Neve Gordon

Neve Gordon (Hebrew: ניב גורדון‎‎; born 15 June 1965) is a professor of Politics and Government^[1] at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, who writes on issues relating to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and human rights. A third-generation Israeli, Gordon did his military service in an IDF Paratrooper unit, and suffered severe injuries in action at Rosh Hanikra, as a result of which he has a 42 percent disability. During the first Intifada he served as director of Physicians for Human Rights, Israel. He is an active member in Ta'ayush, Arab-Jewish Partnership.^[2] He identifies himself as a member of the Israeli peace camp, has described Israel as an 'apartheid state' and supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel movement.^[3]

Academic career

Gordon received his doctorate at the University of Notre Dame in 1999, and has been a visiting scholar at University of California, Berkeley, University of Michigan, and at Brown University.

Gordon has participated in the 'Humanitarian Action in Catastrophe' group at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute.^[4]

Publications

His articles have been published in LA Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, The Guardian, Ha'aretz, The Jerusalem Post, The Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, In These Times, The National Catholic Reporter, The Chronicle of Higher Education and CounterPunch.

Gordon was co-author, together with Ruchama Marton, of Torture: Human Rights, Medical Ethics and the Case of Israel and editor of From the Margins of Globalization: Critical Perspectives on Human Rights. His book Israel's Occupation was published by the University of California Press in late 2008.

Views

Israel-Palestine conflict and Israeli politics

Gordon describes himself as a supporter of the two state solution and as a member of the Israeli peace camp. In his opinion, three essential conditions must exist to solve the peace process:

• 1. "Israel's full withdrawal to the 1967 cease-fire lines with possible one per one land swaps so that ultimately the total amount of land that was occupied will be returned."
• 2. "Jerusalem's division according to the 1967 cease-fire lines with certain land swaps to guarantee that each side has control over its own religious sites and large neighborhoods. These two components entail the dismantling of Israeli settlements and the return of the Jewish settlers to Israel."
• 3. "The acknowledgment of the right of return of all Palestinians but with the following stipulation: While all Palestinians who so desire will be able to return to the fledgling Palestinian state, only a limited number agreed upon by the two sides will be allowed to return to Israel; those who cannot exercise this right or, alternatively, choose not to, will receive full compensation."^[5]

Directly after the February 2009 Israeli election, Gordon stated that it would have "devastating effects". He also stated that the new Yisrael Beiteinu party possessed 'neo-fascist' tendencies. He concluded that the Obama administration should pressure the Likud-based government coalition economically and politically to adopt the two state solution.^[5]

Support for economic and political boycotts of Israel

Gordon wrote in an Los Angeles Times editorial on August 20, 2009 that he had decided to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel movement. He stated that Israel had become so right wing and 'an apartheid state' that he felt he had no choice but to support this course of action.^[3] This led to threats by some US donors to withhold funds from Ben-Gurion University, and to a heated debate within Israel over the rights of academics to freedom of expression.^[6]

The Ben-Gurion University management responded by denouncing Gordon's views. The President of the University, Professor Rivka Carmi, said, "We are appalled by Dr. Neve Gordon's irresponsible remarks, that morally deserve to be completely and utterly condemned. "We disapprove of Gordon's disastrous views and reject his cynical exploitation of the freedom of speech in Israel and the university." Israeli Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar called Gordon's article "repugnant and deplorable.^[7] Religious Affairs Minister Ya'akov Margi called on the university to immediately suspend Gordon from his job and to publicly condemn his article.^[8]

Gordon – Plaut court case

Aside from his vocal criticism of Israeli policies, Gordon was well known in a high-profile controversy involving Steven Plaut in which Gordon sued Plaut for libel. In May 2006, the Israeli magistrate court in Nazareth ruled in favour of Gordon, and ordered Plaut to pay Gordon 80,000 shekels in compensation plus 15,000 shekels in legal fees.^[9] Both sides appealed to the District Court in Nazareth and in February 2008, the court upheld a libel judgment relating to a publication in which Plaut called Gordon a "Judenrat Wannabe" but reduced the damages to 10,000 shekels (about $2,700) because the court reversed three out of four of the libel claims.^[10][11] The Supreme Court of Israel rejected Plaut's request to review the case.^[12]

Books

• Torture, Human Rights, Medical Ethics and the case of Israel, Zed Books, New York, ISBN 1-85649-314-8 (1995; editor, with Ruchama Marton)
• From the Margins of Globalization: Critical Perspectives on Human Rights. Lexington Books, Lanham, MD, ISBN 0-7391-0878-6 (2004; editor)
• Israel's Occupation. University of California Press, Berkeley CA, ISBN 0-520-25531-3 (2008)
• The Human Right to Dominate with Nicola Perugini, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0199365008, ISBN 978-0199365005 (2015)

References

External links

• Gordon's personal homepage
• Bio at The Nation
• Znet Bio
• Neve Gordon can't take criticism, An article by Alan Dershowitz
• Anti-Israeli? You just don't like what I say, Gordon's response to Alan Dershowitz
• Gordon's recent article in Al-Jazeera on Israeli Media after the fall of Mubarak