Arnon Soffer (; born 24 December 1935) is an Israeli geographer and a professor of

Geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

and environmental sciences, specialising in water issues and

demography Demography () is the statistical study of human populations: their size, composition (e.g., ethnic group, age), and how they change through the interplay of fertility (births), mortality (deaths), and migration. Demographic analysis examine ...

. Soffer is one of the founders of the

University of Haifa The University of Haifa (, ) is a public research university located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. Founded in 1963 as a branch of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Haifa received full academic accreditation as an inde ...

. He is known for his research into demographic, water, environmental, political, and strategy issues of the state of Israel. Soffer has been vocal about geographical processes that endanger the existence of the State of Israel, and was one of the first to describe the increase in population of Palestinians as a "demographic threat" to the State of Israel. He is known as one of the architects behind the

Israeli Disengagement from Gaza In 2005, Israel disengaged from the Gaza Strip by dismantling all 21 Israeli settlements there. As part of this process, four Israeli settlements in the West Bank were dismantled as well. The disengagement was executed unilaterally: Israeli a ...

in 2005.

Biography

Soffer was born in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

to parents Jacob and Chasia Soffer, both immigrants from Belarus. Soffer grew up in

Rishon LeZion Rishon LeZion ( , "First to Zion") is a city in Israel, located along the central Israeli coastal plain south of Tel Aviv. It is part of the Gush Dan metropolitan area. Founded in 1882 by Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire who were ...

, which was originally a

moshava A moshava (, plural: ''moshavot'' , ''colony'' or ''village'') was a form of agricultural Jewish settlement in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine (now Israel), established by the members of the Old Yishuv beginning in the late 1870s ...

and became a city when he turned 15 (in 1950). He and his classmates from the Gymnasia Realit formed the first

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

team of the city, which operated under the auspices of " Maccabi". In the 1950s Soffer played in Israel's handball national team. During his military service in the IDF, he served in the Nahal Brigade. Soffer has three academic degrees from the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

. In 1965, he was granted a position as a

lecturer Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct re ...

at the

. Soffer served in a variety of roles in the academic faculty at the University of Haifa, including the Department for Geography, chairman of the Jewish-Arab Center and the Institute for the Study of the Middle East, Dean of the Faculty for Social Sciences and Vice Chairman of the Center for National security research. Since 1970, he has taught, mentored and is involved in the IDF Command and Staff College; In 1978 he became a professor at the National Defense College and was appointed head of the College Research Center in 2007. Soffer is now retired, and teaches only the security officials studying at the University of Haifa, including students from the National Defense College, Tactical Command College, the Havatzalot Program of the Intelligence Corps, and the Trainee Course of the Israel police. He is married with four children and eight grandchildren.

Criticism

His obsession with the demographic threat posed by the increase of the Arab population led to some of his colleagues at the University of Haifa nicknaming him "Arnon the Arab-counter", a joking reference to the fact that the Hebrew surname Soffer literally means "one who counts". As such he has been credited with working to implement the " separation policy" of Israel. Soffer received pushback for his claim that the gather of secular Israelis in

"emboldened" Arab citizens of Israel and endangered the state. He had proposed a complete ban on construction and internal migration to the city. He also is opposed to the immigration of African migrants seeking asylum to Israel, claiming that the "infiltrators" will pose a demographic threat to Israel.

References

External links

Some of Soffer's article
- at the Haifa University website (Hebrew)

(Hebrew) * Prof. Arnon Soffer video lecture
Climate refugees
on the academic channel, 1/10/2009 (Hebrew) * Prof. Arnon Soffer video lecture
The water struggles in the Middle East
on the academic channel, 01/12/2010 (Hebrew)
Prof. Arnon Soffer Collection
on the Digital collections of Younes and Soraya Nazarian Library, University of Haifa {{DEFAULTSORT:Soffer, Arnon Academic staff of the University of Haifa Israeli geographers Living people 1935 births Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Gymnasia Realit alumni