Neve Gordon

Neve Gordon (Hebrew: ניב גורדון‎; born 15 June 1965) is an Israeli professor and academic.[1] He is a professor of international law and human rights at Queen Mary University of London[2] and writes on issues relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and human rights. He used to teach at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Neve Gordon
ניב גורדון
Gordon in 2018
Born (1965-06-15) 15 June 1965
Israel
NationalityIsraeli
OccupationProfessor
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Notre Dame
Academic work
DisciplinePolitics and Government
InstitutionsBen-Gurion University of the Negev

Early life

A third-generation Israeli, Gordon completed his military service in an IDF Paratrooper unit, suffering severe injuries in action at Rosh Hanikra which left him with a 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.[3] 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.[4]

Academic career

Gordon received his doctorate at the University of Notre Dame in 1999. In the same year he started his academic career in the Dept. of Politics and Government at the Ben-Gurion University. He became a Department chairperson in 2008-2010 and was promoted to Full Professor in 2015. During these years Gordon 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.[5]

In 2009, after Gordon wrote an article for the Los Angeles Times supporting a boycott of Israel and calling Israel an apartheid state,[4] Rivka Carmi, the president of Ben-Gurion University, declared that “academics who feel that way about their country are invited to look for different professional and personal accommodation,” and right-wing organisations demanded his department to be closed. In 2012, education minister Gideon Sa’ar called for Gordon’s dismissal. Gordon and his partner received threats to their lives and decided to move to London with their two sons, and Gordon became a professor at Queen Mary University of London.[2]

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-editor, 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 books The Human Right to Dominate was published by Oxford University Press in 2015, and Human Shields: A History of People in the Line of Fire was also published by University of California in 2020.

Views

Israel-Palestine conflict and Israeli politics

Gordon describes himself as a supporter of the one-state solution[6] 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.[7]

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.[4] 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.[8]

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.[9] Religious Affairs Minister Ya'akov Margi called on the university to immediately suspend Gordon from his job and to publicly condemn his article.[10]

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.[11] 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.[12][13] The Supreme Court of Israel rejected Plaut's request to review the case.[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)
  • Human Shields: A History of People in the Line of Fire with Nicola Perugini, University of California Press, ISBN 9780520301849 (2020)

References
  1. Senior Faculty Archived 2009-05-30 at the Wayback Machine on the BGU website (in Hebrew)
  2. Shany Littman: Hebrew: הם הובילו כאן תנועות שמאל, אך התייאשו ונדחקו להגר. סיפורם של הגולים החדשים‎ / After Losing Hope for Change, Top Left-wing Activists and Scholars Leave Israel Behind. In: Haaretz, 23 May 2020.
  3. Support Neve Gordon Archived 25 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Ta'ayush September 2009
  4. Gordon, Neve (20 August 2009). "Boycott Israel". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 20 August 2009.
  5. Gordon, Neve (2008). Israel's Occupation. University of California Press. pp. xiii. ISBN 0-520-25531-3.
  6. Israeli professor shares 1-state solution to Israeli-Palestinian conflict at MENA, EPL event, The Daily Northwestern 2017
  7. "Few Peacemakers in Israel's Knesset". The Nation. 10 February 2009. Retrieved 9 May 2010.
  9. Barak Ravid; Haaretz Service. "Education Minister slams Israeli lecturer's 'apartheid' op-ed". Ha'aretz. Archived from the original on 26 August 2009. Retrieved 25 August 2009.
  10. "Ministers Sa'ar, Margi slam anti-Israel article written by BGU lecturer". The Jerusalem Post. 23 August 2009. Retrieved 25 August 2009.
  11. U.S.-born professor guilty of libeling colleague Ira Moskovitz, Haaretz 9 June 2006
  12. Kalman, Matthew (5 March 2008). "Israeli Appeals Court Upholds Libel Judgment Against Academic but Reduces Damages". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 1 July 2008.]
  13. 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
  14. רע"א 2985/08
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