“Electrical Palestine: Zionist and Arab Technopolitics Under the British Mandate”
Lecture by Dr. Fredrik Meiton, Assistant Professor of History at University of New Hampshire

At the dawn of the Arab-Israeli conflict, both political power and electrical power were circulated through the electric grid that was built by the Zionist engineer Pinhas Rutenberg during the period of British rule from 1917 to 1948. This talk about the history and politics of electricity in Mandate Palestine and Israel charts a story of rapid and uneven Zionist and Palestinian development that was greatly influenced by the electric grid.

Professor Meiton is a historian of the modern Middle East. He studies the intersection of politics, science and the environment, especially in the context of colonial development. He teaches courses in global and Middle Eastern history, often with a focus on science, technology, energy and the environment. Professor Meiton has a B.A. in history from Lund University, an M.Phil. in Middle East studies from St Antony’s College, Oxford, and a Ph.D. from New York University. Before taking up his position at UNH, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Science in Human Culture Program and Department of History at Northwestern University. Professor Meiton has published widely for scholarly and general audiences on a range of topics, from electrification in Mandate Palestine to energy politics, capitalism and political theory, in publications that include Past & Present, Comparative Studies in Society & History, Response and Dissent. His most recent book is titled "Electrical Palestine: Capital and Technology from Empire to Nation" (University of California Press, 2019).