Meron Benvenisti

Who is Meron Benvenisti?

Meron Benvenisti is an Israeli political scientist who was Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem under Teddy Kollek from 1971 to 1978, during which he administered East Jerusalem and served as Jerusalem's Chief Planning Officer. Initially trained as a medievalist, he has published books and maps on the Crusaders period in the Holy Land, he later obtained a Harvard doctorate in conflict management. In 1984 he founded the West Bank Database Project, documenting social, economic, and political developments in the West Bank. Since 1992 he devotes his time to teaching as visiting lecturer, research and writing on Jerusalem, Northern Ireland conflict, Israeli- Palestinian relations, Palestinian vanished landscape, bi-nationalism and restaurant reviews. He was a fellow at The Wilson Center in Washington DC and a Visiting Fellow at Harvard's CFIA and a recipient of research grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the US institute of Peace. Between 1991 and 2009 he wrote a column for Haaretz, Israel's leading left-liberal newspaper. He holds a doctorate from Harvard's Kennedy School. He is the son of Israel Prize recipient David Benvenisti.