The First Half-Century of Israel’s Permanently Temporary Occupation
Nov 8
“The First Half-Century of Israel’s Permanently Temporary Occupation”
Gershon Shafir, Professor, University of California, San Diego
This talk raises the two burning questions in this 50th anniversary of the 1967 War. First, “Is the presence of Israel’s military and settlers in the West Bank an occupation?” An answer leads us to both international and domestic legal conundrums and the everyday life experience of Palestinian inhabitants. Second, “Is the Israeli settlement enterprise reversible?” As part of a feasibility study of the two-state solution, I focus on such issues as the percentage of land taken up by Israeli settlements and their layout, the demographic ratio of Israeli Jews to Palestinians, etc. Instead of viewing the settlements as a single-minded undertaking, I highlight and examine the ramifications of their diverse character
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Speaker Bio
Gershon Shafir is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego, and the founding director of its Human Rights Program. He has served as President of the Association for Israel Studies and is the author or editor of ten books, among them Land, Labor, and the Origins of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 1882–1914; Being Israeli: The Dynamics of Multiple Citizenship (co-authored with Yoav Peled), -- winner of the 2002 Middle Eastern Studies Association’s Albert Hourani Award, and Struggle and Survival in Palestine/Israel (co-editor with Mark LeVine).