New anthology responds to 7 October attacks
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An anthology which comprises intellectual responses to the Hamas attacks on 7 October has been co-edited by a Goldsmiths academic.
Dr David Hirsh, from the Department of Sociology, is co-editor of the three-volume Responses to 7 October series published by Routledge. The series was published in conjunction with the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism, of which Dr Hirsh is Academic Director and CEO.
The books showcase 36 contributions from leading academics and intellectuals, including writer Howard Jacobson and Anthony Julius, with the analysis broken down into three areas:
- Responses to 7 October: Antisemitic Discourse focuses on the ideology that motivated Hamas and the antisemitism that shaped many responses to it. It examines the provenance of this antisemitism, from English history to Palestinian Islamism
- Responses to 7 October: Law and Society begins with a legal and genocide studies critique of the claim that Israel is genocidal, alongside a reflection on the absence of an understanding of antisemitism in international legal discourse
- Responses to 7 October: Universities focuses on how scholarship can enable antisemitic thinking and its potential for reflection in student discourse on campus
Many people responded to 7 October without stopping to take in what had happened. People hastily slotted the day’s events into pre-existing and inadequate frameworks of understanding. They glorified, denied, trivialised and victim blamed. This book offers a second chance to pause, to look and to listen, to think, and to feel. This is the pre-requisite for understanding.
Dr David Hirsh, Senior Lecturer in Sociology
The anthology, which is co-edited by Professor Rosa Freedman from the University of Reading, is being launched at a free event in central London on 3 June.