Benny Morris

Benny Morris
בני מוריס‎
Morris in 2007
Born	(1948-12-08) 8 December 1948 (age 75) Ein HaHoresh, Israel
Academic background
Education	Hebrew University of Jerusalem (BA) University of Cambridge (PhD)
Thesis	The British Weekly Press and Nazi Germany During the 1930's (1977)
Academic work
Discipline	Historian
School or tradition	New Historians
Institutions	Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Benny Morris (Hebrew: בני מוריס; born 8 December 1948)^[1] 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. Morris was initially associated with the group of Israeli historians known as the "New Historians", a term he coined to describe himself and historians Avi Shlaim, Ilan Pappé and Simha Flapan.^[2] Scholars have perceived an ideological shift in Morris's work and a departure from the critical scholarship of his New Historian colleagues starting around 2000 during the Second Intifada.^[3][4]

Morris's 20th century work on the Arab–Israeli conflict and especially the Israeli–Palestinian conflict has won praise and criticism from both sides of the political divide.^[5] Regarding himself as a Zionist,^[6] he writes, "I embarked upon the research not out of ideological commitment or political interest. I simply wanted to know what happened."^[7] In his later career, Morris has often been condemned for his opinion that the expulsion of all Palestinian Arabs from Israel would have been justified.