Uri Davis

Uriel "Uri" Davis (born 1943 in Jerusalem) is an Israeli citizen, academic and activist with a focus on citizenship, apartheid and democracy in Israel and the Middle East. [http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=6257 ZMag Bio: Uri Davis] , accessed June 12, 2006] Davis has served as Vice-Chairman of the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights and as lecturer in Peace Studies at the University of Bradford. Davis describes himself as an "anti-Zionist Palestinian Hebrew.Citation | last =Davis| first = Uri | title =Apartheid Israel: a critical reading of the Geneva Accords | journal =Peace News| issue = 2454 | date = March - May | year = 2004 | url =http://www.peacenews.info/issues/2454/245415.html"Uri Davis, though registered as a 'Jew' on his Israeli ID card, is an atheist, and hence reluctant to define himself as a 'Jew' (except in the tribal sense of the term). He suggests he is referred to as 'an anti-Zionist Palestinian Hebrew, born in Jerusalem in 1943, and a dual citizen of the State of Israel and the UK'."]

Background and education

Born to Jewish parents in Jerusalem, Davis describes himself as a Palestinian Hebrew. He was educated in Kfar Shmaryahu. During the 1961-1963 period he did alternative civilian service on Kibbutz Erez. Subsequently he received a BA in Philosophy and Arabic from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1968), a Masters in Philosophy from the same institution (1970) and from The New School for Social Research, New York City a MA in Anthropology (1973) and a PhD in Anthropology (1976).

Career

Dr. Uri Davis is an honorary research fellow at the University of Durham's Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (IMEIS) and at the University of Exeter's Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies (IAIS).

Davis currently divides his residence between the predominantly Arab city of Sakhnin in northern Israel and the mixed city of Ramle in central Israel.

Apartheid Comparisons

Davis is noted [http://archiveshub.ac.uk/news/04052702.html Uri Davis Collection] , Archives Hub, accessed June 12, 2006] for authoring a series of books and articles that classify the State of Israel as an apartheid state, alleging that Israel's policies towards Palestinians, including Palestinian citizens of Israel, are comparable to South Africa's apartheid policies: "Israel: An Apartheid State" (1987), "Apartheid Israel: A Critical Reading of the Draft Permanent Agreement, known as the "Geneva Accords" (2003) [http://www.one-democratic-state.org/articles/davis.html Uri Davis bio on OneDemocraticState.org] ] , and "Apartheid Israel: Possibilities for the Struggle Within" (2004). (see Israel and the apartheid analogy)

Activism

He is also a founding member of the "Movement Against Israeli Apartheid in Palestine" (MAIAP) and of "AL-BEIT: Association for the Defense of Human Rights in Israel".

He is a former member of the "Executive Committee of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding" (CAABU) and of the Editorial Board of "RETURN magazine."

Davis is an Observer Member of the Palestine National Council.

Conversion to Islam

In August 2008, Davis converted to Islam and married a Fatah activist in Ramallah. The conversion ceremony involved two oaths in which Davis recognized Allah and the Muslim prophet Mohammed. [http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/127310 "Post-Zionist Jewish Academic Converts to Islam" Israel National News August 31, 2008] According to Davis, this step was "a measure of defence of his relationship with the FATH activist who was to become his wife". [http://israel-academia-monitor.com/view_tgova.php?cookie_lang=en&data [id] =4970]

elected Bibliography

* "Dissent & Ideology in Israel: Resistance to the Draft 1948-1973" (as co-editor, with Martin Blatt and Paul Kleinbaum) (1975) ISBN 0-903729-07-5
* "Documents from Israel, 1967-73: Readings for a Critique of Zionism" (as co-editor, with Norton Mezvinsky) (1975) ISBN 0-903729-09-1
* "Israel & the Palestinians" (as co-editor, with Andrew Mack and Nira Yuval-Davis) (1975) ISBN 0-903729-13-X
* "Israel: Utopia Incorporated - A Study of Class, State and Corporate Kin Control" (1977) ISBN 0-905762-12-6
*Deir al-Asad: The Destiny of an Arab Village in Galilee, in "Palestinian Arabs in Israel: Two Case Studies", Ithaca Press, London 1977, (as co-editor, with Hasan Amun, and Nasr Dakhlallah San´allah) ISBN 0-903729-32-6
* "Towards a Socialist Republic of Palestine" (as co-editor, with Fouzi el-Asmar and Naim Khader) (1978) ISBN 0-903729-30-X
* "Debate on Palestine" (as co-editor, with Fouzi el-Asmar and Naim Khader) (1981) ISBN 0-903729-64-4
* "Israel: An Apartheid State" (1987) ISBN 0-86232-317-7
* "The Jewish National Fund" (with Walter Lehn) (1988) ISBN 07103-0053-0
* "The State of Palestine (Jerusalem Study Series)" (1991) ISBN 0-86372-135-4
* "Crossing the Border: an autobiography of an Anti-Zionist Palestinian Jew" (1995) ISBN 1-86102-002-3
* "Citizenship and the State: A Comparative Study of Citizenship Legislation in Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon" (London, 1997) ISBN 0-86372-218-0
* "Citizenship and the State in the Middle East: Approaches and Applications" (as co-editor) (Syracuse, New York, 2000) ISBN 0-8156-2829-3
* "Apartheid Israel: Possibilities for the Struggle Within" (2004) ISBN 1-84277-339-9

References

External links

* [http://www.uridavis.info/ Uri Davis' website]
* [http://www.maiap.org/ Movement Against Israeli Apartheid in Palestine official website]

;Articles, selected
* [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/10303 An Exchange on Israel and the Palestinians] 10 February 1972, New York Review of Books,
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20041026213314/http://www.aldeilis.net/zion/zionhol09.html Transfer and the Lessons of the Holocaust] March 1990, Return
* [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2501/is_n1_v18/ai_18413376 Citizenship legislation in the Syrian Arab Republic] , in Arab Studies Quarterly (ASQ), Winter, 1996
* [http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/articles/UriDavis-JustAnOrdinarySakhninDay.html Just an ordinary Sakhnin day] , October 2001 (about Sakhnin)
* [http://oznik.com/words/020411.html Jews! Stand Up and Be Counted!] , 11 April 2002,
* [http://www.peacenews.info/issues/2446/244620.html Martin Buber's Paths in UtopiaThe Kibbutz: an experiment that didn't fail?] issue 2446 March-June 2002, Peace News,
* [http://www.palestinecenter.org/cpap/pubs/20020604ib.html The Movement against Israeli Apartheid in Palestine] issue 93, 4 June 2002 Information Brief,
* [http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/655/letters.htm Apartheid Israel] issue 655 11 September 2003, Al-Ahram Weekly,
* [http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/articles/article0004976.txt Apartheid Israel: A Critical Reading of the Draft Permanent Agreement, known as the 'Geneva Accords'] , 6 December 2003
* [http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/articles/jnfUK/jnf.html Research Report on the Subject of the British Park funded by the Jewish National Fund UK (First draft)] , June 2004 (about Ajjur)
* [http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/articles/article0013567.txt Regarding the Gush Shalom statement on the Jewish National Fund] , 28 January 2005
* [http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/articles/article0021174.txt Rejoinder to David Newman and Benjamin Pogrund] 30 May 2005

;Interview
* [http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=6257%20&sectionID=22 Apartheid Israel] , by Uri Davis and Jon Elmer; FromOccupiedPalestine.org; September 19, 2004