Jonathan Cook
| Jonathan Cook | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born |
1965 (age 48–49) Buckinghamshire, England, UK |
| Residence | Nazareth, Israel |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | B.A. (Hons), M.A. |
| Alma mater | Southampton University, Cardiff University, SOAS |
| Occupation | Writer, freelance journalist |
| Website | |
| View from Nazareth | |
Jonathan Cook (born 1965) is a British writer and a freelance journalist based in Nazareth, Israel, who writes about the Middle East, and more specifically, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.[1]
Background
Cook was born and brought up in Buckinghamshire, England, UK. He received a B.A. (Hons) in Philosophy and Politics from Southampton University in 1987, a postgraduate diploma in journalism from Cardiff University in 1989, and an M.A. in Middle Eastern studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies in 2000.[2]
Career
Journalism
Cook's career in journalism began in 1988 as a reporter and editor for regional newspapers the Southampton Advertiser and the Southampton Evening Echo.[3] He was a freelance sub-editor with several national newspapers from 1994 until 1996. He was a staff journalist at The Guardian and The Observer between 1996 and 2001.[2]
Since September 2001, Cook has been a freelance writer based in Nazareth, Israel.[4] He continued to write columns for The Guardian until 2007,[5][6] a publication he argued in 2011 limits the expression of dissent via its attacks on Gilad Atzmon, Julian Assange, Noam Chomsky and others.[7] Articles by Cook have also been published in the The International Herald Tribune, Le Monde Diplomatique, Al-Ahram Weekly, Al Jazeera,The National in Abu Dhabi, antiwar.com, CounterPunch.org, Dissident Voice, The Electronic Intifada, Mondoweiss, AlterNet, and Media Lens among others.
Books
Cook has written three books. In Blood and Religion (2006), published by Pluto Press, the central thesis is that, "Israel is beginning a long, slow process of ethnic cleansing both of Palestinian non-citizens from parts of the occupied territories that it has long coveted for its expanded Jewish state, and of Palestinian citizens from inside its internationally recognized borders." Cook links this strategy to the Israeli perception of two threats: the physical threat of terrorism and the demographic threat of a Palestinian majority potentialized by high Palestinian birth rates and the continued demand for a Palestinian right of return.[8] The Israeli leadership is also said by Cook to view the idea of a "state for all its citizens" as a threat.[9] Rami George Khouri describes the short book as, "important but disturbing."[8]
In 2008, Cook published Israel and the Clash of Civilizations: Iraq, Iran and the plan to remake the Middle East, published by Pluto Press.[10] Of the book, Antony Loewenstein wrote that, "Cook bravely skewers the mainstream narrative of a Jewish state constantly striving for peace with the Palestinians." According to Lowenstein, Cook argues that Israel "pursues policies that lead to civil war and partition," and that this idea of dissolving many of the nations of the Middle East, shared by the neocons and the Bush administration, was developed by Israel's security establishment in the 1980s.[11] Cook discusses an essay authored by Oded Yinon and published by the World Zionist Organisation in 1982 which advocated for Israel's transformation into a regional imperial power via the fragmentation of the Arab world, "into a mosaic of ethnic and confessional groupings that could be more easily manipulated" (p. 107). A review of the book in The Jordan Times called it, "well-researched and very readable."[12]
Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair was published in 2008 by Zed Books.[13] The book is in two parts, with the second half consisting of reprints of articles written by Cook as a journalist.[14] The first half of the book, according to a review in Electronic Intifada, explores the thesis that, "the goal of Israeli policy is to make Palestine and the Palestinians disappear for good."[14] Helena Cobban in the Boston Review says Cook argues that to encourage voluntary emigration, Israel has made life unbearable for Palestinians, primarily via "the ever more sophisticated systems of curfews, checkpoints, walls, permits and land grabs."[15]
Selected works
Books
- (2006) Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State. Pluto Press. ISBN 0-7453-2555-6
- (2008) Israel and the Clash of Civilizations: Iraq, Iran and the plan to remake the Middle East. Pluto Press. ISBN 978-0-7453-2754-9
- (2008) Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair. Zed Books. ISBN 978-1-84813-031-9
Chapters in books
- (2005) "Unrecognized Villages: Indigenous 'Ayn Hawd versus Artists' Colony 'Ein Hod," in Nur Masalha, Catastrophe Remembered: Palestine, Israel, and the Internal Refugees, Zed Books, ISBN 1-84277-623-1[16]
- (2006) "Israel's Glass Wall: The Or Commission," in Joel Beinin and Rebecca L. Stein. The struggle for sovereignty: Palestine and Israel, 1993-2005. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-5365-2
- (2008). Foreword in Hatim Kanaaneh, A Doctor in Galilee: The Life and Struggle of a Palestinian in Israel. Pluto Press. ISBN 0-7453-2786-9
Articles
- (2003) Declining to Intervene: Israel's Supreme Court and the Occupied Territories, Middle East Report, August 4, 2003.
- (2004) Israeli Constitutional Committee Faces Double Bind, Adalah's Newsletter. Volume 7, pp. 1–7, August 2004.
- with Lagerqiust, Peter. (2005) Crime and Punishment on Israel's Demographic Frontier, Middle East Report. No. 237, pp. 46–64, May 2005.
- (2006) Israel’s “Demographic Demon” in Court, Middle East Report, June 1, 2006.
- (2009) When and How Was the Jewish People Invented? Letter from Nazareth, review of Shlomo Zand's book, Holy Land Studies. Volume 8, pp. 113–117, May 2009.
- (undated) The Stand-Tall Generation, review of Dan Rabinowitz and Khawla Abu-Baker, Coffins on Our Shoulders (2005) in Holy Land Studies. Volume 5, pp. 121–124.
Notes
- ↑ Berry, Neil (June 12, 2008). "Poles Apart". New Statesman.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Cook, Jonathan. Short biography, Jhcook.net, accessed November 30, 2009.
- ↑ http://www.medialens.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2860
- ↑ Catastrophe remembered: Palestine, Israel and the internal refugees, p. viii.
- ↑ Jonathan Cook, The Guardian, accessed November 30, 2009.
- ↑ "How occupation has corrupted Israel's soul". Antony Loewenstein, also published in Sydney's Sun-Herald newspaper on the same day. March 30, 2008.
- ↑ Jonathan Cook "A Thought Police" for the Internet Age. Big Brother's 'Progressive Media' - The dangerous cult of the Guardian", Global Research (Canada) website, 28 September 2011
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Rami G. Khouri (March 15, 2008). "Ethnic Cleansing Cannot be Ignored". Retrieved 2009-12-05.
- ↑ Wim de Neuter (March 2007). "Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State". Le Monde Diplomatique. Retrieved 2009-12-05.
- ↑ Raymond Deane (11 February 2008). "Book review: "Israel and the Clash of Civilisations"". The Electronic Intifada. Retrieved 2009-08-31.
- ↑ Antony Loewenstein (summer 2008). "THE RESOURCE WARS". overland literary journal. ISBN 978-0-9805346-0-3.
- ↑ Sally Bland (March 31, 2008). "Spreading 'organised chaos'". The Jordan Times. Retrieved 2009-12-05.
- ↑ Pam Hardyment (May 18, 2009). "Disappearing Palestine, Israel's Experiments in Human Despair by Jonathan Cook". Retrieved 2009-08-31.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Gabriel Ash (February 12, 2009). "Book review: Un-erasing the erasure of Palestine". The Electronic Intifada. Retrieved 2009-08-31.
- ↑ Helena Cobban (July/August 2009). "Peace Out: The decline of Israel's progressive movement". Boston Review.
- ↑ "(Review of) Catastrophe Remembered: Palestine, Israel, and the Internal Refugees". Journal of Refugee Studies 19 (2): 267–268. 2006.
External links
- Jonathan Cook's website, accessed October 16, 2012.
- Cook's profile page at The Guardian with links to his articles from 1999–2007.
- Bistrich, Andrea. "Israel kennt keine Gleichheit", interview with Jonathan Cook (German), July 1, 2006; edited English translation "Hurtling Towards the Next Intifada", Dissident Voice, August 31, 2006, accessed November 27, 2009.
- Gore, Jeff. "From Boycotts to Bilin: An Interview with Jonathan Cook", Electronic Intifada, October 9, 2009, accessed November 27, 2009.
- Humphries, Isabelle. "Book Review: Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State", Islam Online (original in Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal), accessed November 27, 2009.
- Lendman, Stephen. "Jonathan Cook's Blood and Religion", The Baltimore Chronicle, March 27, 2008, accessed November 27, 2009.
- 's%20War%20Criminal%20Attacks%20on%20Gaza%20By%20Jonathan%20Cook.htm "The Four Guilty Parties Behind Israel's War Criminal Attacks on Gaza", Aljazeerah, November 19, 2012
Audio/Video
- Abunimah, Ali and Murphy, Maureen Clare. "Audio: Interview with journalist Jonathan Cook" (33 min), Electronic Intifada, May 4, 2007, accessed November 27, 2009.
- Jonathan Cook - Blood and Religion: Unmasking the Jewish and Democratic State, interview with Cook, December 28, 2006, accessed November 27, 2009.
- Jonathan Cook - “Israel is regional bully with nuclear weapons”, Russia Today Interview with journalist Jonathan Cook 22 July 2010.
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