[ZNet]] that provoked a debate within the international left on the position towards the [[coalition intervention in Libya]] for humanitarian reasons.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.zcommunications.org/libya-a-legitimate-and-necessary-debate-from-an-anti-imperialist-perspective-by-gilbert-achcar|title=Libya: a legitimate and necessary debate from an anti-imperialist perspective|first1=Gilbert|last1=Achcar|date=24 March 2011|publisher=[[ZNet]]}}</ref> He gave his support in March 2013 to the campaign of film director [[Ken Loach]] and activist [[Kate Hudson (activist)|Kate Hudson]] for a new left-wing party in the UK.<ref>{{cite web|first1=Ken|last1=Loach|first2=Kate|last2=Hudson|first3=Gilbert|last3=Achcar|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/25/labour-party-left|title=The Labour party has failed us. We need a new party of the left|date=25 March 2013|publisher=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>


==The Arabs and the Holocaust ==
==Viewpoints==


His 2010 book, ''The Arabs and the Holocaust'' analyzes the collaboration between Arab leaders and the Nazis and the impact of those relationships on modern Arab-Israeli relationships, and, according to [[Tariq Ali]], dismantles in a scholarly way the simplistic myths that emerged in the wake of the establishment of the State of Israel.<ref name="Ali" /> In the book, Achcar argues that it is ironical that Israel has preferred to deal with a "notorious Jew-hater" like [[Anwar Sadat]] who regarded Jews as a "treacherous people", and preferred [[Mahmoud Abbas]] to [[Yasser Arafat]], though aware of the former's remarks on the Holocaust, and concludes<blockquote>'Is it an accident that Israel's rulers chose to sign treaties with Anwar Sadat rather than Nasser, and preferred Abbas over Arafat? Or is it a sign of elective affinities between Jew haters and Arab haters, whose vision of the world is the same, only stood on its head?'<ref>Gilbert Achcar, [https://books.google.com/books?id=3q5dFD61V5oC&pg=PA285 ''The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives,''] Macmillan, 2010 p.285.</ref></blockquote>
Achcar's, ''The Arabs and the Holocaust'', publishes in 2010, analyzes the collaboration between Arab leaders and the Nazis and the impact of those relationships on modern Arab-Israeli relationships, and, according to [[Tariq Ali]], dismantles in a scholarly way the simplistic myths that emerged in the wake of the establishment of the State of Israel.<ref name="Ali" /> For Miriyam Aouragh, Achcar examines a large body of counter-truths in academic polemics, and challenges the idea of [[Antisemitism in the Arab world|Arab anti-Semitism]] and stereotypes about Islam. European anti-Semitism is an age-old fantasy, whereas Arab hatred is recent, and has developed for an oppressive state that defines itself as Jewish. [[Amin al-Husseini]] allied himself with Hitler from political calculations not on ideological grounds, much in the way Churchill said he would ally himself with the devil to defeat Hitler.<ref>Miriyam Aouragh,[http://mondoweiss.net/2010/08/gilbert-achcars-book-on-arabs-and-the-holocaust/ 'Gilbert Achcar’s book on Arabs and the Holocaust,'] [[Mondoweiss]] 26 August 2010</ref> In the book, Achcar argues that it is ironical that Israel has preferred to deal with a "notorious Jew-hater" like [[Anwar Sadat]] who regarded Jews as a "treacherous people", and preferred [[Mahmoud Abbas]] to [[Yasser Arafat]], though aware of the former's remarks on the Holocaust, and concludes<blockquote>'Is it an accident that Israel's rulers chose to sign treaties with Anwar Sadat rather than Nasser, and preferred Abbas over Arafat? Or is it a sign of elective affinities between Jew haters and Arab haters, whose vision of the world is the same, only stood on its head?'<ref>Gilbert Achcar, [https://books.google.com/books?id=3q5dFD61V5oC&pg=PA285 ''The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives,''] Macmillan, 2010 p.285.</ref></blockquote>
'Statist Zionism is a Janus,' Achcar adds, in facing the persecutions suffered in the Holocaust but also facing the [[nakba]] and the oppression it has inflicted on Palestinians, : dialogue can only arise if both realities are confronted.<ref name="Ali" >[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jun/26/arabs-holocaust-israeli-war-narratives'The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives by Gilbert Achcar,'] [[The Guardian]] 26 June 2010.</ref>
'Statist Zionism is a Janus,' Achcar adds, in facing the persecutions suffered in the Holocaust but also facing the [[nakba]] and the oppression it has inflicted on Palestinians, : dialogue can only arise if both realities are confronted.<ref name="Ali" >[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jun/26/arabs-holocaust-israeli-war-narratives'The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives by Gilbert Achcar,'] [[The Guardian]] 26 June 2010.</ref>


Revision as of 21:03, 13 September 2016

Gilbert Achcar
Achcar in ABF-huset in Stockholm, Sweden.
Born1951
Beirut, Lebanon
NationalityFrench and Lebanese
Scientific career
Fieldsacademic and writer

Gilbert Achcar (Template:Lang-ar; 5 November 1951) is a Lebanese academic, writer, and socialist. He is a Professor of Development Studies and International Relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London. His research interests cover the Near East and North Afrioca, the foreign policy of the United States, Globalisation, Islam, and Islamic fundamentalism.

He is a frequent contributor to Le Monde Diplomatique, ZNet, and International Viewpoint.

Gilbert Achcar is also a Fellow at the International Institute for Research and Education.

Career

Achcar was born and raised in Lebanon where he obtained degrees in philosophy and the social sciences at the Lebanese University. He took up residence in France in 1983, and completed his doctorate in social history and international relations at the University of Paris VIII, where, in 1991, he began teaching political science, sociology and international relations. In 2003 he took up a research position at the Marc Bloch Centre in Berlin, which he maintained until he assumed a professorship at SOAS.

Positions

In March 2011, he wrote an article for ZNet that provoked a debate within the international left on the position towards the coalition intervention in Libya for humanitarian reasons.[1] He gave his support in March 2013 to the campaign of film director Ken Loach and activist Kate Hudson for a new left-wing party in the UK.[2]

The Arabs and the Holocaust

Achcar's, The Arabs and the Holocaust, publishes in 2010, analyzes the collaboration between Arab leaders and the Nazis and the impact of those relationships on modern Arab-Israeli relationships, and, according to Tariq Ali, dismantles in a scholarly way the simplistic myths that emerged in the wake of the establishment of the State of Israel.[3] For Miriyam Aouragh, Achcar examines a large body of counter-truths in academic polemics, and challenges the idea of Arab anti-Semitism and stereotypes about Islam. European anti-Semitism is an age-old fantasy, whereas Arab hatred is recent, and has developed for an oppressive state that defines itself as Jewish. Amin al-Husseini allied himself with Hitler from political calculations not on ideological grounds, much in the way Churchill said he would ally himself with the devil to defeat Hitler.[4] In the book, Achcar argues that it is ironical that Israel has preferred to deal with a "notorious Jew-hater" like Anwar Sadat who regarded Jews as a "treacherous people", and preferred Mahmoud Abbas to Yasser Arafat, though aware of the former's remarks on the Holocaust, and concludes

'Is it an accident that Israel's rulers chose to sign treaties with Anwar Sadat rather than Nasser, and preferred Abbas over Arafat? Or is it a sign of elective affinities between Jew haters and Arab haters, whose vision of the world is the same, only stood on its head?'[5]

'Statist Zionism is a Janus,' Achcar adds, in facing the persecutions suffered in the Holocaust but also facing the nakba and the oppression it has inflicted on Palestinians, : dialogue can only arise if both realities are confronted.[3]

The Arabs and the Holocaust was reviewed unfavorably by Jeffrey Herf, who wrote that the book undermines its virtues with "superficial, unfair, and unreliable readings of those with whom he disagrees", and that such attacks do not contribute to scholarship.[6] A harsher critique was offered by Matthias Küntzel, who descibed the book as one "in which an author from the political left seeks to protect the dogmas of Western anti-Zionism from the reality of Arab antisemitism."[7]

Bibliography

  • Author: La nouvelle Guerre froide : le monde après le Kosovo, 1999. English translation included as two chapters in Tariq Ali (ed.): "Masters of the Universe". NATO’s Balkan Crusade, 2000".
  • Editor: The Legacy of Ernest Mandel, 1999.
  • Author: Eastern Cauldron: Islam, Afghanistan, Palestine and Iraq in a Marxist Mirror, 2004 (L'Orient incandescent : le Moyen-Orient au miroir marxiste, 2003.
  • Author The Clash of Barbarisms: The Making of the New World Disorder (Le choc des barbaries : terrorismes et désordre mondial, 2002 and 2006.
  • Editor: The Israeli Dilemma: A Debate between Two Left-Wing Jews. Letters between Marcel Liebman and Ralph Miliband (Le dilemme israélien. Un débat entre Juifs de gauche), 2006.
  • Author with Michel Warschawski: The 33-Day War: Israel’s War on Hezbollah in Lebanon and its Consequences, 2007.
  • Author with Noam Chomsky, Perilous Power. The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy, 2007 and 2008.
  • Author: The Arabs and the Holocaust, 2010.
  • Author: "The People Want: A Radical Exploration of the Arab Uprising", 2012

References

  1. ^ Achcar, Gilbert (24 March 2011). "Libya: a legitimate and necessary debate from an anti-imperialist perspective". ZNet.
  2. ^ Loach, Ken; Hudson, Kate; Achcar, Gilbert (25 March 2013). "The Labour party has failed us. We need a new party of the left". The Guardian.
  3. ^ a b Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives by Gilbert Achcar,' The Guardian 26 June 2010.
  4. ^ Miriyam Aouragh,'Gilbert Achcar’s book on Arabs and the Holocaust,' Mondoweiss 26 August 2010
  5. ^ Gilbert Achcar, The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives, Macmillan, 2010 p.285.
  6. ^ Herf, Jeffrey (2010-11-01). "Not in Moderation". New Republic. Retrieved 2016-09-11.
  7. ^ "Review of Gilbert Achcar's "The Arabs and the Holocaust"". CISA. Retrieved 2016-09-11.

Additional reading

Books
  • Achcar, Gilbert. The Clash of Barbarisms: The Making of the New World Disorder. ISBN 0863569196.
Articles and interviews
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