Oren Ben-Dor

Oren Ben-Dor (אורן בן דור) is a philosopher living in the UK. He is a former professor of law and philosophy 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 received his Bachelor of Laws from Birmingham University (1992), and his Master of Arts (1993) and Doctor of Philosophy (1997) from University College London.

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, writing that those on the Israeli "left" who oppose it are "sophisticated accomplices to the smothering of debate." He has written about alleged apartheid in Israel, bias in Israel's education system, the ethical and legal challenges facing Palestine, and the use of violence by the Israeli state.

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. He has supported that alternative in public debate. Ben-Dor has engaged in academic debate with Oren Yiftachel in the journal Holy Land Studies regarding the one-state solution.