Philosopher Muhammad Ali Khalidi has responded to Seyla Benhabib's response (excerpted here) to the original "Philosophers for Palestine" letter (noted and discussed here). Professor Khalidi contests certain attributions that Professor Benhabib made about what the letter signatories believe, accusing her of an "intention to mislead" and also a "smear." I assume Professor Benhabib would argue that she was drawing implications from the positions defended in the letter (e.g., the letter called for a ceasefire, which would benefit Hamas, ergo the letter effectively supports Hamas), but I think Professor Khalidi is right to contest the accuracy of that.
I was struck by the following juxtaposition of claims in Professor Khalidi's rejoinder:
The first [misleading allegation] is Benhabib’s claim that the philosophers’ statement “elevates Hamas’s atrocities of October 7, 2023 to an act of legitimate resistance against an occupying force.” Nothing in the letter says or implies that the Hamas attacks were an act of legitimate resistance. Anyone familiar with morality and international law knows that legitimate resistance to occupation can only target military targets, not civilians. In fact, the philosophers’ statement explicitly says: “Civilian deaths, regardless of nationality, are tragic and unacceptable.” Given that careful phrasing, I can only conclude that Benhabib’s accusation must have been made with intention to mislead.
Later in his response, Professor Khalidi objects to Benhabib's claim that, "There is no sense of history in your statement nor any sense of the tragedies that befell these peoples, and the many missed moments when another future seemed possible.” Professor Khalidi replies:
A statement isn’t a historical treatise, but if we are to talk about history, we must avoid talking in terms of “tragedies that befell these peoples,” as though we’re dealing with a hurricane or earthquake, rather than a situation of apartheid and military occupation.
I quite agree about that misuse of the term "tragedy" for what are intentional acts of wrongdoing. But that same point applies to the Hamas "pillage and murder" raid, which the "Philosophers for Palestine" letter described as merely "tragic" (see the first quote), as opposed to what it was, i.e., a crime against humanity. No doubt it was that rather tepid criticism of Hamas that led Professor Benhabib to infer what she did.
(Relatedly, Robert Paul Wolff's comment on "apartheid" in South Africa and Israel is interesting.)
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