Hillel Cohen-Bar (born in Jerusalem, 5 October 1961) is an

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

i scholar who studies and writes about Jewish-Arab relations in Palestine/Israel. He is an associated professor at the Department of Islam and Middle East Studies at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

, and the head of the Cherrick Center for the Study of Zionism and the State of Israel at that university.

Journalism and academic career

Cohen is familiar with

East Jerusalem East Jerusalem (, ; , ) is the sector of Jerusalem that was held by Jordan during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, as opposed to the western sector of the city, West Jerusalem, which was held by Israel. Jerusalem was envisaged as a separ ...

, the topic of his book, ''Kikar Hashuk Reka'' (The Marketplace is Empty or: The Rise and Fall of Arab Jerusalem), because of the years he spent as a correspondent for East Jerusalem affairs for the Israeli weekly ''

Kol Ha'ir ''Kol Ha'ir'' (, lit ''The Whole City'', also a homophone for ''Voice of the City'') is a weekly local newspaper published in Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common ...

''. He published extensively on the Palestinian internal refugees and on the

1948 war The 1948 Palestine war was fought in the territory of what had been, at the start of the war, British-ruled Mandatory Palestine. It is known in Israel as the War of Independence ( he, מלחמת העצמאות, ''Milkhemet Ha'Atzma'ut'') and ...

. Two of his books deal with Palestinian collaborators and the Israeli security agencies using methodology that can be described as history-from-below. The

Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is a broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Jerusalem Post''. In 2004, the paper ...

calls his books "an accessible mixture of academic research and vivid journalistic reporting. Cohen manages to show empathy when relating human issues, but maintains a professional distance regarding events." In his review of Cohen's book ''Army of Shadows,''

Benny Morris Benny Morris ( he, בני מוריס; born 8 December 1948) is an Israeli historian. He was a professor of history in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Beersheba, Israel. He is a member of ...

lauds the book as important and learned, and praises it for presenting an objective view of 'collaboration'".The Tangled Truth, The New Republic, Benny Morris
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Published works

*''The Present Absentee: Palestinian Refugees in Israel Since 1948'' (Hebrew 2000, Arabic 2003) *''Good Arabs: The Israeli Security Services and the Israeli Arabs ערבים טובים'' (Hebrew 2006, English 2010) *'' Army of Shadows, Palestinian Collaboration with Zionism, 1917–1948'' (Hebrew 2004, English 2008) *''The Rise and Fall of Arab Jerusalem'' (Hebrew 2007, English 2011) *''Year Zero of the Arab-Israeli Conflict 1929 תרפ"ט שנת האפס בסכסוך היהודי ערבי '' (Hebrew 2013, English 2015)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Hillel 1961 births Living people Israeli historians New Historians Jewish writers Jewish historians Hebrew University of Jerusalem faculty People from Jerusalem