Public lecture by Dr Jeff Halper at Macquarie University

The visit to Sydney by Dr Jeff Halper has been postponed due to his commitment to help break the siege of Gaza.

Dr Halper, with 40 other human rights activists will soon set sail for the Gaza Strip, with the goal of breaking the siege Israel has imposed there. Halper, a lecturer in anthropology and the chairman of the Israel Committee Against House Demolitions, is the only Jewish Israeli who will sail aboard the ship, Free Gaza.

It is still unclear how the Israel Defense Forces will react to the arrival of the two ships on the Gaza coast. The ships still have not reached Cyprus which means they  probably won’t get to Gaza (if at all) for at least week and with no idea about what will actually happen then.  As the only Israeli Jew on board, Jeff feels that he has a responsibility to both the group and the Palestinians to remain with them, therefore he feels it would be unrealistic to expect to catch his flight to Australia as planned.

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Public Lecture: Friday 29 August, 4pm in room W6A 107

An Israeli in Palestine: Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel

by Dr Jeff Halper

Jeff Halper, an Israeli Professor of Anthropology, has been a leading figure within the Israeli peace movement for over thirty years, and the head of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). Halper was nominated by the American Friends Service Committee for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize and is the author of Obstacles to Peace (2005) and Between Redemption and Revival (1991).

'Jeff Halper's book, like his life's work, is an inspiration. Drawing on his many years of directly challenging Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, he offers one of the most insightful analyses of the occupation I've read. His voice cries out to be heard.' -  Jonathan Cook, author of Blood and Religion (2006) and Israel and the Clash of Civilisations (2008)

In this book, Jeff Halper throws a harsh light on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the point of view of a critical insider. While the Zionist founders of Israel created a vibrant society, culture and economy, they did so at a high price: Israel could not maintain its exclusive Jewish character without imposing on the country's Palestinian population policies of ethnic cleansing, occupation and discrimination, expressed most graphically in its ongoing demolition of thousands of Palestinian homes, both inside Israel and in the Occupied Territories.

An Israeli in Palestine records Halper's journey 'beyond the membrane' that shields his people from the harsh realities of Palestinian life to his 'discovery' that he was actually living in another country: Palestine. Without dismissing the legitimacy of his own country, he realises that Israel is defined by its oppressive relationship to the Palestinians. Pleading for a view of Israel as a real, living country which must by necessity evolve and change, Halper asks whether the idea of an ethnically pure 'Jewish State' is still viable. More to the point, he offers ways in which Israel can redeem itself through a cultural Zionism upon which regional peace and reconciliation are attainable.

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VIDEO: Allegra Pacheco, Jewish Israeli human rights lawyer, and Jeff Halper discuss Israeli perspectives on Palestinians and Jewish privilege.

VIDEO: Jeff Halper offers the analogy of a prison to explain the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.