tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12677825.post5080479197226113599..comments2024-03-14T02:22:26.957+00:00Comments on Point of No Return: Jewish Refugees from Arab and Muslim Countries: Shohat downplays antisemitism causing Iraqi-Jewish exodusUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12677825.post-43505068373222139162021-01-21T22:30:16.954+00:002021-01-21T22:30:16.954+00:00Charles, Ella Shohat thinks she knows what happene...Charles, Ella Shohat thinks she knows what happened to Jews in Iraq because her parents were Iraqi Jews and she speaks Arabic. But she never lived in Iraq and she is not a political scientist, but a culture studies scholar.bataweenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15829104245735619972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12677825.post-31126723302465894622021-01-21T22:26:54.166+00:002021-01-21T22:26:54.166+00:00Who is responsible for this 'animosity' Jo...Who is responsible for this 'animosity' Joyce? I don't accept that it was a product of 'colliding movements'. Did it just happen out of the ether? The 'animosity was sanctioned by the state - there was a slew of discriminatory laws, extortion and criminalisation against a backdrop of violence and the threat of violence. How was communism responsible when communists were themselves persecuted in Iraq. How is 'monarchism' responsible? How do you explain that the republic of Iraq put the remnant Jews through the worst period of persecution from 1967 - 71. Even the most Arabised of Jews were forced to leave. The 'Arab Jew' antonym does not explain anything. It is irrelevant.bataweenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15829104245735619972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12677825.post-19435316965503768832021-01-20T20:39:45.707+00:002021-01-20T20:39:45.707+00:00I have not read Shohat's writings but if what ...I have not read Shohat's writings but if what I read here is true, then Shohat is obviously out of touch with what happened to us as Jews in Iraq. The hatred and discrimination that Jews faced was incredible. More than 100,000 Jews did not leave all their belongings and life behind for their pleasure. <br /><br />If Shohat is truly interested in the truth then she should speak to some of the Iraqis who had to leave to safeguard their survival. I am sure she has a lot to learn about the reality suffering of Jews in Arab countries.Charles Timmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09973518908684749779noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12677825.post-10143924105852943302021-01-20T14:37:26.240+00:002021-01-20T14:37:26.240+00:00"bataween" oversimplifies and distorts E..."bataween" oversimplifies and distorts Ella Shohat's arguments. Shohat explicitly acknowledges that Jews in Iraq were "terrified by the indiscriminate animosity propagated agains them" -- call it 'anti-Semitism' if you will -- even while she firmly places their diasporization within "historically new colliding movements" (Arab Nationalism, Zionism, colonialism, monarchism, and communism). She is also careful to note that "none of the terms" -- exodus, expulsion, immigration, emigration, exile, refugees, etc.--for the Jews who left Iraq and other Arab countries "are adequate," exploring the complexity of the situations that led them to leave. Shohat's nuanced arguments invite us to step outside stultifying nationalist boundaries, allowing us to celebrate "porous identities and multiple belongings," including, of course, that of the Arab Jew or Jewish Arab, most certainly not an "antonym" as bataween would have it. Joyce Zonanahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04057179865850704416noreply@blogger.com