The Palestinian Question Week 9: Ideology & Science - Consolidating Zionism Professor: Abeer Shaheen 1 Main Discussion Topics: How science has been deployed to consolidate the Zionist myth/narrative/claims? Biology/Race/Zionism Archaeology/Zionism The Debate 2 Biology & Social Science: What is the relationship between biology and social science? Biology: As a science that provided empirical foundations to the philosophy of human social relations. Race: Humans with common biological roots can constitute a race – i.e. one of the basic justifications for a national group. End Results: Biological rationalization of sociocultural discrimination: European Racism: The physical features of Jews and their sociocultural traits are functions of their biological distinctiveness. 3 Biology & Race: What is the relationship between biology and social science? Racial science in the 19th & 20th centuries was one of the chief weapons used against European Jews – exemplified by the scientific practices of Nazi Germany. Unleashed forces of antisemitism and European nationalism in the forms of “racial difference” and racial discrimination against the Jews. Race Theory’s main assumption: Jews are not white. Jews were often cast as the embodiment or incarnation of the negative, the dangerous, and the degenerate. 4 Biology & Race: What is the relationship between biology and Zionism? Zionist intellectual leaders embraced the language and science of race to preserve the “Jewish existence”: In Europe: As a way to assert their Jewish difference through developing a secular conception of Jewishness. In the US: As a way to assert their Jewish difference in the face of a large assimilation project into a Christian society. 5 Biology & Social Science: In Europe: Biology as a Nation-Making Project Zionism: A late event of the European biologically based national project. Embraced biology as a tool to prove the existence of a Jewish race – through their distinctive biological identity. Rejected projects of integration & assimilation. Adopted the concept of Volk (Nation) in terms of a nation-race as molded by the European notion of Blood and Soil. 6 Biology & Social Science: In Israel: Biology as a Nation-Building Project The State’s Political Apparatus: Motivated by the statement: “I too, like Hitler, believe in the power of blood” (Chaim Nachman Bialik, The Hebrew University,1934). The State’s Scientific Apparatus: Played a central role in the: Development of genomics and the applications of biological technological innovations, including DNA sequencing and analyses to prove the Jewish genes/DNA. Establishment of the first research project: The Genetics of Migrant and Isolate Populations. 7 Biology & Race: Biological/Molecular Genomic Research: A National Political Project In the first half of the 20th century, the project’s central theme was to emphasize the existence of Jews as a biological identity. In the second half of the 20th century, th ...

1. The Palestinian Question
Week 9: Ideology & Science - Consolidating Zionism
Professor: Abeer Shaheen
1
Main Discussion Topics:
How science has been deployed to consolidate the Zionist
myth/narrative/claims?
Biology/Race/Zionism
Archaeology/Zionism
The Debate
2
Biology & Social Science:
What is the relationship between biology and social science?
Biology: As a science that provided empirical foundations to the
philosophy of human social relations.
Race: Humans with common biological roots can constitute a
race – i.e. one of the basic justifications for a national group.
End Results: Biological rationalization of sociocultural
discrimination:
European Racism: The physical features of Jews and their
sociocultural traits are functions of their biological
distinctiveness.
3
Biology & Race:
What is the relationship between biology and social science?
Racial science in the 19th & 20th centuries was one of the chief

2. weapons used against European Jews – exemplified by the
scientific practices of Nazi Germany.
Unleashed forces of antisemitism and European nationalism in
the forms of “racial difference” and racial discrimination
against the Jews.
Race Theory’s main assumption: Jews are not white.
Jews were often cast as the embodiment or incarnation of the
negative, the dangerous, and the degenerate.
4
Biology & Race:
What is the relationship between biology and Zionism?
Zionist intellectual leaders embraced the language and science
of race to preserve the “Jewish existence”:
In Europe: As a way to assert their Jewish difference through
developing a secular conception of Jewishness.
In the US: As a way to assert their Jewish difference in the face
of a large assimilation project into a Christian society.
5
Biology & Social Science:
In Europe: Biology as a Nation-Making Project
Zionism: A late event of the European biologically based
national project.
Embraced biology as a tool to prove the existence of a Jewish
race – through their distinctive biological identity.
Rejected projects of integration & assimilation.
Adopted the concept of Volk (Nation) in terms of a nation-race
as molded by the European notion of Blood and Soil.
6

3. Biology & Social Science:
In Israel: Biology as a Nation-Building Project
The State’s Political Apparatus: Motivated by the statement: “I
too, like Hitler, believe in the power of blood” (Chaim Nachman
Bialik, The Hebrew University,1934).
The State’s Scientific Apparatus: Played a central role in the:
Development of genomics and the applications of biological
technological innovations, including DNA sequencing and
analyses to prove the Jewish genes/DNA.
Establishment of the first research project: The Genetics of
Migrant and Isolate Populations.
7
Biology & Race:
Biological/Molecular Genomic Research: A National Political
Project
In the first half of the 20th century, the project’s central theme
was to emphasize the existence of Jews as a biological identity.
In the second half of the 20th century, the project’s central
theme was to transform the image of the “Diaspora Jew” to that
of a “New Jew.”
A project of self-criticism, reform, & regeneration, a process
necessary for the reconstitution of the Jewish national identity.
An on-going nation building process under which the Israeli
Jewish population emerged as a sustained object of research for
state institutions – e.g. physicians and biologists.
8
Biology & Race:
The Power of Science:

4. Prominent researchers, prestigious research centers, and
medical schools at the UK, US & other European Universities
have embarked on a project to reconstruct the phylogenies* of
the contemporary Jewish population(s).
Examples of current genetic studies:
Jewish Genome: DNA of Y-chromosome (tracks the paternal
line) and mitochondrial DNA (maternal line) – (Jon Entine/UC
Davis).
Jewish HapMap Project: Jewish origin and migration /disease
susceptibility (Harry Ostrer/Albert Einstein College of
Medicine).
Jewish Genetic Map Project: Reconstruction of Jewish origin
and migration route.
9
Biology Dictionary defines phylogeny as: The evolutionary
development or history of a species or of a taxonomic group of
organisms. Or as the history of development of a tribe or racial
group.
9
Biology & Race:
These projects sought to answer vexing historical questions:
“Are the Jews a race? If yes, What are their qualities and
traits?”
“Findings” of such research projects:
Jews maintained an ancient distinct racial identity.
This identity could be observed through their genomes.
Biological basis for Jewishness.
10
Archaeology & Zionism:

5. Archaeology: A Technology of Nation-Making
Archaeological practices have assumed a dual mission:
Reproduce religious-mythical narratives as historical facts by
the power of scientific practices and discoveries.
Participate in the inscription of the land as Jewish
(Judaization/‫)ديوهت‬, thus facilitating the dispossession of
Palestinians, and enforcing “facts” on the ground.
11
Archaeology & Zionism:
Science of Digging: Archaeology became an academic
discipline and a “legitimate scientific pursuit.” (Israeli
Archaeology played a significant role in the advancement of
this branch of knowledge and its technology).
Science of Naming: A branch of the Israeli archeological
project was the historical collection of “correct” names of
Palestinian places (as opposed to the ideological practice of
naming utilized by Palestinians).
Developing place names took the form of “fact collection.”
In the early 20th century, a Jewish-British committee was
established.
IT was, the largest project of generating a list of Hebrew names
for settlements and villages in Palestine.
The committee insisted that these Hebrew names must be
“scientifically” and “historically” accurate, based on the work
of Jewish historians and archaeologists.
12
Archaeology & Zionism:
Validating Mythistory: Archaeologists Excavate the Masada
Site / ‫لبج‬ ‫ةدعسم‬

6. According to Josephus Flavius: The site witnessed a heroic act
of 960 Jewish men and women who committed suicide in 74
C.E. rather than submit to the invading Roman armies
A national Site: The Masada became a site visited by Zionist
youth groups end of the1920s – the number increased every year
with more stories circulated about the site.
A Site of Symbolic Importance: After 1948, it was declared as a
“historical locale” through which particular historical narratives
of Palestine as the “land of Israel” were made visible.
13
the Masada Site / ‫لبج‬ ‫ةدعسم‬:
14
Material is the property of the United Nations Educational,
Scientific & Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
14
Archaeology & Zionism:
Validating Mythistory: Archaeologists Excavate Jerusalem / The
“City of David:”
Historically: Reenacting the national mythology of the “golden
age” of Jerusalem.
Physically:
Recreating the landscape by “resurrecting the past.”
Erasing Palestinian realities and presence by depopulating the
land from Palestinians (the village of Silwan).
Owning history by systematically ignoring evidence of cultural
diversity and archaeological layers of non-Jewish history.
15

7. Excavating Jerusalem: The “City of David
16
16
New Place Names: New Facts
The work of “Judaizing” and “Hebraizing” place names is still
in full force.
This is not only about giving Hebrew names to new Jewish
locales.
But rather about erasing existing Arabic names and replacing
them with Hebrew ones with attendant processes of changing
their demographic structure.
17Arabic Name Jewish Name Jerusalem
Urshalīm//Yerushalayīm Silwan neighborhoods“Ma’alot Ir
David” and “Shir LaMa’alot,”Sheikh Jarrah“Nahalat Shimon”
and “Nahalat Yitzhak.”A street near Damascus Gate“Amir
Drori,”
Works consulted for this presentation:
Harry Ostrer, Legacy: A Genetic History of the Jewish People
(Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 2012).
Mitchel Hart (ed.), Jews & Race: Writing on Identity and
Difference 1880-1940. (Waltham: Brandis University Press,
2011).
Nadia Abu El-Haj, “The Genetic Reinscription of Race,” Annual
Review of Anthropology 36 (2007): 283-300.
Nadia Abu El-Haj, Facts on the Ground: Archeological Practice
and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society (Chicago:

8. University of Chicago Press, 2001).
Peige Desjarlais, “Excavating Zion: Archaeology and Nation-
making in Palestine/Israel” Totem 21 (2013).
Raphael Falk, Zionism and the Biology of Jews (Switzerland:
Springer International Publishing, 2017).
Raymond Williams, Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and
Society (New York: Oxford University Press,1976).
Rita Rubin, “‘Jews a Race’ Genetic Theory Comes Under Fierce
Attack by DNA Expert,” Forward (October, 2017). Available
at: http://forward.com/news/israel/175912/jews-a-race-genetic-
theory-comes-under-fierce-atta/
18
18
The Palestinian Question
I listed four videos as part of your assignment below, two
videos address the theme of Archaeology and Zionism, the other
two address the theme of biology and Zionism.
Your assignment is to do the following:
1- Watch two videos under either Archaeology or
Biology/Genetics.
2- Write a response paper of 500 words commenting on these
videos from your personal understanding of the topic. (Don’t
write about both themes, just choose one that interests you
more).
3- You can utilize the lecture notes for week (9), and any

9. relevant reading posted on the course backboard to help you
explain the background of these videos and their relationship to
the Zionist project in Israel.
4- No external readings are required.
5- Submission date: Thursday, 9 November, 2017 (by e-mail).
On Archaeology
YouTube Link
The Watchman: City of David.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAQURb4O__g
The United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural
Organization (UNESCO), Masada Entry.
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1040/video
On Genetics
YouTube Link
Interview withGenetics Scientist Karl Skorecki on genetics of
the Jews.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOeJr0z_01M
Jewish DNA: Genetic Research and the Origins of the Jewish
People.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRtc0XaA5k0
Don’t forget:
1- Number your pages.
2- Type your paper in the following format: Double space, font
12 –Times New Romans, 1 inch margin from all sides.