Suchergebnisse

This article is presented in the hope of engaging debate on Palestine's cultural heritage in view of recommending a revision of the Palestinian high-school curriculum for the pre-Islamic history of Palestine. After a brief clarification of intent and an introduction to the current status of research on Palestine's history, brief summaries of the proposed curriculum are offered in chronological order: 1) the Stone Age; 2) the Bronze Age; 3) regional histories from Iron I to Alexander and 4) the Hellenistic Period. The presentation closes with a conclusion, followed by 3 appendices on early legendary figures in Palestinian history; on Palestinian place names and on the importance of structuring Palestine's history regionally.

Since the time of the British mandate, Zionist and, later, Israeli politics of nation-building has strongly influenced 'biblical archaeology' and has significantly undermined the integrity of Israeli scholarship. Critiques from Yael Zerubavel and Keith Whitelam to Nadia Abu El-Haj and Raz Kletter have repeatedly pointed out the consistent nationalistic distortions that have infected the field. The efforts of critical scholars to write a history of Palestine independent of biblical perspectives have corrected such distortions since the 1980s and have raised considerable doubt concerning the legitimacy of the Judeo-ethnocentrism which dominates nationalist Israeli claims on the heritage of ancient Palestine and the Bible.

This article examines the attempts to deflect attention away from issues that I first raised over thirty years ago, and which have not sufficiently been addressed since. It argues for the necessity of distinguishing between the interpretation of the Bible, which is the task of those engaged in Biblical Studies, and the attempts to write a history of the region in the pre-biblical period, which is the domain of historians and particularly archaeologists. 'Minimalism' in Biblical Studies refers to a trend that, in the estimation of its opponents, plays down the historical character of the biblical narratives. Having illustrated some of the hostility towards Minimalism exhibited by some biblical scholars, academic institutions and organisations, and propagandists, through personal attacks, ridicule, dismissiveness, etc. this essay argues the case for it. The underlying issue, of course, relates to the question of the writing of the history of Palestine today, and the implications of such an enterprise.

Discusses using the land grant university model on an international level, in this case program development in Senegal.