SHAKE WELL BEFORE USING

This 2021 fall term, McMaster University and Tel Aviv University are jointly offering an online course, "The Beginning of Science: Ancient Egyptian and Babylonian Conceptions of Space and Time."  As is true of many courses at North American universities in 2021, the syllabus starts with a land acknowledgment.  And taken  on its own, that land acknowledgment  is serious and admirable.   It reads: "We recognize and acknowledge that McMaster University meets and learns on the traditional territories of the Mississauga and Haudenosaunee nations, and within the lands protected by the 'Dish With One Spoon' wampum, an agreement amongst all allied Nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes." What is missing—and once one sees this, one cannot un-see it—is a comparable land acknowledgment for Tel Aviv University.  Something like this would be in order:  "Tel Aviv University meets and learns on Palestinian land, which has been s...