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United States Jeff Halper is an Israeli anthropologist, author, and activist known for his extensive work in human rights and peace advocacy, particularly concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Jeff Halper is the Co-founder and Director of ICAHD, an organization dedicated to challenging Israel's policy of demolishing Palestinian homes in the Occupied Territories and working for a just peace.
Nominated Jeff Halper, along with Ghassan Andoni, for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for their work to liberate both Palestinian and Israeli people from structural violence and build equality.
Halper initiated The People Yes! Network to provide an infrastructure for left and progressive groups to collaborate globally on issues.
Halper is a co-founder of the ODSC, which seeks to envision an inclusive democracy between the River and the Sea.
Halper participated in the first Free Gaza Movement voyage in 2008, aiming to break the Israeli siege of Gaza.
Halper is a member of the support committee for the Russell Tribunal on Palestine.
ICAHD (co-founded by Halper) received the Olive Branch Award from Jewish Voice for Peace in 2007.
Trocaire is listed as a donor to ICAHD.
NGO Development Center is listed as a donor to ICAHD.
The United Nations Development Programme is listed as a donor to ICAHD.
World Vision is listed as a donor to ICAHD.
Mennonite Central Committee is listed as a donor to ICAHD.
The European Union is listed as a donor to ICAHD.
The government of Spain is listed as a donor to ICAHD.
Jeff Halper was born in Boston in 1946 and grew up in Hibbing, Minnesota. He received his B.A. from Macalester College and later earned his Ph.D. in Cultural and Applied Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. During the 1960s, Halper was involved in the civil rights movement and the anti-Vietnam War movement. He emigrated to Israel in 1973. In his early career, he worked as a community volunteer for ten years with the Jerusalem municipality, focusing on Mizrahi Jewish neighborhoods. He also conducted research among Ethiopian Jews in the 1960s and subsequently became Chairman of the Israeli Committee for Ethiopian Jews.
Halper has held various academic positions, including adjunct lecturer in anthropology at the University of Haifa and Ben Gurion University. He served as the Director of Friends World College’s Middle East Center in Jerusalem and later as Director of its International Academic Operations when it merged with Long Island University in 1991, achieving the rank of associate professor. His academic focus included the history of modern Jerusalem, contemporary Israeli culture, and the Middle East conflict. In 1997, Halper co-founded the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), a non-violent Israeli peace and human rights organization dedicated to resisting the demolition of Palestinian homes in the Occupied Territories.
As the Coordinator of ICAHD, Halper has been a prominent figure in direct action against Israeli policies, including physically resisting home demolitions. Under his leadership, ICAHD has rebuilt 189 Palestinian homes and campaigns internationally on issues related to the occupation. His activism led to a nomination for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize by the American Friends Service Committee, alongside Palestinian intellectual Ghassan Andoni, for their work towards liberation from structural violence and fostering equality. Halper is the author of several books, including “Between Redemption and Revival: The Jewish Yishuv in Jerusalem in the Nineteenth Century” (1991), “Obstacles to Peace” (Fourth Edition, 2009), and “An Israeli in Palestine: Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel” (2008), which details his work against the Israeli Occupation. He also co-founded The One Democratic State Campaign (ODSC).
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