Area of Interest: Legal History of the Middle East Conflict

Steven E. Zipperstein is an Assistant Adjunct Professor with the Luskin School of Public Affairs. He serves as Associate Director and Distinguished Senior Scholar at the UCLA Center for Middle East Development. He is also a lecturer with UCLA’s Global Studies Program and UCLA’s School of Engineering, a Research Fellow at the UCLA Nazarian Center for Israel Studies, a Visiting Professor at Tel Aviv University Law School, and a Visiting Lecturer at the Hertie School in Berlin.

Zipperstein is the author of three recent peer-reviewed books regarding the legal history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The Legal Case for Palestine: A Critical Assessment (Routledge, 2024), Zionism, Palestinian Nationalism and the Law: 1939-1948 (Routledge, 2022), and Law and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Trials of Palestine (Routledge 2020).

Zipperstein has authored several peer-reviewed papers and articles, and has testified before the United States Congress several times regarding telecommunications and internet policy issues. Zipperstein lectures widely regarding the Middle East, as well as advanced technology and cybersecurity.

Zipperstein has also practiced law for more than 40 years in California, Washington D.C. and New York/New Jersey, and has been elected to the American Law Institute and named a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. During his legal career, Zipperstein worked as a law firm litigator, a federal prosecutor, and as the Chief Legal Officer of BlackBerry Ltd. and Verizon Wireless. Zipperstein served as Counselor to Attorney General Janet Reno during the 1995 congressional hearings regarding the events in Waco, Texas, and as Counselor for former Assistant Attorney General Robert Mueller regarding the 1992-93 congressional investigation of the “Iraq-gate” matter. As a federal prosecutor, Zipperstein tried more than a dozen felony jury cases and argued 23 cases before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Publications

Lead Author, Jewish Communities in Israel, Oxford Bibliographies (2025).

Author, “The Legal War Against Israel at the International Court of Justice.” Justice: The Legal Magazine of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, no. 71, Spring 2024, pp. 12-21.

Author, The Legal Case for Palestine: A Critical Assessment (Routledge, 2024).

Author, The Status Quo at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem: The 1930 Wailing Wall Trial, International Journal of Law and Society, Vol. 6, No. 3, 241-253 (2023).

Author, Legal Framing and Lawfare in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, Vol. 16, No. 3, 330–349 (2022).

Author, Technology and Democracy: Global Perspectives; Vol. 4, No. 1 (2023)

Author, Zionism, Palestinian Nationalism and the Law: 1939-1948 (Routledge, 2022)

Author, Law and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Trials of Palestine (Routledge 2020)

Author, Reflections on Judge Richard A. Gadbois, Jr., 30 Loyola L. Rev. 1443 (1997).

Author, Victim-as-Defendant, Defendant-as-Victim: Role Reversal Defenses and Departures at Sentencing, 7 Fed. Sent. R. 190 (1995)

Author, Don’t Junk the Guidelines, At Least for Now, 5 Fed. Sent. R. 232 (1995)

Author, Certain Uncertainty: Appellate Review and the Sentencing Guidelines, 66 S. Cal. L. Rev. 621 (1992)

Author, Relevant Conduct and Plea Bargaining, 4 Fed. Sent. R. 223 (1992)

Co-Author, Comparative Fault and Intentional Torts: Doctrinal Barriers and Policy Considerations, 24 Santa Clara L. Rev. 1 (1984), reprinted in 34 Defense L. Journal 383 (1985)

Co-Author, Models of Israeli Social Analysis, 58 Journal of Jewish Communal Service 24 (1981)

Co-Author, Antecedents of Jewish Ethnic Relations in Israel, 42/43 Forum 15 (1981), reprinted in Spanish, 6 Rumbos 61 (1982)

In the Media

August 2024 – How the Palestinians can help themselves achieve statehood

July 2024 – Interview with KCRW journalist Madeleine Brand regarding legal aspects of the Gaza War

January 2024 – What would the Palestinian state of a two-state solution look like?

November 2023 – Interview with BBC regarding the Israel-Hamas War

October 2023 – Interview with ABC News: How Israel’s geography, size put it in the center of decades of conflict

October 2023 – Interview with MSN: Israel’s Iron Dome system is a major defensive asset

July 2022 – J Street’s reaction to Lapid as prime minister: Crickets

May 2022 – The Abu Akleh tragedy: Ask the FBI to investigate

January 2022 – How Not to Make the Case for Palestinian Statehood