Sunday, April 27, 2008
Remember this guy? Teddy Katz? He was the Israeli grad student who claimed that there was a massacre of Arabs in the village of Tantura in 1948. His thesis was lauded by academic colleagues, but when veterans the 33rd battalion of the Alexandroni Brigade sued him for libel it emerged that he had lied about what they had told him on tape. Turns out the PA paid for his defense: PA paid legal defense fees of 1948 Tantura affair historian
Former Palestinian Authority minister Feisal Husseini paid $8,000 for the legal defense of historian Teddy Katz, the kibbutz member whose master's thesis, "The Departure of Arabs from Villages on the Southern Slopes of Mount Carmel," claimed that Arabs in the village of Tantura were massacred in 1948, sparking a bitter legal fight with veterans of the 33rd battalion of the Alexandroni Brigade. The PA's funding for Katz was reported yesterday by Yedioth Ahronoth.
Responding yesterday, Katz said he will not comment until he submits a revised version of his work to Haifa University. He indicated, however, that he does not believe there have to been anything wrong with taking money from Husseini...
...After a report on his research was published in Ma'ariv, members of the battalion sued Katz for libel.
During the trial Alexandroni veterans' lawyers pointed to discrepancies between the taped interviews Katz conducted and descriptions in his thesis. By June 2000, Katz knew he faced a protracted legal battle and so approached Feisal Husseini for help.
In December 2000, Katz published an apology and retracted allegations about the massacre. He has tried subsequently to revoke the deal with the Alexandroni veterans.
Remember who his thesis advisor was? Ilan Pappe, perhaps the most discredited of the "New Historians." CAMERA has a good page on him here.
None of that prevents Harvard University from inviting Pappe to an academic conference on MIddle East Studies where he will speak on "Perpetuating an Occupation: Israel's Fait Accompli Policies in Palestine, 1967-1970" on Monday, May 5. I kid you not. He fits the vogue of what passes for scholarship at today's academy. Take a look at the titles of the panels and talks and wonder why anyone would bother going in to Middle East Studies at a university today.
