The PLO's Defense of the Talmud

Abstract

In 1970, the PLO Research Center in Beirut published a book that challenged what it considered to be common Arab misconceptions and prejudices concerning the Talmud. In analyzing this book, this article poses three questions. The first concerns motivation: What led the PLO's think tank to engage a researcher with the task of learning and writing about the Talmud? Second is the question of sources: How did the PLO researcher find his information and what does the presence of these sources on the PLO Research Center library's bookshelf tell us about the world of PLO intellectuals in late 1960s Beirut? Finally, what can be learned from the conclusions the researcher drew about the relationship between the Talmud and Zionism and between Judaism and Jewish nationalism? The article concludes with a reflection on the continuing debate over the place of antisemitism in the PLO.