Dr Elian Weizman

Early Career Fellow 2022-23

The Threshold of Criminalisation: Cartographies of State Vulnerabilities and Anti-Colonial Resistance in Israel

The project sets to develop a nuanced understanding of processes of formal and informal criminalisation in Israel, here regarded as a ‘liberal settler state’, and their operation on the state’s most privileged groups. In so doing, it investigates key aspects of political activism and notions of legality and criminality and unravels the logic behind the increasing repression of Jewish-Israeli dissidents in recent years, as indicated by recent legislation; the growing incitement against them by politicians and right-wing organisations; and the growing number of prosecutions of political activists.

More information

Research outcomes

Duff K., Rossdale C., Rossi F. and Weizman, E. (forthcoming 2026)

Co-edited book. Resisting Criminalisation: tactics of repression, tactics of struggle. Bristol University Press.

Browne, B., Weizman, E & Matchain, J. (2025)

Unpacking the British government’s crackdown on Palestine solidarity activism in a post October 7th reality. Third World Quarterly. [Online First]

Weizman, E. (2024)

Criminalising dissent in the settler state: reflections from Israel. In Di Ronco, A. and Selmini, R. (eds) Criminalisation of Dissent in Times of Crisis, Palgrave.

Weizman, E. (2024)

At the threshold of criminalisation: repression of ‘oppositional’ political activism in Israel. Critical Studies on Security: 1-19. DOI: 10.1080/21624887.2024.2398846

Weizman, E. (2023)

Thresholds of repression and criminalisation of oppositional political activism in the Israeli settler state: a preliminary investigation. Justice, Power and Resistance, 6 (2): 188-206. DOI: 10.1332/LHOP4894

Cristiano, F., Dadusc, D., Davanna, T., Duff, K., Gilmore, J., Rossdale, C., Rossi, F., Tatour, A., Tatour, L., Tufail, W. & Weizman, E. (2023)

Criminalisation of political activism: a conversation across disciplines, Critical Studies on Security, DOI: 10.1080/21624887.2023.2188628

Areas of interest

International Relations Israel Palestine Settler Colonialism Violence Law Knowledge Production Activism

Cohort

ECF6

Biography

Elian Weizman is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at London South Bank University.

Elian’s research agenda is grounded in the case of Israel/Palestine, but speaks more broadly to the study of (settler) colonial regimes, paying particular attention to the dynamics of resistance within settler states, the intersection of law and violence and the politics of knowledge production in these contexts. She is the coordinator (with Federica Rossi and Joanna Gilmore) of the working group on the Criminalisation of Dissent and Activism in the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control. She also serves as a member of the British Society for Middle East Studies Committee on Academic Freedom.

Biographical details correct as of 05.09.25