Joel Beinin

{{Short description|American academic and historian (born 1948)}}

Joel Beinin (born 1948) is the Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History and Professor of Middle East history at Stanford University. From 2006 to 2008 he served as director of Middle East studies and professor of history at the American University in Cairo.

Education

Beinin was raised as a Zionist in a secular American Jewish family.{{Cite web |date=June 2, 2023 |title=Becoming a Jew Without Borders |url=https://www.sustainlv.org/focus-on/becoming-a-jew-without-borders/ |access-date=September 21, 2024 |website=Alliance for Sustainable Communities |language=en-US}} On graduating from high school, he spent six months working on a kibbutz, where he met his future wife. He studied Arabic at university, and received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University in 1970. He spent the summer of 1969 studying Arabic at the American University in Cairo. Intending to move to Israel permanently, he joined other members of Hashomer Hatzair in living and working at Kibbutz Lahav. There, on encountering attitudes that struck him as being contemptuous of Palestinians,'I tended livestock on Kibbutz Lahav, which was established on the ruins of three Palestinian villages. The Palestinian inhabitants had been expelled and, because they are not Jewish, were unable to return. One day, we needed extra workers to help clean manure from the turkey cages. The head of the turkey branch said we should not ask for kibbutz members to do the work because, 'This isn't work for Jews. This is work for Arabushim'. Arabushim is an extremely derogatory racial term.' Joel Beinin, '[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/04/INGFLNSJQJ1.DTL&hw=beinin&sn=003&sc=264 'Silencing Critics Not Way to Middle East Peace.'], in the San Francisco Chronicle, February 4, 2007 he gradually became disenchanted with his early ideals, and declared himself to no longer be a Zionist.{{Cite web |title=The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry |url=https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft2290045n&chunk.id=0&doc.view=print |access-date=September 21, 2024 |website=publishing.cdlib.org}} He returned to the United States in 1973, and took his M.A. from Harvard University in 1974, and, after working in auto plants in Detroit, obtained his A.M.L.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1978 and 1982, respectively.{{Cite web |title=Joel Beinin – Items |url=https://items.ssrc.org/author/joel-beinin/ |access-date=September 21, 2024 |language=en-US}} He has also studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.{{Cite web |title=Joel Beinin |url=https://web.stanford.edu/~beinin/ |access-date=September 21, 2024 |website=web.stanford.edu}}

Research and career

Beinin's research and writing focuses on workers, peasants, and minorities in the modern Middle East. Though initially interested in the rise of an Arab Working class in Mandatory Palestine, under his thesis supervisor's advice, he changed the topic of his doctoral thesis to a history of the Egyptian labor movement since 1936. The reason for this was that his thesis supervisor believed if he wrote about Israel or Palestine he would be less likely to get an academic job post-graduation.{{Cite book |last=Beinin |first=Joel |title=Contraversions: Critical Studies in Jewish Literature, Culture, and Society Book (ebook) |date=November 2023 |publisher=University of California Press |edition=1st |publication-date=2023 |pages=23–24}} Beinin's Ph.D. thesis ended up being combined with one covering an earlier period of Egyptian labor history by his friend and colleague Zachary Lockman and resulted in the publication of Workers on the Nile: Nationalism, Communism, Islam and the Egyptian Working Class, 1882–1954 (1989).{{Cite book |last=Beinin |first=Joel |title=Contraversions: Critical Studies in Jewish Literature, Culture, and Society Book (ebook) |date=November 2023 |publisher=University of California Press |edition=1st |pages=8}} Among his later work is a study of the Jewish communities of modern Egypt which led to his major historical study, The Dispersion Of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, And The Formation Of A Modern Diaspora (1998), which examines the diversity of Egyptian Jewish identities in Egypt and in the diaspora. He has engaged in fieldwork to collect oral reports among many Egyptian Jewish communities dispersed throughout the world after the Suez War of 1956, among them the Karaites of San Francisco.

Shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks, Beinin was placed on a list of individuals deemed to be "negligent in defending civilization" (together with 39 other faculty members at U.S. universities) by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a conservative non-profit group devoted to curbing liberal tendencies in academia. This was because of a statement he had made, declaring that Osama bin Laden should be tried by an international tribunal.{{Cite news |last=Eakin |first=Emily |date=December 30, 2001 |title=On the Lookout For Patriotic Incorrectness |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/24/arts/on-the-lookout-for-patriotic-incorrectness.html |access-date=September 21, 2024 |work=The New York Times}}

In 2002 he served as president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America.[http://www.stanford.edu/~beinin/ Joel Beinin's personal web page]. Last accessed January 31, 2007. He served as director of graduate studies in the history department at Stanford University in 2002–2004 and again in 2005–06, but then took a leave of absence from that institution in order to take up a position as director of Middle East studies at the American University in Cairo.{{Cite web |title=Joel Beinin {{!}} Department of History |url=https://history.stanford.edu/people/joel-beinin |access-date=September 21, 2024 |website=history.stanford.edu |language=en}} {{Better source needed|reason=His Employer|date=September 2024}}

Beinin has written four books and co-edited three others and published many scholarly articles.

He is also active as a commentator on issues regarding Israel, Palestine, and the Arab–Israeli conflict. He has been a contributing editor to Middle East Report{{Cite web|url=http://www.stanford.edu/~beinin/|title = Joel Beinin}} and has published articles in, among others, The Nation and {{Lang|fr|Le Monde diplomatique}}. He is a member of Academia for Equality, an organization working to promote democratization, equality and access to higher education for all communities living in Israel.

In 2006 Beinin sued conservative writer David Horowitz for copyright infringement after Horowitz used Beinin's image on the cover of a booklet entitled "Campus Support for Terrorism."{{cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/08/04/MNGILKB6U71.DTL&type=politics |title=STANFORD IDEOLOGICAL WAR LEADS TO SUIT / Middle East professor sues conservative who linked criticism of Bush to terrorism |first=Carrie |last=Sturrock |date=August 4, 2006 |work=The San Francisco Chronicle}} In 2008, the case ended in an out of court settlement in which Horowitz donated $27,500 to charity but admitted no liability.{{cite news |first=Larry |last=Cohler-Esses |title=A Picture Is Worth... |date=February 22, 2008 |work=The New York Jewish Week |pages=3}}

As mentioned in a Stanford Daily article, Beinin described the harm caused by the 2023 October 7 attacks by Hamas as both the loss of lives and the exclusion of the group from future international peace discussions. He stated, “They undertook this action in which they committed serious atrocities, violations of international law and war crimes,” adding that the events of October 7 have de facto barred Hamas from participating in any international efforts to resolve the Palestinian question.{{Cite web |date=January 25, 2024 |title=Stanford scholars analyze South Africa's case against Israel |url=https://stanforddaily.com/2024/01/25/stanford-scholars-analyze-south-africas-case-against-israel/ |access-date=October 11, 2024 |language=en-US}}

Personal life

Beinin's niece, Liat Beinin Atzili, was taken hostage by Hamas in the October 7 Kibbutz Nir Oz attack, and her husband was killed in the same attack. She was released in the 2023 Gaza war ceasefire.{{Cite web |last=Elhelw |first=Amal |date=November 23, 2023 |title=Portlanders echo calls for a ceasefire in Gaza |url=https://www.kptv.com/2023/11/23/portlanders-echo-calls-ceasefire-gaza/ |access-date=June 18, 2025 |website=KPTV |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Passover: Holiday of Freedom and Resisting MAGA Authoritarianism |url=https://www.joelbeinin.com/israel-palestine-update/passover-holiday-of-freedom-and-resisting-maga-authoritarianism |access-date=June 18, 2025 |website=jb |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Gilsinan |first=Kathy |date=November 20, 2023 |title=An Israeli-American Family Takes Hostage Negotiations Into Their Own Hands |url=https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/11/20/israel-hostages-family-gaza-00127842 |access-date=June 18, 2025 |website=POLITICO |language=en}}{{Cite web |author=ToI Staff |title=RELEASED: Dual US citizen Liat Beinin Atzili; husband Aviv murdered on Oct. 7 |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/taken-captive-aviv-and-liat-beinin-atzili-a-yad-vashem-guide/ |access-date=June 18, 2025 |website=www.timesofisrael.com |language=en-US}}

Bibliography, books (partial)

Beinin, Joel; Lockman, Zachary: Workers on the Nile: Nationalism, Communism, Islam, and the Egyptian Working Class, 1882–1954, Princeton Univ Pr, U.S.A., 1989, {{ISBN|0-691-00845-0}}
Lockman Zachary and Beinin Joel (ed): Intifada The Palestinian Uprising, South End Press, U.S.A., 1989 {{ISBN|0-89608-363-2}}
Beinin, Joel: Was the Red Flag Flying There?: Marxist Politics and the Arab-Israeli Conflict in Egypt and Israel, 1948–1965, Univ of California 1990 {{ISBN|0-520-07036-4}}
Beinin, Joel: Origins of the Gulf War. Westfield: Open Magazine, 1991
Joel Beinin, Joe Stork (ed.): Political Islam : Essays from Middle East Report (Merip Reader), University of California Press, 1996, {{ISBN|0-520-20448-4}}
Beinin, Joel: Workers and Peasants in the Modern Middle East, (The Contemporary Middle East) Cambridge University Press, 2001, {{ISBN|0-521-62121-6}}
Rejwan, Nissim/ Beinin, Joel (FRW): The Last Jews in Baghdad: Remembering a Lost Homeland, University of Texas Press, 2004, {{ISBN|0-292-70293-0}}
Beinin, Joel: [http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft2290045n/ The Dispersion Of Egyptian Jewry Culture, Politics, And The Formation Of A Modern Diaspora] Berkeley: University of California Press, c1998. Amer Univ in Cairo Pr, 2005, {{ISBN|977-424-890-2}}
Beinin, Joel and Rebecca L Stein: The Struggle for Sovereignty: Palestine And Israel, 1993–2005, (Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures) Stanford Univ Pr, 2006, {{ISBN|0-8047-5364-4}}

References

External links

[http://www.stanford.edu/~beinin/ Joel Beinin's web page at Stanford University]
[http://www.spme.net/cgi-bin/articles.cgi?ID=928 "War Leads To Suit: Beinin Sues Horowitz"] on Scholars for Peace in the Middle East
[http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5055469380164098508&hl=en Video: Joel Beinin - United States Foreign Policy and the Palestine-Israel Conflict] (August 17, 2007), interview.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20110111080127/http://informationradio.info/post/72768782/soapbox-derby-february-2-2006-dr-joel-beinin 2006 radio interview with Dr. Joel Beinin]
[http://www.democracynow.org/2001/11/26/a_professor_is_criticized_for_saying A Professor Is Criticized for Saying the U.S. Should Bring Bin Laden Before An International Tribunal Instead of Bombing Afghanistan: A Debate On the Role of the University in Wartime] A radio interview on Democracy Now! November 26, 2001

Category:Princeton University alumni

Category:Harvard University alumni

Category:University of Michigan School of Information alumni

Category:Historians of the Middle East

Category:Writers on the Middle East

Category:Scholars of antisemitism

Category:Jewish American historians

Category:American male non-fiction writers

Category:Islam and politics

Category:Middle Eastern studies in the United States

Category:Stanford University Department of History faculty

Category:Academic staff of The American University in Cairo