New Book Sparks Outrage Over Claim That ‘Punctuation in Hebrew’ Has Fueled ‘Brutal Oppression’

A new book about the seemingly innocuous topic of punctuation is drawing outrage over the author’s claim that punctuation marks in Hebrew are “relics” of a “brutal colonial system.”Author Florence Hazrat’s new book, “On the Mark,” is facing scrutiny after a review by the New Yorker’s Louis Menand drew attention to some of its claims. A description of the book from its publisher, Hachette Book Group, calls the work “irreverent and delightfully intellectual” — but does not mention the claim that punctuation can be used to oppress people.Mr. Menand wrote that the book’s ambitious premise — that the ‘history of punctuation is the history of humanity’ — leads to ‘overreach.'” As an example, Mr. Menand noted that Ms. Hazrat claims in her book that “Punctuation marks in Hebrew are relics of a brutal colonial system that is far from over.”“Today this brutal oppression (aided and abetted by the United States, Germany, and a host of other countries through arms deliveries, technological support, and trade deals) has evolved into the worst crime of all crimes: genocide,” Ms. Hazrat writes in her book.Ms. Hazrat also writes that Hebrew as a spoken language created an “artificial sense of unity among Jewish people from all over the globe, encouraging them to move to the land that already had people — a people made to suffer and bear the brunt of European antisemitism in the most horrendous ways for generations.”The claims highlighted by Mr. Menand’s review drew criticism online. A deputy editor of Jewish News UK, Daniel Sugarman, wrote on X, “The author of this book is, predictably, an academic in the UK and a ‘BBC New Generation Thinker’. Seems like the new generation has the same thoughts as older generations when it comes to pseudoscientific crap roping in Jews.”A senior political correspondent at Jewish Insider, Lahav Harkov, wrote on X, “Call me crazy, but here I thought the Jews were the ones ‘made to suffer and bear the brunt of European antisemitism in the most horrendous ways for generations.’”The audience editor at Tablet Magazine, Isaac de Castro, wrote, “Imagine you’re reading a book about punctuation and you suddenly land on some racist schizophrenic screed about how periods in Hebrew makes Jews ‘around the world’ violent.”“On the Mark” is not the first time Ms. Hazrat has publicly shared her views about punctuation in Hebrew being a tool of oppression. In a 2024 Substack post, she wrote that thousands of European Jews moved to what is now the state of Israel in the late 19th and early 20th century. She said they decided they needed a more “elevated” national language, and worked to update ancient Hebrew to include modern words and punctuation so it could function as a national language. “Language matters. Punctuation does. Punctuation makes things happen. Punctuation enabled both the colonised to resist and the colonizer to settle. There’s no moral here. This is not a fable. This is reality. Stay vigilant,” she said. Ms. Hazrat did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

New Book Sparks Outrage Over Claim That ‘Punctuation in Hebrew’ Has Fueled ‘Brutal Oppression’

New Book Sparks Outrage Over Claim That ‘Punctuation in Hebrew’ Has Fueled ‘Brutal Oppression’

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