Post-Zionism and Israeli Universities: the Academic-Political Nexus

The book constitutes the first and full systematic account of the post-Zionist movement in the Israeli academy. Starting with three small groups in the pre-independence period: Brit Shalom, the Canaanites and the Communists - a coherent anti-Zionist ideology was developed only to become virtually irrelevant after the creation of the State of Israel. After the Six Day War, Matzpen, a fringe group of former Communists and Canaanites revived the anti-Zionist ideology but failed to make an impact on the mainstream discourse. All this changed when a number of Matzpen activists obtained academic positions and, together with an emerging cadre of critical, neo-Marxist faculty, developed a body of work that depicted Zionism as a colonial movement bent on dispossessing the indigenous Palestinians. In this view, Israel was a capitalist and imperialist regime that exploited Jewish immigrants from Arab countries and women, in addition to practicing apartheid on the Palestinians. This movement has pushed forward the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.