Dr. Meir Margalit (; born 1952) is a human and civil rights activist in Jerusalem. He received a Ph.D. in history from

Haifa University 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 indepen ...

. Dr. Margalit is a researcher of the history of the Jewish community during the period of Mandatory Palestine, specializing in the early peace and bi-national movements within the population prior to the U.N. mandated partition of Palestine in 1947, and the subsequent creation of the State of Israel in 1948. Dr. Margalit is a founder of the Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolitions, and CAPI, The Committee for the Advancement of Peace Initiatives.A Conversation with Meir Margalit
/ref> Meir Margalit was born in

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

and moved to Israel in 1972.Just Vision portrait
During his military service he served in a Jewish settlement in Gaza Strip. He was injured in the Yom Kippur War of 1973. During his recovery he began to gradually adopt a radical progressive and pacifist position. He was an elected member of the

Jerusalem City Council Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, representing the Left-Wing

Meretz Meretz (, ; ) was a left-wing political party in Israel. The party was formed in 1992 by the merger of Ratz, Mapam and Shinui, and was at its peak between 1992 and 1996 when it had 12 seats. It had no seats in the Knesset following its failure ...

Party between 1998 and 2002. Elected again for Meretz in 2008, he is currently a member of the city council, officially in charge of the East Jerusalem portfolio. He is known for his staunch criticism of the various Jerusalem mayors for their policies of perceived and realized discrimination towards the Palestinian residents of the city. Margalit is the author of various books on municipal policy and a frequent speaker and lecturer in many countries around the world.

References

1952 births Living people 20th-century Israeli historians 20th-century Israeli politicians 21st-century Israeli non-fiction writers 21st-century Israeli politicians Argentine emigrants to Israel Argentine Jews Deputy mayors of Jerusalem Historians of Israel Israeli historians Israeli human rights activists Jewish human rights activists Jewish Israeli politicians Jewish anti-war activists Argentine lecturers Israeli lecturers Meretz politicians University of Haifa alumni {{Israel-bio-stub