All books featured in this new section are available from Middle East Books and More, the nation’s preeminent bookstore on the ­Middle East and U.S. foreign policy. www.MiddleEastBooks.com • (202) 939-6050 ext. 1

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, January/February 2024, pp. 64-65

Middle East Books Review

Erasing Palestine: Free Speech and Palestinian Freedom 

By Rebecca Ruth Gould, Verso, 2023, paperback, 176 pp. MEB $19.95

Reviewed by A. Bustos

Rebecca Ruth Gould’s Erasing Palestine: Free Speech and Palestinian Freedom is a bold and refreshing study of the debates surrounding Palestine and freedom of expression. Focusing on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) “working definition of anti-Semitism,” Gould examines how free speech around Palestine/Israel has been suppressed—and how such attacks have contributed to the erasure of Palestinians.

Erasing Palestine begins with Gould’s own experience of being accused of anti-Semitism while working at the University of Bristol over an article she had written years earlier. The offending work, written while Gould was living in occupied Palestine, was taken out of context and used to accuse her of racism. This episode, which Gould recounts in detail, is used as a jumping off point to examine how university administrations handle cases of free speech regarding Palestine and Israel. What is illuminating here, and in other such cases explored later in the book, is how corporate and public bureaucracies disproportionally target Palestinians and those who support them. This reality, of course, has worsened exponentially since the events of Oct. 7, 2023.

The strength of the book comes from Gould’s argument for moving away from broad definitions of anti-Semitism, such as the IHRA, in favor of a “materialist” approach to understanding and combatting racism. Drawing on the works of Jewish Marxist intellectuals such as Abram Leon, Leon Trotsky, Isaac Deutscher and Karl Marx himself, the author argues that an understanding of racism through “dialectical materialism” allows emphasis to be placed on the lived experiences of discrimination and marginalization, while de-emphasizing one’s alignment with a certain political position or entity. This, Gould argues, helps us avoid the counterproductive and harmful impact of tying anti-Semitism to holding a critical position toward Israel, which, in turn, contributes to the silencing of, and discrimination against, Palestinians.

The chapter focusing on forgotten Jewish Marxist Abram Leon, whose work was only revived following the 1967 war, is particularly relevant to the argument of the book. Gould demonstrates how Leon’s materialist critique of anti-Semitism provides important lessons for us today, as it helps us understand racism within its social and political environments, rather than through simplistic definitions. This, the author suggests, provides a much better way to interrogate and—ultimately—obliterate anti-Semitism.

Gould also details the fascinating history of Jewish anti-Zionism in Britain leading up to the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which was issued by the British wartime government promising to “support the establishment of a Jewish home in Palestine.” The author draws parallels between debates then and those over the IHRA today, arguing that Jewish interests are often cynically framed around political matters, turning the Jewish community into proxies for agendas (such as Zionism) that are unrelated to Jewish equality and human rights. 

Gould also points out that just as Christian fundamentalists are among Israel’s most loyal advocates today, in 1917 the Zionist movement drew some of its strongest support from people who were also themselves anti-Semites. (As just one modern example, Christian Zionist pastor John Hagee, known for his extensive history of anti-Semitism, was an invited speaker at a pro-Israel rally held in Washington, DC on Nov. 14, 2023.)

In the final chapter, the author argues in favor of a robust defense of free speech that takes power out of the hands of the state, thwarts true anti-Semitism and prevents Palestinian voices from being singled out. Gould maintains that a more effective way of tackling racism is to change the political and sociological conditions that allow racism to flourish.

Amid such a charged and toxic atmosphere, Gould’s Erasing Palestine is a welcome intervention with thought-provoking and important suggestions for a way forward. This slim book is packed with detail and makes for necessary reading. 

A. Bustos is assistant director at Palestine Deep Dive.