David Newman - Biography

David Newman (October 25, 1956) is a British-Israeli scholar in political geography and geopolitics. He serves as professor at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Department of Politics and Government and editor of the academic journal Geopolitics. In March 2010, Newman was elected Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences for the period 2010-2013.

Biography

David Newman was born in London. He holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Geography from Queen Mary College at the University of London (1978) and a PhD in geography from the University of Durham, England (1981). In 1982 he was appointed as lecturer in the Tel Aviv University Department of Geography and immigrated to Israel. In 1987 he became a senior lecturer in the Department of Geography at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. From 1996 to 1998 he served as Director of its Hubert Humphrey Institute for Social Research. In 1988 he founded the Ben-Gurion University Department of Politics and Government, and served as its first chairperson until 2003. That year he facilitated the founding of the BGU Centre for the Study of European Politics and Society (CSEPS), with which he is affiliated.

From 1997 to 2003, Newman published a weekly op-ed column in the Jerusalem Post. Newman also published essays and opinion columns in newspapers and magazines, such as the New York Times, the Guardian, and Tikkun Magazine. His political activities have focused on the Israeli peace camp, strongly arguing for territorial withdrawal and the establishment of a Palestinian State alongside Israel.

Since 1999 he has been co-editor, together with Professor John Agnew from UCLA, of the international journal Geopolitics, published quarterly by Taylor and Francis (Routledge). The present co-editor is Professor Simon Dalby from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

Newman played a leading role in the defence of Israeli universities and the academic community in the face of a proposed academic boycott of Israel during 2006-2008.

Research

Newman's published work focuses on two main areas of research:

a) territorial dimensions of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Newman has analysed the impact of the West Bank settlement network and the settler movement Gush Emunim. He has also carried out research on the changing territorial configurations of a Two State solution to the conflict with a particular emphasis on the Green Line boundary which separates Israel from the West Bank. During the early 1990s, Newman undertook joint work with Arab geographer, Ghazi Falah looking at the territorial and border implications of a Two State solution, some of earliest collaborative work between Israeli and Palestinian scholars to have been undertaken in. This resulted in a series of four published articles as well as a retrospective look at the problems of undertaking collaborative research of this nature.

b) a conceptual discussion relating to the functions and significances of borders in the contemporary period of globalization. Newman has published a counter narrative to globalization notions of a borderless and deterritorialized world, arguing that borders retain their significance in the contemporary world and that there is no such thing as deterritorialization, only reterritorialization in which spatial configurations of power are constantly being reconfigured. Not only does territory and, by association borders, retain their significance, but Newman emphasizes the need to focus on the symbolic dimensions of territory and the ways in which this feeds into the formation of national identity and attachment to place and space, in addition to the more traditional discussions which focus on the tangible and physical characteristics of territory, such as size, shape and physical resources. In the study of borders, Newman has moved beyond the study of international boundaries as it has been analysed within the Geographical and Political Science disciplines, to a multi-dsciplinary discourse involving sociologists, anthropologists, jurists and other scholars in an attempt to reshift the focus away from borders as lines on the map, to the more dynamic and functional processes of bordering within the wider realms of society and space, including the unseen and invisible borders which separate groups from each other.

Affiliations and public activities

Newman is associated with a number of border and boundary related institutions, such as the International Boundaries Research Unit in the UK, the Association of Borderland Studies in the USA, the Border Regions in Transition (BRIT) network, and as the Secretary of the Commission on the World Political Map (WPM) of the International Geographical Union. He has facilitated and attended as keynote speaker at international gatherings dealing with geopolitical and border related issues. Newman has spent periods of time as visiting professor and research fellow at a number of universities and research institutions throughout Europe and North America. In 2006, Newman was the Leverhulme Professor in Geopolitics at the University of Bristol in the UK.

Newman has been involved in peace-related activities and in a variety of Track II discussions and negotiations. This includes joint Israeli-Palestinian projects looking at territorial and border issues, funded by the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (both with Ghazi Falah, the United States Institute of Peace in a project examining potential cross-border cooperation between Israel and a future Palestinian State, a European Union consortium project looking at the role of the EU in intervening in border conflicts, and a European Union Partnership in Peace programme, facilitating peace related workshops for religious teachers in Israel and Palestine. David Newman is the Chair of the International Editorial Board of Journal of Borderland Studies, edited by Emmanuel Brunet Jailly (University of Victoria, BC, Canada).

Criticism

In an article in Haaretz in July 2010 discussing the relationship between academic appointments and one's political views, Newman said "Persons from groups like Im Tirtzu and NGO Monitor regard us as a band of traitors, criminals and leftists. In actual fact, we are a faculty of 250 members from all parts of the political spectrum."

In response, NGO Monitor wrote that Newman was "wrong and irrelevant" since just "as he disagrees with the sweeping characterization of the Ben Gurion University faculty as 'traitors, criminals, and leftists,' Newman's attempts to discredit individuals and groups who do not share his ideology are unethical. Political witch hunts from all parts of the spectrum have no place in the academic search for knowledge."

In an article published in TotallyJewish.com News in March 2010, Newman refers to NGO Monitor as a "right-wing think tank...working with right-wing members of the Knesset to legislate against further funding by these organisations." In response, Yishai Hughes writing for NGO Monitor says that "NGO Monitor is an independent research organization, providing detailed, systematic, and source-based analysis and publications regarding the activities of NGOs in the Arab-Israeli conflict. The ideological label employed by Newman, 'right wing,' is neither accurate nor relevant."