Tuesday 1 December 2015

Funny how "compassion" is so often an excuse for monumentally shitty behaviour - take Dr Marsha Levine (please!)

Dr Levine - formerly an academic at Cambridge - is apparently a world authority on horses. Last week, she received an email from a 13-year girl, Shachar Rabinovitch, asking for some information. It was a very respectful email: “I know you are a very important person and I've read your article about horses (Domestication, Breed Diversification and Early History of the Horse) and I love horses very much and it will be an honour if you will answer my questions.” The problem was that Miss Rabinovitch is - an Israeli! Which Dr Levine apparently felt justified the following bizarre response:

“I'll answer your questions when there is peace and justice for Palestinians in Palestine.
“I am a member of Jews for Justice for Palestinians. I support boycott, divestment, sanctions. You might be a child, but if you are old enough to write to me, you are old enough to learn about Israeli history and how it has impacted on the lives of Palestinian people.
“Maybe your family has the same views as I do, but I doubt it.”
Or maybe, Dr Levine, you'll answer Shachar's question when you turn into a decent human being (in the unlikely event of that ever happening, of course).

Meanwhile, shame on you. (You can read the whole, awful story here.)

Never mind, Shachar - I'm sure there are plenty of other horse experts who'd be only too happy to answer your questions, especially if they knew how shabbily you'd been treated by a former member of their trade purely because of your nationality.


3 comments:

  1. What is amusing about highly principled people is their charmless - often, intentionally graceless behaviour. I think this "Doctor" [of what?] lost her job as an advisor to the film "The Horse Whisperers" when she absolutely insisted that the German version should be called " Der Horst Wesseler".

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  2. Thank you, SDG. Der Horst Wessler made me laugh out loud, which very rarely happens in these troubled times.

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    1. Not on top form this week, so (I'm ashamed to admit) it took me 24 hours to "get it".

      Maybe horses like Dr Levine - because I find it hard to believe anyone else does.

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