Oren Ben-Dor (
Hebrew: אורן בן דור) is a philosopher living in the UK. He is a former professor of law and philosophy[1] at the
University of Southampton School of Law in the
United Kingdom. He has published two books on these topics and edited a third on the troubled relationship between law and art. His work has been published in various academic and mainstream publications.
He is currently writing two books, one which explores the notion of "place" and the limits of phenomenology and practical reason, and another on Palestine, in particular the relationship between the persistence of violence and existential fetters that pervade and reproduce this violence.
Ben-Dor was born in
Nahariya, northern Israel. He has supported academic boycotts of Israel universities,[3] writing that those on the Israeli "left" who oppose it are "sophisticated accomplices to the smothering of debate."[4] He has written about alleged
apartheid in Israel, bias in Israel's education system,[5] the ethical and legal challenges facing Palestine, and the use of violence by the Israeli state.[6]
In 2007, he joined a number of intellectuals and activists in signing a "One State Declaration" which calls for
one democratic state in the whole of Israel and Palestine.[7] He has supported that alternative in public debate.[8] Ben-Dor has engaged in academic debate with
Oren Yiftachel in the journal Holy Land Studies regarding the one-state solution.[9][10]
^Yiftachel, Oren, (2007), "II. From Ethnocracy to Peace through Gradual Bi-Nationalism: A Response to Oren Ben-Dor", Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal, Volume 6, Number 2, November 187–195
^Oren Ben-Dor (2007) "Debating Israeli Ethnocracy and the Challenge of Secular Democracy: I. A Critique of Oren Yiftachel", Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal, Volume 6, Number 2, November