Zeev Sternhell - Controversies

Controversies

Sternhell was taken to court by Bertrand de Jouvenel, in 1983, after Sternhell published his work Ni Droite, ni gauche (Neither Right nor Left). Jouvenel sued Sternhell on nine counts, and Sternhell was subsequently convicted for defamation. In his book, Sternhell accused Jouvenel of having had Fascist sympathies. Convicted on two counts, Sternhell did not however need to retract his remarks from the book.

In a 2001 Hebrew op-ed piece in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Sternhell wrote

"Many in Israel, perhaps even the majority of the voters, do not doubt the legitimacy of the armed resistance in the territories themselves. The Palestinians would be wise to concentrate their struggle against the settlements, avoid harming women and children and strictly refrain from firing on Gilo, Nahal Oz or Sderot; it would also be smart to stop planting bombs to the west of the Green Line. By adopting such an approach, the Palestinians would be sketching the profile of a solution that is the only inevitable one: The amended Green Line will be an international border and territory will be handed over to compensate the Palestinians for land that has already been or will be annexed to Israel."

He similarly wrote in Davar in 1988 that "only those prepared to demolish Ofra with tanks would be able to stop the fascist erosion which threatens the Israeli Democracy".