- Professor of theoretical linguistics and Media and Cultural Studies at Tel Aviv University and at the University of Utrecht
- Known for her extreme revisionist view of Israeli history
- Places responsibility for the Arab-Israeli conflict fully on Israel’s shoulders
- “No matter how successful the present ethnic cleansing [by Israel] is, as long as the occupation continues, the Palestinian resistance will continue as well, and as everyone knows, nothing can stop desperate people from turning to terror.”
- Her thesis supervisor was Noam Chomsky.
Overview
Tanya Reinhart, a professor at Tel Aviv University, is well known for her extreme revisionist view of Israeli history. Though her field is linguistics, she has become a prominent lecturer, writer, and activist on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. As an Israeli, Dr. Reinhart describes her natural perspective as that of the oppressor. To distance herself from the prevailing views of her "privileged" society, she claims to be somewhat neutral. In fact, her observations are far from neutral. Many of Israel’s detractors cite her to make their extreme accusations against Israel. Various pro-Palestinian websites refer to her work. At least one site carrying her quotes unabashedly supports for the Terrorist groups Hezbollah and HAMAS.
Dr. Reinhart presents typical pro-Palestinian views, placing responsibility for the conflict fully on Israel’s shoulders, but she has a unique twist in her argument that echoes Ilan Pappe. She presents what is tantamount to a conspiracy theory, claiming that the country is dominated by “fanatical generals” who are “the driving force behind Israel’s politics.” She contends that these generals never relinquished their long-term goal of “ethnic cleansing,” provoked the Intifada, and are exaggerating the threat it poses to justify a new “mass evacuation of the Palestinian residents, as happened in 1948." She charges that because most Israelis want peace, the military has also used propagandist “masterly deception” as a tool “to convince the ‘spoiled’ Israeli society that, in fact, the Palestinians are not willing to live in peace, and are still threatening Israel’s very existence.” Some of her other positions include the following:
- While Reinhart condemns the Israeli government for overstating the Palestinian threat to the country, she justifies the Palestinian-led violence as the last resort of a suffering people.
- “No matter how successful the present ethnic cleansing is, as long as the occupation continues, the Palestinian resistance will continue as well, and as everyone knows, nothing can stop desperate people from turning to terror.”
- Ehud Barak’s position at Camp David was a “’generous offer’ fraud,” a “non-offer.”
- “Israeli land was obtained through ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinian inhabitants.”
- “But no matter what you think of the Oslo years, what Israel is doing now exceeds the crimes of South Africa’s white regime. It has started to take the form of systematic ethnic cleansing, which South Africa never attempted.” (May 17, 2002)
- Dr. Reinhart supported and signed a European petition calling for a moratorium on European support for Israeli academia. She also supports divestment campaigns and other boycotts against Israeli academics.
BiographyTanya Reinhart is a professor of theoretical linguistics and Media and Cultural studies at Tel Aviv University and at the University of Utrecht. Reinhart was awarded a BA and MA from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She did her masters in comparative literature and philosophy. She went on to receive a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Department of Foreign Literatures and Linguistics. Her thesis supervisor was Noam Chomsky. Following in Dr. Chomsky’s footsteps, Reinhart employs the language of the post-colonial narrative discourse when commenting on the Palestinian struggle. Her portrayal of the conflict rests on the paradigm of Israel as the oppressor and the Palestinians as the oppressed. By classifying Israel as a nation that abuses its position of power to crush a weak and defenseless people, Reinhart consciously discredits the Israeli position. Using language and concepts popularized in universities by men like her supervisor Edward Said, she makes a compelling, emotional case for the Palestinians. Reinhart publishes articles frequently in her own scholarly field and on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Her first book on the conflict, Israel/Palestine: How to End the War of 1948 (2002), was highly praised by Edward Said, who wrote that “Tanya Reinhart's Israel/Palestine is the most devastating critique now available of Israel's policy toward the Palestinian people.”
Accusations and Defamations
1. “At that time [Sept 11 2001], military circles, Barak, and later Sharon -- figures who were against the Oslo agreements from the start -- were working on a grand scale to undo all the arrangements of Oslo, destroy the Palestinian society, and shrink it into smaller and smaller enclaves.”
2. “A serious danger that should not be ignored is that these fanatical [Israeli] generals really mean it when they speak about 'the second half of 1948.' Those pushing for the destruction of the Oslo infrastructure may believe that under the appropriate conditions of regional escalation, it would be possible to eventually execute the transfer plan -- mass evacuation of the Palestinian residents, as happened in 1948 (Sharon’s old vision of Jordan as the Palestinian state).”
3. Defending the academic boycott of Israel: “Regardless of what the facts are about this 'energetic scientific collaboration [with Palestinians],' this is the standard colonialist argument. The colonialists were always certain that they are bringing progress to the natives.”
4. “By now, much was written already about Barak's non-offer in Camp David. In fact, Barak's Camp David was the second round of his mastery of deception of public opinion. Several months before, he did the same with Syria, letting Israelis and the world believe that Israel is willing to withdraw from the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.”
Tanya Reinhart died on March 17, 2007 in New York at the age of 65.
This profile is adapted, with permission, from Stand4Facts.org.
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