The Israel-Palestine conflict suppressed scholarly study of orientalism and the Jews

Evidence

There can be little doubt that one reason is political. Edward Said was a leading spokesperson for the Palestinian cause, while most Jewish Studies specialists identify with Israel. Said was very likely right when he complained that many of his critics “have seen in the critique of Orientalism an opportunity for them to defend Zionism, support Israel and launch attacks on Palestinian nationalism.” On the other side, there is a converse lack of enthusiasm for talking about the Jews among students of orientalism. This, too, is partly politically motivated. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 75

Categorization

• SEED: Article angle: how a live political conflict shapes which academic questions get asked — the epistemology of silence in scholarship.
• XREF: Builds on the general theme of how political stakes channel academic attention, echoing patterns of what gets studied in Middle East studies. — connects to: Jewish-Israeli academia has almost entirely avoided the settler-colonial framing of Zionism — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 455