Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

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Oren Yiftachel

Oren Yiftachel is professor of geography at Ben Gurion University in Beersheva, Israel, and a contributing editor of Middle East Report.

MER Article

"Creeping Apartheid" in Israel-Palestine

On July 5, 2009, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, said something that had many rubbing their eyes in disbelief. Reviewing his government’s first 100 days, he pronounced, “We have managed to create a national agreement about the concept of ‘two states for two peoples.’” Can it be that the

Oren Yiftachel • 20 min read

MER Article

The Shrinking Space of Citizenship

On February 14, 2002, the Israeli government sent several light planes to spray 12,000 dunams of crops in the southern Negev region with poisonous chemicals. The destroyed fields had been cultivated for years by Bedouin Arabs, on ancestral lands they claim as their own. The minister responsible for

Oren Yiftachel • 20 min read

MER Article

Democracy or Ethnocracy?

In February 1998, President of the Israeli High Court, Aharon Barak, issued a statement explaining the temporary deferral of proceedings on an appeal known as the “Katzir case.” The 1995 appeal was lodged by an Arab citizen who was prohibited, because of his non-Jewish status, from leasing state land. [1]

Oren Yiftachel • 18 min read