Anti-Israel Prof Part of Middle East Primer

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An anti-Israel professor will be teaching a class on the history of the Arab-Israel conflict in the continuing studies program at Rice University.

Rice history professor Ussama Makdisi is leading “A Brief History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict” as part of an eight-course primer on the Middle East, offered by the 2010 Susanne M. Glasscock School of Continuing Studies.

The catalogue description for Makdisi’s class, scheduled for Feb. 16, states that the instructor “will outline the history of the conflict between Israel and the Arab nations, particularly the modern state of Israel in territory regarded by many Arab nations as belonging to the Palestinians.”

Makdisi, himself, teaches that Israel is an “illegitimate” and “criminal” state. In lectures and programs at Rice and elsewhere, he has described Israeli Jews as “colonialists” and “racists,” who are guilty of perpetrating “ethnic cleansing” against the Palestinians and are responsible for the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Through a multipart lecture series in years past, Makdisi has brought to Rice a broad array of anti-Israel advocates; one presenter, Lara Deeb from University of California, Irvine, in 2008 spoke about the virtues of the terrorist organization, Hezbollah.

Makdisi is the nephew of the late Edward Said, who is credited with revolutionizing the anti-Israel movement on American college campuses. A tenured professor at Rice, Makdisi’s chairmanship was created by the Arab-American Educational Foundation.

Makdisi is teaching the only class on the Arab-Israeli conflict in the Glasscock School’s Middle East primer. The final course, on April 6, will feature a panel discussion with yet-to-be-announced class instructors.

Anti-Israel Prof Part of Middle East Primer

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