Talk:Refaat Alareer

{{Template:Did you know nominations/Refaat Alareer}}

1) During the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, Alareer made media appearances on the BBC, Democracy Now!, and ABC News.

Add:
Additionally, he served as a key contact for El País, offering updates about the situation in Gaza.{{cite news |title=Palestinian professor who reported on Gaza’s suffering dies before replying to final message |publisher=El País |url=https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-12-09/palestinian-professor-who-reported-on-gazas-suffering-dies-before-replying-to-final-message.html |date=19 December 2023 |access-date=3 January 2025}}

2) This included the work of Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai, which he called beautiful but dangerous.
The sentence seems one-sided in several respects. What is being referenced here is not Kingsley’s article but the preceding Editor's Note. This note focuses exclusively on how Alareer, in a 2019 seminar, described one poem by Amichai (and another by Tuvya Ruebner). According to the note, Alareer also referred to Amichai’s poem as "horrible" and "brainwash[ing]" because it "present[s] the Israelis 'as innocent.'"

At the same time:
Kingsley himself provides a very different account of Alareer’s teaching of Amichai, Dickens, and Shakespeare in a 2021 seminar. A very similar seminar session featuring the same Amichai and Shakespeare lessons is also described in 2015 by Max Blumenthal in The 51 Day War (pp. 210–211; this passage is also published online in Blumenthal’s [https://thegrayzone.com/2023/12/07/tribute-refaat-alareer-teacher-murdered-israel/ obituary for Alareer] [starting with "When Refaat returned..."]). Another similar Shakespeare lesson is discussed by [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0377919X.2024.2366654 Aljamal (2024)], p. 121, likely describing a seminar held before 2013 (as Aljamal, according to his [https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0199-7159 ORCID profile], was at a different university after that point). According to all three authors, Alareer used Amichai’s poems and representations of Jews in English literature specifically to raise his students’ awareness of parallel experiences of Jews and Palestinians.

When asked about the discrepancy between the 2019 and 2021 seminars, Alareer explained himself, also describing the "ultimate goal" of his teaching. This I find particularly worth mentioning: "[H]e denied that there was a 'substantial change' in his teaching and said that showing parallels between Palestinians and Jews was his 'ultimate goal.' But he said that Israel used literature as 'a tool of colonialism and oppression' and that this raised 'legitimate questions' about Mr. Amichai’s poem."{{cite news |last=Kingsley |first=Patrick |author-link=Patrick Kingsley (journalist) |title=In Gaza, a Contentious Palestinian Professor Calmly Teaches Israeli Poetry |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/world/middleeast/gaza-university-israel-poet.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231114205426/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/world/middleeast/gaza-university-israel-poet.html |date=16 November 2021 |access-date=3 January 2025 |archive-date=14 November 2023}}

I propose replacing the sentence with one of the following suggestions (or something similar), offering a longer and a shorter option:

Alareer became a professor at the Islamic University in Gaza, where he taught world literature and creative writing.
2a) Add:
This included engaging with Israeli poetry and depictions of Jews in English literature. Several authors reported that he used these opportunities to emphasize parallels between Palestinians and Jews.{{cite book |last=Blumenthal |first=Max |date=2015 |title=The 51 Day War. Ruin and Resistance in Gaza |location=New York |publisher=Nation Books |pages=210 f. |isbn=978-1-56858-511-6}}{{cite news |last=Kingsley |first=Patrick |author-link=Patrick Kingsley (journalist) |title=In Gaza, a Contentious Palestinian Professor Calmly Teaches Israeli Poetry |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/world/middleeast/gaza-university-israel-poet.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231114205426/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/world/middleeast/gaza-university-israel-poet.html |date=16 November 2021 |access-date=3 January 2025 |archive-date=14 November 2023}}{{cite journal |last=Aljamal |first=Yousef M. |date=2024 |title=Remembering Refaat Alareer: The Legacy of Gaza's Storyteller |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0377919X.2024.2366654 |journal=Journal of Palestine Studies |volume=53 |issue=2 |pages=121 |doi=10.1080/0377919X.2024.2366654 |access-date=2025-01-03}} However, an Editor's Note in the New York Times also referred to a video recording of a seminar in which Alareer described two Israeli poems as "dangerous" and "brainwashing" because they depicted Israelis as "innocent." Asked about this discrepancy, Alareer stated that showing parallels between Palestinians and Jews was the ultimate goal of his teaching but added that Israel used literature "as a tool of colonialism and oppression."

2b) Add:
This included engaging with Israeli poetry and depictions of Jews in English literature. He identified his ultimate teaching goal as highlighting parallel experiences of Palestinians and Jews.{{cite news |last=Kingsley |first=Patrick |author-link=Patrick Kingsley (journalist) |title=In Gaza, a Contentious Palestinian Professor Calmly Teaches Israeli Poetry |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/world/middleeast/gaza-university-israel-poet.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231114205426/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/world/middleeast/gaza-university-israel-poet.html |date=16 November 2021 |access-date=3 January 2025 |archive-date=14 November 2023}}See also {{cite book |last=Blumenthal |first=Max |date=2015 |title=The 51 Day War. Ruin and Resistance in Gaza |location=New York |publisher=Nation Books |pages=210 f. |isbn=978-1-56858-511-6}}See also {{cite journal |last=Aljamal |first=Yousef M. |date=2024 |title=Remembering Refaat Alareer: The Legacy of Gaza's Storyteller |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0377919X.2024.2366654 |journal=Journal of Palestine Studies |volume=53 |issue=2 |pages=121 |doi=10.1080/0377919X.2024.2366654 |access-date=2025-01-03}} At the same time, he sought to show that Israel also used literature "as a tool of colonialism and oppression."

DaWalda (talk) 22:53, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

: I have implemented (1) and the shorter option from (2). Does anyone happen to have a page-concordant version of Gaza Asks: When Shall This Pass? (also republished in If I Must Die). In the section on the 2014 war, Alareer himself also reports on his Shylock and Fagin lesson. This could be added as another "See" footnote before Blumenthal or after Aljamal. --DaWalda (talk) 11:36, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

Alareer supposedly once posted on Twitter that "most jews are evil", according to the Jerusalem Post article cited on this page. Is this accurate? I can't tell if the account cited actually belonged to Alareer.

https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-763193 JPHC2003 (talk) 23:38, 12 March 2025 (UTC)