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American historian and political commentator


Asaf Romirowsky is a Middle East historian and political commentator. He is the Executive Director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) and the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA).

Biography

Asaf Romirowsky holds a BA from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a doctorate from King's College London. He is the executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME).

Romirowsky is co-author of Religion, Politics, and the Origins of Palestine Refugee Relief and a contributor to The Case Against Academic Boycotts of Israel. Romirowsky's publicly-engaged scholarship has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The National Interest, The American Interest, The New Republic, The Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post, Ynet and Tablet among other online and print media outlets.

Romirowsky is a critic of Palestinian political violence.

In late 2007, his invitation to take part in an academic panel at the University of Delaware was rescinded by student organizers after another member of the panel, political science professor Muqtedar Khan, objected to sharing a podium with a former Israeli soldier.

UNRWA and Palestinian refugees

Religion, Politics, and the Origins of Palestine Refugee Relief, the 2013 book Romirowsky co-authored with Alexander H. Joffe, examines the origins of the UNRWA in the endorsement by the British authorities in Mandatory Palestine of efforts by the American Friends Service Committee to assist Arab refugees during and after the 1947–1949 Palestine war. Romirowsky and Joffe argue that the UNRWA's attitude towards Israel is rooted in the "foundational belief" of the American Friends Service Committee "in a supersessionist Christianity that could not reconcile the possibility of a rebirth of Jewish nationhood in the Land of Israel."

Romirowsky believes that UNRWA is an "anomaly within the world of refugee relief" and that it encourages the refugees it cares for towards terrorism and intransigence.

Romirowsky favors limiting the definition of who is a Palestinian refugee so that descendants of those who fled or were expelled by Israel during the 1948 war would not be counted as refugees. Marouf Hasian Jr. criticizes Romirowsky by arguing that he is minimizing the existential dangers facing the Palestinians by complaining about how UNRWA categorizes refugees. According to him, Romirowsky's message is that "happy and carefree generations of Palestinians don't mind being refugees, and the UNRWA revels in its role as dispenser of aid" which he thinks is false.

Notes

  1. ASMEA was formed in 2007 to counter the Middle East Studies Association of North America, which (supposedly) has become "dominated by academics who have been critical of Israel and of America's role in the Middle East." In 2021, it "combined foorces" with Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME), a similar organization, led by Romirowsky since inception.

References

  1. Redden, Elizabeth (19 August 2014). "Boycott Battles Ahead". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  2. Shapiro, Dmitriy (2021-11-19). "Facing anti-Israel and left-wing ideology, Mideast academics chew over challenges in field". Jewish News Syndicate. Retrieved 25 September 2023.
  3. "Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa". eepurl.com. Retrieved 2024-10-20.
  4. "Asaf Romirowsky". Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
  5. "Staff". Middle East Forum. Retrieved 2009-10-21.
  6. Parente, Audrey (18 August 2011). "Middle East analyst to talk at temple". The Daytona Beach News-Journal. ProQuest 884230752.
  7. Wise, Christopher (2017). "Deconstruction, Zionism and the BDS Movement". Arena Journal. ProQuest 1953316313.
  8. "Articles authored by Asaf Romirowsky - SPME Scholars for Peace in the Middle East". SPME. Retrieved 2018-07-12.
  9. Tabachnick, Toby (10 July 2014). "Third intifada? It's happening, says scholar, and Hamas' strategy (kidnappings) is set". Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle. ProQuest 1551728649.
  10. Vasoli, Bradley (2007-10-30). "Professor Kicked Off Panel For Military Record". The Bulletin - Philadelphia's Family Newspaper. Retrieved 2021-03-30.
  11. Jaschik, Scott (2007-10-31). "Israeli Booted". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 2009-10-21.
  12. "Israeli veteran disinvited from panel". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 2007-10-30. Archived from the original on 2012-05-23. Retrieved 2009-10-21.
  13. Militano, Alison (2007-11-09). "Controversy surrounds speakers at Middle East panel". The Review (University of Delaware's Independent Student Newspaper Since 1882). Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2009-10-21.
  14. "Failed Religious Diplomacy at the Birth of Israel". The National Interest. 31 March 2014. Retrieved 22 May 2015.
  15. Shwayder, Maya (20 May 2014). "Prosor publicly blasts UNRWA. Envoy to UN: NGO fuels 'fiction' of Palestinian 'right of return'". The Jerusalem Post. ProQuest 1535197662.
  16. Brackman, Nicole (23 May 2014). "When other interests get in the way (book review)". The Jerusalem Post. ProQuest 1541634067.
  17. Wisse 2011: Scholars Asaf Romirowsky and Nicole Brackman have rightly called UNRWA an “anomaly within the world of refugee relief” for the way it prolonged suffering and anger to become “a weapon to encourage toward terrorism and intransigence.”
  18. Guttman 2012.
  19. Hasian 2016, p. 194.

Sources

External links

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