Neve Gordon

Neve Gordon
Gordon in 2018
Native name ניב גורדון
Born (1965-06-15) 15 June 1965
Israel
Nationality Israeli
Occupation Professor
Academic background
Alma mater University of Notre Dame
Academic work
Discipline Politics and Government
Institutions Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

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.

Early life

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% 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, Brown University, the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and at SOAS, University of London.

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

Publications

Gordon's articles have been published in LA Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, The Guardian, Ha'aretz, The Jerusalem Post, The Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, London Review of Books, Al Jazeera, 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, and his co-authored book The Human Right to Dominate was published by Oxford University Press in 2015.

Views

Israel-Palestine conflict and Israeli politics

Gordon describes himself as a supporter of the one state solution[5] and as a member of the Israeli peace camp.

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.[6]

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.[7]

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.[8] Religious Affairs Minister Ya'akov Margi called on the university to immediately suspend Gordon from his job and to publicly condemn his article.[9]

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.[10] 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.[11][12] The Supreme Court of Israel rejected Plaut's request to review the case.[13]

Media bias

In April 2018, Gordon was one of 40 senior academics who wrote an open letter to The Guardian condemning what they called anti-Corbyn bias in media coverage of the antisemitism debate saying it was "framed in such a way as to mystify the real sources of anti-Jewish bigotry and to weaponise it against a single political figure just ahead of important elections."[14]

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

  1. ↑ Senior Faculty Archived 2009-05-30 at the Wayback Machine. on the BGU website (in Hebrew)
  2. ↑ Support Neve Gordon, Ta'ayush September 2009
  3. 1 2 Gordon, Neve (August 20, 2009). "Boycott Israel". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 20, 2009.
  4. ↑ Gordon, Neve (2008). Israel's Occupation. University of California Press. pp. xiii. ISBN 0-520-25531-3.
  5. ↑ Israeli professor shares 1-state solution to Israeli-Palestinian conflict at MENA, EPL event, The Daily Northwestern 2017
  6. ↑ "Few Peacemakers in Israel's Knesset". The Nation. February 10, 2009. Retrieved 2010-05-09.
  7. ↑
  8. ↑ Barak Ravid; Haaretz Service. "Education Minister slams Israeli lecturer's 'apartheid' op-ed". Ha'aretz. Retrieved August 25, 2009.
  9. ↑ "Ministers Sa'ar, Margi slam anti-Israel article written by BGU lecturer". The Jerusalem Post. August 23, 2009. Retrieved August 25, 2009.
  10. ↑ U.S.-born professor guilty of libeling colleague Ira Moskovitz, Haaretz 9 June 2006
  11. ↑ Kalman, Matthew (March 5, 2008). "Israeli Appeals Court Upholds Libel Judgment Against Academic but Reduces Damages". The Chronicle of Higher Education,. Retrieved 2008-07-01. ]
  12. ↑ ע"א (נצרת) 1184/06 - פרופ' סטיבן פלאוט נ' ד"ר ניב גורדון . תק-מח 2008(1), 11886. (Hebrew) 1184/06 Steven Plaut Vs. Dr. Neve Gordon, Takdin-District 2008(1) Full text of the District Court's decision is available here Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine.
  13. ↑ רע"א 2985/08
  14. ↑ "Stop Jeremy Corbyn's trial by media over antisemitism". The Guardian. 2 April 2018. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
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