Joel Beinin

Joel Beinin is a professor of Middle East History on extended leave from Stanford University, where he taught from 1983-2006. He currently serves as Director of Middle East Studies and Professor of History at the American University in Cairo.

Education

Beinin was raised as a Zionist in an American Jewish family. On graduating from high school, he spent six months working on a kibbutz, where he met his future wife. He studied Arabic at university, and received his A.B. from Princeton University in 1970. He spent the summer of 1969 studying Arabic at the American University in Cairo. Intending to immigrate to Israel permanently, he joined other members of Hashomer Hatzair in living and working at Kibbutz Lahav. There, on encountering attitudes that struck him as being contemptuous of Palestinians, ['I tended livestock on Kibbutz Lahav, which was established on the ruins of three Palestinian villages. The Palestinian inhabitants had been expelled and, because they are not Jewish, were unable to return. One day, we needed extra workers to help clean manure from the turkey cages. The head of the turkey branch said we should not ask for kibbutz members to do the work because, 'This isn't work for Jews. This is work for Arabushim'. "Arabushim" is an extremely derogatory racial term.' Joel Beinin, ' [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/04/INGFLNSJQJ1.DTL&hw=beinin&sn=003&sc=264| 'Silencing Critics Not Way to Middle East Peace.'] , in San Francisco Chronicle, February 4, 2007] he gradually became disenchanted with his early ideals. He returned to the United States in 1973, and took his M.A. from Harvard University in 1974, and, after working in auto plants in Detroit, obtained his A.M.L.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1978) and 1982, respectively. He has also studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Research and Career

Beinin's research and writing focuses on workers, peasants, and minorities in the modern Middle East. Though initially interested in the rise of an Arab Working class in Mandatory Palestine, under his thesis supervisor's advice, he changed the topic of his doctoral thesis to a history of the Egyptian labor movement since 1936. That Ph.D. thesis was combined with one covering an earlier period of Egyptian labor history by his friend and colleague Zachary Lockman and resulted in the publication of "Workers on the Nile: Nationalism, Communism, Islam and the Egyptian Working Class, 1882-1954" (1989). Among his later work is a study of the Jewish communities of modern Egypt which led to his major historical study, "The Dispersion Of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, And The Formation Of A Modern Diaspora" (1998), which examines the diversity of Egyptian Jewish identities in Egypt and in the diaspora. He has engaged in fieldwork to collect oral reports among many Egyptian Jewish communities dispersed throughout the world after the Suez War of 1956, among them the Karaites of San Francisco.

In 2002 he served as President of the Middle East Studies Association of North America. [ [http://www.stanford.edu/~beinin/ Joel Beinin's personal web page] . Last accessed January 31, 2007.] He served as Director of Graduate Studies in the History Department at Stanford University in 2002-04 and again in 2005-06, but then took a leave of absence from that institution in order to take up a position as Director of Middle East Studies at the American University in Cairo. At the time he said that Stanford was institutionally uninterested in the study and teaching of the modern Middle East.

Beinin has written four books and co-edited three others and published many scholarly articles.

He is also active as a commentator on issues regarding Israel, Palestine, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. He has been a contributing editor to Middle East Report [http://www.stanford.edu/~beinin/] and has published articles in, among others, The Nation and Le Monde diplomatique.

Beinin has sued conservative writer David Horowitz for copyright infringement.Fact|date=March 2008. The suit occurred after Horowitz used Beinin's image in an article accusing Beinin of being the "face of terror," due to his support of positions purportedly held by terrorist groups. The case was settled out-of-court in February 2008.

Bibliography, books (partial):

*Beinin, Joel; Lockman, Zachary: "Workers on the Nile: Nationalism, Communism, Islam, and the Egyptian Working Class, 1882-1954," Princeton Univ Pr, U.S.A., 1989, ISBN 0691008450
*Lockman Zachary and Beinin Joel (ed): "Intifada The Palestinian Uprising," South End Press, U.S.A., 1989 ISBN 0896083632
*Beinin, Joel: "Was the Red Flag Flying There?: Marxist Politics and the Arab-Israeli Conflict in Egypt and Israel, 1948-1965," Univ of California 1990 ISBN 0520070364
*Beinin, Joel: "Origins of the Gulf War." Westfield: Open Magazine, 1991
*Joel Beinin, Joe Stork (ed.): "Political Islam : Essays from Middle East Report (Merip Reader)," University of California Press, 1996, ISBN 0520204484
*Beinin, Joel: "Workers and Peasants in the Modern Middle East," (The Contemporary Middle East) Cambridge University Press, 2001, ISBN 0521621216
*Rejwan, Nissim/ Beinin, Joel (FRW): "The Last Jews in Baghdad: Remembering a Lost Homeland," University of Texas Press, 2004, ISBN 0292702930
*Beinin, Joel: [http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft2290045n/ "The Dispersion Of Egyptian Jewry Culture, Politics, And The Formation Of A Modern Diaspora"] Berkeley: University of California Press, c1998. Amer Univ in Cairo Pr, 2005, ISBN 9774248902
*Beinin, Joel and Rebecca L Stein: "The Struggle for Sovereignty: Palestine And Israel, 1993-2005," (Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures) Stanford Univ Pr, 2006, ISBN 0804753644

Bibliography, articles (partial):

“Anti-Semitism: The Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia,” "Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World" (forthcoming).

“Knowing the Other: Arabs, Islam, and the Western Cultural Tradition,” in "Contemporary Issues in Race and Ethnicity", Hazel Markus and Paula Moya, eds. (Norton Press, forthcoming).

“Egyptian Textile Workers: From Craft Artisans Facing European Competition to Proletarians Contending with the State,” in "Covering the World: A Global History of Textile Workers, 1650-2000", Lex Heerma van Voss, et al, eds. (Ashgate Press, forthcoming).
* [http://www.merip.org/mero/mero032507.html Egyptian Textile Workers Confront the New Economic Order] with Hossam el-Hamalawy, Middle East Report Online, Mar. 25, 2007
* [http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/02/04/INGFLNSJQJ1.DTL Silencing Critics Not Way to Middle East Peace] "San Francisco Chronicle", Feb. 4, 2007
* [http://www.merip.org/newspaper_opeds/oped020806.html Why Hamas Won and Why Negotiations Must Resume] "San Francisco Chronicle" (2/8/06)
* [http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/08/10/deflating_middle_east_extremism.php Deflating Middle East Extremism] Aug. 10, 2006

“The New McCarthyism: Policing Thought about the Middle East” in Academic Freedom after 9/11, Beshara Doumani, ed., (Zone Press, 2006);

“Forgetfulness for Memory: The Limits of the New Israeli History,” "Journal of Palestine Studies" 35 (no. 2, winter 2005):6-23.

“Political Islam and the New Global Economy: The Political Economy of an Egyptian Social Movement,” "The New Centennial Review" 5 (no. 1, spring 2005):111-39.
* [http://www.merip.org/mer/mer230/230_beinin.html No More Tears: Benny Morris and the Road Back from Liberal Zionism] "Middle East Report" Spring 2004
* [http://www.merip.org/mero/interventions/int0704beinin.html The Imperial Lament] July 2004, in Middle East Report Interventions
* [http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20040531&s=beinin The Good War] , The Nation May 31, 2004 .
* [http://rightweb.irc-online.org/analysis/2004/0403mestudies.php Thought Control for Middle East Studies] March 31, 2004 Right Web

“Imposed Normalization and Cultural Transgression: Cultural Politics in Egypt and Israel since the 1979 Peace Treaty,” in John Bunzl (ed.) "In God's Name? Islam, Judaism and the Political Role of Religions in the Middle East" (Florida Universities Press, 2004), pp. 137-55.

“The Karaites in Modern Egypt,” in Meira Polliack (ed.), "Karaite Judaism: A Guide to its History and Literary Sources" (Brill Press, 2003), pp. 417-30.

“The United States-Israeli Alliance,” in Tony Kushner and Alisa Solomon (eds.) "Wrestling with Zion: Progressive Jewish American Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict" (Grove Atlantic Press, 2003), pp. 41-50.

“Middle East Studies after September 11: Presidential Address to the Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association of North America,” "MESA Bulletin 37" (no. 1, Summer 2003):2-18 * [http://fp.arizona.edu/mesassoc/MESA02/2002presaddress.htm MESA 2002 Presidential Address and Awards Ceremony]
* [http://www.merip.org/mero/mero123103.html Sharon's Unilateral Steps] December 31, 2003 in MERIP
* [http://www.stanford.edu/%7Ebeinin/Israelization.html The Israelization of American Middle East Policy Discourse] "Social Text" 21 (no. 2, summer 2003):125-39.
* [http://www.why-war.com/files/85.1beinin.pdf Is Terrorism a Useful Term in Understanding the Middle East and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict?] "Radical History Review", Issue 85 (winter 2003): 12–23
* [http://www.merip.org/mero/mero040603.html Pro-Israel Hawks and the Second Gulf War] Middle East Report Online, April 6, 2003
* [http://mondediplo.com/2003/07/07beinin Watch and tell: Tel-Aviv's influence on American institutions] July 2003 "Le Monde diplomatique".
* [http://mondediplo.com/2003/07/06beinin US: the pro-Sharon thinktank: Tel-Aviv's influence on American institutions] "Le Monde diplomatique", July 2003.
* [http://www.merip.org/mero/mero011403.html The Israeli Election Campaign Avoids the Issues] January 14, 2003 in MERIP
* [http://hnn.us/articles/1001.html Who's Watching the Watchers?] 9-30-02 in History News Network
* [http://fp.arizona.edu/mesassoc/MESA02/2002presaddress.htm Outspoken Stanford prof supports 2-state-solution] , "j." March 15, 2002
* [http://www.merip.org/mero/mero072600.html Camp David II] July 26, 2000 in MERIP
* [http://www.merip.org/mero/mero041699.html Interpreting the Israel's 1999 Election Campaign] April 16, 1999 in MERIP

References

External links

* [http://www.stanford.edu/~beinin/ Joel Beinin's web page at Stanford University]
* [http://www.spme.net/cgi-bin/articles.cgi?ID=928 "War Leads To Suit: Beinin Sues Horowitz"] on Scholars for Peace in the Middle East
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5055469380164098508&hl=en Video: Joel Beinin - United States Foreign Policy and the Palestine-Israel Conflict] (August 17, 2007), interview.
* [http://www.stanfordreview.org/Archive/Volume_XXXV/Issue_2/Features/features3.shtml "Joel Beinin Doesn’t Deserve Tenure"] An online course student's view of Dr. Beinin