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The Predicament of a Palestinian Scholar of Hebrew, 1912-1979

Date:
-
Location:
Online event
Speaker(s) / Presenter(s):
Caroline Kahlenberg

This essay traces the complicated life of Ribhi Kamal (1912-1979), a Palestinian Arab scholar of Hebrew, Arabic, and other Semitic languages. Kamal grew up in late-Ottoman and British-mandate Jerusalem, studied Hebrew at Zionist institutions, and promoted Jewish-Arab cooperation as a young scholar. During the 1948 War, Kamal was exiled to Damascus. There, he re-purposed his knowledge as the host of Radio Damascus’s new Hebrew-language broadcast. The broadcast was aimed at an Israeli Jewish audience. It condemned Zionism, implored listeners to return to their “true” home countries, and hosted Israeli Jewish “defectors” on air. Kamal’s career raises several important questions about the history of Israeli-Palestinian relations, including: What has been the role of language in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? How did Palestinians leverage their knowledge in the service of Arab states after 1948? And how was radio used as a tool of psychological warfare?