Cary Nelson
Jewish Journal, Aug. 8, 2023
“When you also add “slavery, patriarchy, colonialism, orientalism, homophobia, ableism, capitalism” to the mix, as Larson does, declaring all these as things your course will righteously oppose, you turn critical and political theory into hogwash.”
Jasbir Puar, the well-known Rutgers University Professor of Women’s Studies, has a right to her opinion. On that I have no disagreement. But that was no reason for Duke University Press to publish her book “The Right to Maim” in 2017 despite its series of malicious, unproven allegations against the State of Israel. According to Puar, Israelis prefer to maim and disable Palestinians rather than kill them. Israelis ship just enough food to Palestinian children to keep them alive but stunt their growth.
She claims that Israelis harvest major organs from Palestinian bodies and contribute them to the international trade in body parts.
No matter that no one has ever documented an Israeli policy of maiming Palestinians. The claim is obscene. No matter that UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Palestinian Authority (PA) itself keep statistics that prove childhood stunting is not a documented problem in either Gaza or the West Bank. No matter that Puar can cite no medical studies to support her slander. Duke declared it was all just a matter of opinion.
The stunting accusation is a pure Puar invention. With the organ harvesting fantasy Puar replaces research with rumor mongering. Yes, just like several U.S. states, an Israeli morgue assumed it had consent to harvest corneas and skin from both Jewish and Arab bodies, thereby providing skin grafts for burn victims. Major organs were trafficked only in antisemitic conspiracies, Puar’s among them.
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