FROM THE JEWISH QUESTION TO THE PALESTINIAN QUESTION
by BRIAN KLUG
In the old Europe, Jews paid the ultimate price for ‘the Jewish Question’ with the Shoah. As the Shoah led to the Nakba, the cost was transferred to the Palestinians. Now, with the New Europe, the Palestinians pay the price again. They pay twice over: once for Jews being the stigmatised Other and a second time for Jews being the valorised Other. First they pay the price for the antisemitic exclusion of Jews in Europe. Then they pay for their anti-antisemitic inclusion. The cloak of despised Other has settled firmly on the shoulders of the Palestinian in Israel’s midst, like a hand-me-down. The ‘Jewish Question’ in Europe has turned into the ‘Palestinian Question’ in Israel. Such are the vicissitudes of European Jewish otherness.
Brian Klug (* born in London) is senior research fellow and tutor in philosophy at St. Benet’s Hall, Oxford and a member of the philosophy faculty at Oxford University. He is also an honorary fellow of the Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations, University of Southampton and fellow of the College, Saint Xavier University, Chicago.
Klug is a contributor to the book The Arab and Jewish Questions,edited by Bashir Bashir and Leila Farsakh and published by Columbia University Press in November 2020. This text was presented as part of the Oxford Book Talk on February 9, 2021.