Ari Shavit

Ari Shavit
Born (1957-11-26) November 26, 1957
Rehovot, Israel
Nationality Israeli
Alma mater Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Occupation Writer, Journalist
Known for - Columnist at Haaretz
- Author of the award-winning 2013 book My Promised Land

Ari Shavit (Hebrew: ארי שביט‬; born November 26, 1957) is an Israeli reporter and writer. Shavit was a Senior Correspondent at the left-of-center Israeli newspaper Haaretz before he resigned when a pattern of sexual misconduct came to public attention.

A self-described left-wing journalist[1] and anti-occupation peacenik,[2] Shavit is the author of the critically acclaimed 2013 New York Times Best Seller My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel.

Biography

Shavit was born in Rehovot, Israel, and studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. His father was a scientist and his mother was an artist. Some of his ancestors were early leading Zionists.[3]

Shavit was drafted into the IDF in 1975. He volunteered as a paratrooper in the Paratroopers Brigade. He served as a squad leader[4] and took part in various raids against armed Palestinian organizations and camps in Lebanon, including Operation Litani.

Career

Known for his left-wing journalism,[1] Shavit has been a columnist for Haaretz since 1995.[5] His work has also appeared in The New Yorker,[6] The New York Times,[7] and Politico.[8]

Shavit describes himself as an “antioccupation peacenik".[2] He is particularly critical of right-wing Israeli politicians, such as Avigdor Lieberman, who he argues is only loyal to Russia and to Putin.[9] Shavit is also critical of Miri Regev, describing her as 'anti-culture', and of Ayelet Shaked, describing her as 'anti-democracy'.[10]

He has for many years been a critic of Benjamin Netanyahu. Although admitting that Netanyahu is highly intelligent, Shavit argues that Netanyahu "scorns [US] Democrat politicians and liberal intellectuals... as weaklings." Shavit also castigates Netanyahu for not being "a civil leader who truly cares for the welfare of his citizens. He [Netanyahu] is unconcerned by social justice."[11]

In 2013, Shavit released My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel. It was a New York Times Best Seller[12] and received widespread acclaim. The New York Times listed My Promised Land in its "100 Notable Books of 2013",[13] The Economist named it as one of the best books of 2013,[14] it received the Gerrard and Ella Berman Memorial Award in History from the Jewish Book Council,[15] and it won the Natan Book Award.[16] In September 2014, Shavit traveled to Cleveland, Ohio to accept the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award[17] in nonfiction for "My Promised Land," and delivered a talk at the Cleveland City Club[18] about the necessity of American leadership in the Middle East. The book many positive reviews, as well as criticism, including from Norman Finkelstein.[19][20]

Resignation

In 2016, charges of sexual misconduct involving groping of women in the workplace surfaced, forcing Shavit to apologize and resign form his positions at Haaretz and Channel 10.[21]

Shavit was temporarily suspended from the Haaretz newspaper after he was accused of sexual harassment by American-Jewish journalist Danielle Berrin ('Hollywood Jew'), who wrote a cover story on the subject in the Los Angeles Jewish Journal.[22] Shavit, initially claimed the incident was merely flirting, saying "I apologize from the bottom of my heart for this misunderstanding. I did not mean to say anything unwelcome to Berrin".[23] In response, Shelly Yachimovich wrote: “I don’t know if Berrin accepted his apology, but I didn’t... It’s not like he accidentally stepped on somebody’s toe.”[24] In response to the allegations, Shavit announced that he was taking time off from his journalism.[25]

A member of the staff of the Jewish organization J Street then stepped forward to say that while she was arranging speaking engagements for Shavit he had caressed her hand and propositioned her with the suggestion that they go out for drinks.[26][27] Shavit then resigned.[26][28]

Bibliography

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Books

  • Shavit, Ari (2013). My promised land : the triumph and tragedy of Israel. Random House.

Essays and reporting

  • Shavit, Ari (October 21, 2013). "Lydda, 1948 : a city, a massacre, and the Middle East today". Dept. of History. The New Yorker. 89 (33): 40–46.

Critical studies and reviews of Shavit's work

  • Garner, Dwight (November 19, 2013). "Son of Israel, Caught in the Middle". The New York Times. In the end, he plaintively says: "I wonder how long we can maintain our miraculous survival story. One more generation? Two? Three? Eventually the hand holding the sword must loosen its grip. Eventually the sword itself will rust. No nation can face the world surrounding it for over a hundred years with a jutting spear."
  • Wieseltier, Leon (November 21, 2013). "The State of Israel". The New York Times. It is one of the achievements of Ari Shavit's important and powerful book to recover the feeling of Israel's facticity and to revel in it, to restore the grandeur of the simple fact in full view of the complicated facts.
  • Tim, Holmes (May 29, 2014). "Ari Shavit's Resuscitation of Liberal Zionism is Doomed". New Left Project. ...one of Shavit’s principal tasks is to defend ethnic cleansing. So observes Israel-Palestine scholar and serial debunker of fraudulent history Norman Finkelstein in Old Wine, Broken Bottle: Ari Shavit’s Promised Land, a slim volume that takes Shavit’s book apart. Inevitably failing to stake out any serious ethical justification for the Palestinian Nakba [...], Shavit instead relies on rhetorical puffery, resurrecting some of the crudest tropes of colonial-era racism.

References

  1. 1 2 Politics and Prophecy By Elliott Abrams, Spring 2014, Jewish Review Of Books
  2. 1 2 Promise – and potential – in Israel by David Whitford, Peter Elkind, DECEMBER 12, 2013, Fortune
  3. ↑ Shavit, Ari (2013-11-19). My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel. Random House Publishing Group. p. xii. ISBN 9780812984644. Retrieved 8 December 2013.
  4. ↑ Ari Shavit, My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel. Random House Publishing Group. 19 November 2013, pp xi.
  5. ↑ Shavit, My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel, p. xiii.
  6. ↑ http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/10/21/131021fa_fact_shavit
  7. ↑ "The Old Peace Is Dead, but a New Peace Is Possible". The New York Times. March 12, 2013. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  8. ↑ "Is Israel Losing Its Soul?". Politico. March 20, 2015. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  9. ↑ Lieberman Can Feel at Home at the Kremlin Ari Shavit Dec 30, 2010, Haaretz
  10. ↑ Israel's Center-left Must Seize the Day After the Awful 20153 Ari Shavit Jan 01, 2016, Haaretz
  11. ↑ Netanyahu’s Churchill Complex By ARI SHAVIT March 08, 2015, Politico
  12. ↑ "Best Sellers". The New York Times. December 8, 2013. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  13. ↑ "100 Notable Books of 2013". The New York Times. November 27, 2013. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  14. ↑ "Torrents of words". The Economist. December 7, 2013. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  15. ↑ "2013 National Jewish Book Awards Announced". Jewish Book Council. January 15, 2014. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  16. ↑ http://www.haaretz.com/culture/books/.premium-1.527546
  17. ↑ http://www.anisfield-wolf.org
  18. ↑ https://www.cityclub.org/events/my-promised-land-the-triumph-and-tragedy-of-israel
  19. ↑ Old Wine, Broken Bottle: Ari Shavit's Promised Land.
  20. ↑ Unforgivable: Ari Shavit’s My Promised Land and Its Acclaim in the United States, Jerome Slater
  21. ↑ Beaumont, Peter (31 October 2016). "Ari Shavit quits media roles after sexual harassment accusations". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
  22. ↑ ארי שביט הוא החשוד בהטרדה מינית של עיתונאית אמריקנית
  23. ↑ Journalist Ari Shavit admits he’s accused of assault, apologizes for ‘misunderstanding’ BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF October 27, 2016
  24. ↑ Ari Shavit ‘Sorry’ for Trump-Style Sex Assault. Many Israelis Aren’t Buying It. Naomi Zeveloff, October 28, 2016Jerusalem SHARON BAREKET
  25. ↑ "Ari Shavit: I'm Taking Time Off From My Journalistic Work". Haaretz. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  26. 1 2 Mitnick, Joshua (30 October 2016). "After an L.A. reporter accused him of sexual assault, a top Israeli newspaper columnist steps down". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
  27. ↑ J Street Staffer Is Second Woman to Accuse Ari Shavit of Sexual Harassment The Forward, Naomi Zeveloff, Oct 30, 2016 1:55 PM
  28. ↑ http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.749892?v=464F858748642A2C1D65247D33029B9A
  • Official website
  • Ari Shavit: Apocalypse now, apocalypse forever
  • "'Promised Land' Wrestles With Israel's Brutal Contradictions". NPR. November 18, 2013.
  • "Tom Friedman tells Obama and Netanyahu: Read Ari Shavit's book". Haaretz. November 17, 2013.
  • Saving the Promised Land, Fathom: For a deeper understanding of Israel and the region, 2 June 2014
  • Ari Shavit: Triumph by treachery towards the Promised Land
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