David Shulman
Torturing the Mind. A Palestinian Addendum to Améry
Améry’s classic essay on torture needs no commentary; I have no intention of focusing on local variations. The Israel High Court of Justice outlawed torture in 1999; this was one of the few significant achievements of the Israeli left and Israeli human-rights organizations. The Court did, however, leave a loophole in cases defined as “ticking bombs”, when torture is still allowed. But there is another, more widespread and no less noxious form of torture that deserves to be defined and explored—the systematic and collective tormenting of Palestinian minds under Occupation. Here I will have some personal experiences to report.
David Shulman is Professor Emeritus of Indology and Comparative Religious Studies at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He received his PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. His many publications on Tamil and Sanskrit literature and mythology include The Wisdom of Poets. Studies in Tamil, Telugu, and Sanskrit (2001), Spring, Heat, Rains. A South Indian Diary (2008), More Than Real. A History of the Imagination in South India (2012), and Tamil. A Biography (2016); as co-author and co-editor: Self and Self-Transformation in the History of Religions (2002), Siva in the Forest of Pines. An Essay on Sorcery and Self-Knowledge (2004), God on the Hill. Telugu Songs by Annamayya (2005), and The Demon’s Daughter. A Love Story from South India (2006). Shulman is also a long-time dedicated peace activist, and has published two book-length accounts, entitled Dark Hope. Working for Peace in Israel and Palestine (2007), and Freedom and Despair. Notes from the South Hebron Hills (2018) of his years working, and often clashing, with police and settlers, to deliver food and medical supplies to Palestinian villages.