Uri Davis - Biography

Uriel "Uri" Davis (, born 1943 in Jerusalem) is an academic and activist who works on civil rights in Israel, Palestinian National Authority and the Middle East. 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, who converted to Islam in 2008, describes himself as "a Palestinian Hebrew national of Jewish origin, anti-Zionist, registered as Muslim and a citizen of an apartheid state - the State of Israel." A member of Fatah since 1984, he was elected to the Revolutionary Council for the Palestinian party in 2009.

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

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). He 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 wrote 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), and Apartheid Israel: Possibilities for the Struggle Within (2003).

In an interview to Irish Times in 2002 Davis said: "I am an anti-militarist and recognise the right to use force in certain instances, in armed resistance, which is legal in international law. It allows armed resistance, the targeting of the opposite party in uniform."

Activism

He is a founding member of The Movement Against Israeli Apartheid in Palestine (MAIAP) and of Al-Beit The Association for the Defense of Human Rights in Israel, and 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.

Revolutionary Council Election

Until 2009 Davis was Observer Member of the Palestine National Council. In 2009, Davis was successful in his bid for a seat on Fatah's Revolutionary Council, a legislative body of the Movement, placing 31st from among more than 600 candidates running for position in the 128-member body. He is the first Jew to be elected to such a high-ranking position.

2008 marriage and conversion to Islam

Davis met Miyassar Abu Ali, a Palestinian, in Ramallah in 2006. They signed their Certificate of Marriage ('Aqd al-Zawaj) there in 2008, after Davis converted to Islam at their marriage.

Selected 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 0-7103-0053-0
• 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

See also

• Uri Avnery
• Adam Keller

External links

• Uri Davis' website
• Movement Against Israeli Apartheid in Palestine official website

Articles, selected

• An Exchange on Israel and the Palestinians 10 February 1972, New York Review of Books,
• Transfer and the Lessons of the Holocaust March 1990, Return
• Citizenship legislation in the Syrian Arab Republic, in Arab Studies Quarterly (ASQ), Winter, 1996
• Just an ordinary Sakhnin day, October 2001 (about Sakhnin)
• Jews! Stand Up and Be Counted!, 11 April 2002,
• Martin Buber's Paths in Utopia The Kibbutz: an experiment that didn't fail? issue 2446 March–June 2002, Peace News,
• The Movement against Israeli Apartheid in Palestine issue 93, 4 June 2002 Information Brief,
• Apartheid Israel issue 655 11 September 2003, Al-Ahram Weekly,
• Apartheid Israel: A Critical Reading of the Draft Permanent Agreement, known as the 'Geneva Accords', 6 December 2003
• Research Report on the Subject of the British Park funded by the Jewish National Fund UK (First draft), June 2004 (about Ajjur)
• Regarding the Gush Shalom statement on the Jewish National Fund, 28 January 2005
• Rejoinder to David Newman and Benjamin Pogrund 30 May 2005

Interview

• Apartheid Israel, by Uri Davis and Jon Elmer; FromOccupiedPalestine.org; September 19, 2004