Judge Dennis Davis and Professor David Peimer
Revisiting the Zionism/Racism Debate in the Present Climate, Part 1
Summary
Approaching the topic of Zionism and its relation to racism is challenging as there are problematic fringe elements within Zionism, such as Meir Kahane, and so it is essential not to equate the entire concept of Zionism with such extremist views. The session’s goal is to address this sensitive topic and consider the complex facets of Zionism while highlighting that accusations linking Zionism to racism are deeply hurtful to Jews, given their historical experiences. Part 1 of 2.
Judge Dennis Davis
Dennis Davis is a judge of the High Court of South Africa and judge president of the Competition Appeals Court of South Africa. He has held professorial appointments at the University of Cape Town and University of the Witwatersrand, as well as numerous visiting appointments at Cambridge, Harvard, New York University, and others. He has authored eleven books, including Lawfare: Judging Politics in South Africa.
Professor David Peimer
David Peimer is a Professor of Literature, Film and Theatre in the UK. He has worked for the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, New York University (Global Division) and was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University. Born in South Africa, David has won numerous awards for playwriting and directing in New York, UK, Berlin, EU Parliament (Brussels), Athens, Budapest, Zululand and more. He has most recently directed Dame Janet Suzman in his own play, Joanna’s Story, at London Jewish Book Week. He has published widely with books including: Armed Response: Plays from South Africa, the digital book, Theatre in the Camps. He is on the board of the Pinter Centre (London), and has been involved with the Mandela Foundation, Vaclav Havel Foundation and directed a range of plays at Mr Havel’s Prague theatre.
Absolutely, it has always been the issue.
I think it is racist, I’m afraid to say, because when you basically relegate the language of 22% of your population to second class in the manner in which it was done, that in fact is seriously problematic.
George H.W. Bush put a lot of pressure on the United Nations because they were trying very hard to coax Israel to the Madrid Conference which ultimately led to the Oslo Accords. It was basically a combination of an impetus towards peace together with massive pressure from the United States at that particular time that did the trick.