Jeff Halper
Encyclopedia
Jeff Halper is an anthropologist, author, lecturer, political activist, and co-founder and Coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
(ICAHD). In 1997, Halper co-founded ICAHD to challenge and resist the Israeli policy of demolishing Palestinian homes in the Occupied Territories
, and to organize Israelis, Palestinians and international volunteers to jointly rebuild demolished Palestinian homes. He has created a new mode of Israeli peace activity based on nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience
in the Occupied Territories. Halper was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the American Friends Service Committee
for his work "to liberate both the Palestinian and the Israeli people from the yoke of structural violence" and "to build equality between their people by recognizing and celebrating their common humanity".
Halper has written several books on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
and is a frequent writer and speaker about Israeli politics, focusing mainly on nonviolent strategies to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
, and became involved in the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements of the 1960s.
Halper was an outside lecturer in anthropology
at the University of Haifa
and Ben Gurion University in Be'er Sheva
. His academic research focused on the history of Jerusalem in the modern era, contemporary Israeli culture, and the Middle East conflict. In addition to teaching and research, Halper was active on issues of social justice within Israel. He worked as a community volunteer for ten years in Jerusalem’s inner city neighborhoods, and was one of the founders of Ohel - a social protest movement of working-class Mizrahi Jews. He served as the Chairman of the Israeli Association for Ethiopian Jews, having been active on issues concerning the rights of Ethiopia
n Jews and researching the community in Ethiopia in the mid-1960s.
to challenge and resist government policy of demolishing Palestinian homes in the Occupied Territories. According to ICAHD, since 1967 more than 18,000 Palestinian homes in the Occupied Territories have been destroyed by the Israeli military or civil authorities. According to Halper, 5% of home demolitions have to do with security. Some of the demolished homes are on Palestinian private property. Halper says Israel employs various means to prevent normal living conditions for the Palestinians, including land expropriation, discriminatory planning and zoning policies, restrictive granting of building permits and the demolition of Palestinian homes. The reason for this, according to Halper, is purely political: to confine more than three million residents in the West Bank
, East Jerusalem
and Gaza
to small, impoverished and disconnected enclaves, rather than security for Israeli citizens.
As ICAHD's Coordinating Director, Halper has organized and led direct action against Israeli policies. He has faced bulldozers in front of Palestinian homes. He organizes Palestinians, and internationals to help rebuild demolished Palestinian homes. On April 3, 2008, Halper was arrested for the eighth time while protesting the bulldozing of a home in a Palestinian neighborhood.
Typically, ICAHD will get a call from a Palestinian family telling them the bulldozers have arrived. ICAHD sends out an action alert and activists from different groups go out and engage in civil disobedience by standing up to the bulldozers. ICAHD also raises funds to rebuild these homes right where they had been before. Under Halper's leadership, ICAHD uses dialogue between groups to open communication, foster reconciliation and challenge stereotypes. ICAHD works in coalition with a wide range of Israeli left-wing organizations including: Bat Shalom
, Rabbis for Human Rights
, Gush Shalom
and the Alternative Information Center
, as well as Palestinian groups such as the Land Defense Committee, the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee (PARC) and Rapprochement.
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions is an Israeli peace and human rights organization dedicated to ending the occupation of the Palestinian territories and achieving a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians...
(ICAHD). In 1997, Halper co-founded ICAHD to challenge and resist the Israeli policy of demolishing Palestinian homes in the Occupied Territories
Israeli-occupied territories
The Israeli-occupied territories are the territories which have been designated as occupied territory by the United Nations and other international organizations, governments and others to refer to the territory seized by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967 from Egypt, Jordan, and Syria...
, and to organize Israelis, Palestinians and international volunteers to jointly rebuild demolished Palestinian homes. He has created a new mode of Israeli peace activity based on nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience
Civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...
in the Occupied Territories. Halper was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the American Friends Service Committee
American Friends Service Committee
The American Friends Service Committee is a Religious Society of Friends affiliated organization which works for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world...
for his work "to liberate both the Palestinian and the Israeli people from the yoke of structural violence" and "to build equality between their people by recognizing and celebrating their common humanity".
Halper has written several books on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or...
and is a frequent writer and speaker about Israeli politics, focusing mainly on nonviolent strategies to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Early career
Halper grew up in Hibbing, MinnesotaMinnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, and became involved in the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements of the 1960s.
Halper was an outside lecturer in anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
at the University of Haifa
University of Haifa
The University of Haifa is a university in Haifa, Israel.The University of Haifa was founded in 1963 by Haifa mayor Abba Hushi, to operate under the academic auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem....
and Ben Gurion University in Be'er Sheva
Beersheba
Beersheba is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the seventh-largest city in Israel with a population of 194,300....
. His academic research focused on the history of Jerusalem in the modern era, contemporary Israeli culture, and the Middle East conflict. In addition to teaching and research, Halper was active on issues of social justice within Israel. He worked as a community volunteer for ten years in Jerusalem’s inner city neighborhoods, and was one of the founders of Ohel - a social protest movement of working-class Mizrahi Jews. He served as the Chairman of the Israeli Association for Ethiopian Jews, having been active on issues concerning the rights of Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
n Jews and researching the community in Ethiopia in the mid-1960s.
Founding of ICAHD
In 1997, Halper co-founded the Israeli Committee Against House DemolitionsIsraeli Committee Against House Demolitions
The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions is an Israeli peace and human rights organization dedicated to ending the occupation of the Palestinian territories and achieving a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians...
to challenge and resist government policy of demolishing Palestinian homes in the Occupied Territories. According to ICAHD, since 1967 more than 18,000 Palestinian homes in the Occupied Territories have been destroyed by the Israeli military or civil authorities. According to Halper, 5% of home demolitions have to do with security. Some of the demolished homes are on Palestinian private property. Halper says Israel employs various means to prevent normal living conditions for the Palestinians, including land expropriation, discriminatory planning and zoning policies, restrictive granting of building permits and the demolition of Palestinian homes. The reason for this, according to Halper, is purely political: to confine more than three million residents in the West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
, East Jerusalem
East Jerusalem
East Jerusalem or Eastern Jerusalem refer to the parts of Jerusalem captured and annexed by Jordan in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and then captured and annexed by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War...
and Gaza
Gaza
Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...
to small, impoverished and disconnected enclaves, rather than security for Israeli citizens.
As ICAHD's Coordinating Director, Halper has organized and led direct action against Israeli policies. He has faced bulldozers in front of Palestinian homes. He organizes Palestinians, and internationals to help rebuild demolished Palestinian homes. On April 3, 2008, Halper was arrested for the eighth time while protesting the bulldozing of a home in a Palestinian neighborhood.
Typically, ICAHD will get a call from a Palestinian family telling them the bulldozers have arrived. ICAHD sends out an action alert and activists from different groups go out and engage in civil disobedience by standing up to the bulldozers. ICAHD also raises funds to rebuild these homes right where they had been before. Under Halper's leadership, ICAHD uses dialogue between groups to open communication, foster reconciliation and challenge stereotypes. ICAHD works in coalition with a wide range of Israeli left-wing organizations including: Bat Shalom
Bat Shalom
Bat Shalom is one of the organizations of the Coalition of Women for a Just Peace. Bat Shalom is a feminist grassroots organization of Jewish and Palestinian Israeli women working together towards peace, a just resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, respect for human rights, and an equal...
, Rabbis for Human Rights
Rabbis for Human Rights
Rabbis for Human Rights-Israel is an Israeli human rights organisation describing itself as "the rabbinic voice of conscience in Israel, giving voice to the Jewish tradition of human rights"....
, Gush Shalom
Gush Shalom
Gush Shalom is an Israeli peace activism group founded and led by former Irgun and Knesset Member and journalist, Uri Avnery, in 1993...
and the Alternative Information Center
Alternative Information Center
The Alternative Information Center is a joint Palestinian-Israeli non-governmental organization which "engages in dissemination of information, political advocacy, grassroots activism and critical analysis of the Palestinian and Israeli societies as well as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict"...
, as well as Palestinian groups such as the Land Defense Committee, the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee (PARC) and Rapprochement.
Published books
- An Israeli in Palestine: Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel, Pluto Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0745322261
- Between Redemption and Revival: The Jewish Yishuv in Jerusalem in the Nineteenth Century, Westview, 1991, ISBN 978-0813378558
Selected published articles
- "Rethinking Israel After 60 Years", Counterpunch.org, May 15, 2008
- "When the Roadmap is a One Way Street", Counterpunch.org, November 28, 2007
- "Whose Road Map?", Jerusalem Post, November 7, 2007
- "A Just Israeli-Palestinian Peace: Towards an Integrated Strategy", MiddleEastWindow.com, 2005
See also
- House Demolitions in the West BankHouse demolition in the Israeli-Palestinian conflictHouse demolition is a controversial tactic used by the Israeli Defence Forces and Israeli settlers in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip against Palestinians....
- AqabahAqabahAqabah is a Palestinian village in the northeastern West Bank, which is being targeted for demolition by the Israeli Civil Administration...