Israel Shahak (April 28, 1933 - July 2, 2001) was a Professor of Chemistry at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and an outspoken critic of the Israeli government and of Israeli society in general. He was born in Warsaw, Poland, survived the Belsen concentration camp, and emigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine in 1945, shortly before the establishment of the State of Israel. A critic of Zionism and a supporter of a Palestinian state, he wrote many books that are influential among some anti-Zionists and which argue that Israeli law and society contained entrenched attitudes of Jewish supremacy.
In the 1970s, he began publishing translations of the Hebrew press into English, arguing that the English-language editions of these newspapers were being intentionally distorted for Western audiences. In 1993 he authored Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years (ISBN 0745308198), in which he argued that traditional Orthodox Judaism was a chauvinistic religion, and that this chauvinism had been carried over into many aspects of contemporary Israeli society.
Other books of Shahak's include Open Secrets: Israel's Nuclear and Foreign Policies (1997; ISBN 0745311512), and Jewish Fundamentalism In Israel (1999; ISBN 0745312764). All of these books have been the subject of great controversy. He has been accused of lying about Jewish law and of fabricating the specific incident above, and his writings have been compared to blood libels. (See A Modern Blood Libel, linked below)
Rabbis from all the Jewish denominations (Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism) have stated that Shahak's claims about Jewish law are merely the opinions of a handful of fanatics.
His writings have become very popular among anti-Israel intellectuals like Edward Said, Noam Chomsky, and Christopher Hitchens, as well as among anti-Semites.
He died in Israel, of complications from his diabetes.
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