Center for Security and Democracy

The Center for Security and Democracy addresses what is perhaps the greatest challenge facing the State of Israel: how to preserve a free society under conditions of permanent siege.  Its mission is to assist decision-makers to craft a proper balance between competing values: the imperative of preserving Israel's national security on the one hand, and the need to protect human rights and civil liberties on the other. The center works on questions of national security and the law, civil-military relations, counterterrorism policy and Israel's international legitimacy in the struggle against terrorism.

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    Prof. Suzie Navot

    Vice President, Research

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    Suzie Navot is a full professor of constitutional and parliamentary law and, prior to her appointment, was a member of the faculty of the Striks School of Law at the College of Management Academic Studies. She earned a bachelor's degree in law from Tel Aviv University, an M.A in public policy from the Faculty of Social Sciences at Tel Aviv University and holds a doctorate in law from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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    Dr. Eran Shamir-Borer

    Director

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    Dr. Eran Shamir-Borer serves as the Director of the Center for National Security and Democracy since September 2022.

    Prior, Eran served for over 20 years in various positions in the International Law Department of the Military Advocate General's Corps in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), including as the head of the department, and retired at the rank of Colonel.

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    Prof. Amichai Cohen

    Senior Fellow

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    Professor Amichai Cohen is a member of the Faculty of Law at Ono Academic College. He earned his LL.B. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his LL.M. and LL.D. from Yale Law School at Yale University.

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    Prof. Yuval Shany

    Senior Fellow

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    Among other things, he has researched questions of right to equality, security detention, interrogation techniques, on-line surveillance and content moderation, military investigations, proportionality in the application of force, jurisdiction of international criminal tribunals and counterterrorism.

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    Dr. Yael Litmanovitz

    Senior Researcher

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    Dr. Yael Litmanovitz holds an MSc and a doctorate from the University of Oxford.  Her thesis developed the evidence-base for police training in democratic societies. She worked with Israeli Border Police to design and trial a training intervention on procedurally just policing of protests.

    Since 2008 she has collaborated with and studied police organizations in Israel and abroad, focusing on issues of police reform, police training, fair and equitable policing, and evidence-based policing. Her papers have been published in leading journals.

    She is also a Teaching Fellow at Centre for Criminology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, teaching policing-related undergraduate courses as part of the Israel Police academicization program.

    Prior to joining IDI, Dr. Litmanovitz was a Researcher at the Myer-JDC Brookdale Institute, where she worked with the Arab Society Research Group, leading the comprehensive evaluation of the five-year socio-economic development plan for the Bedouin population.

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    Adv. Mirit Lavi

    Researcher

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    Adv. Mirit Sharabi-Lavi holds a bachelor's degree in law from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and a master's degree (cum laude) in international dispute settlement and arbitration from Leiden University. Before she started working at the IDI, Mirit worked at the Israeli Embassy to the Netherlands, focusing on international law and the various international courts and organizations in The Hague. She also worked at the Office of the Deputy Attorney General (International Law) in the Israeli Ministry of Justice, in the fields of international economic law and international technology law. She previously conducted research in the fields of space law, cyber law and privacy law.

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    Prof. Elisheva Rosman-Stollman

    Guest Researcher

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    Prof. Elisheva Rosman-Stollman is a member of the Political Studies Department at Bar Ilan University, and until recently served as the head of the Argov Center for the Study of Israel and the Jewish People, and deputy Chair of the Department. Prof. Rosman-Stollman also serves as a senior researcher at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA). In addition to being a founding member of the Civil-Military Researchers Association in Israel, she is the editor-in-chief of the Association of Military Researcher's journal 'The Israeli Journal of Society Military and National Security' (IJMNS). She serves as a member of various working groups advising bodies within the military system.

    Prof. Rosman-Stollman's research deals with a variety of issues including civil-military relations, the military as a social tool, women, religion and the state, religious feminism, relations between the Gulf States and Israel, issues of religion and the military, as well as the military and security. Her research projects include the image of the combat soldier in the Israeli media, religious soldiers in the IDF, soldiers in the civilian health system, religious feminism, and marriage outside the rabbinate.

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    Alon Blass

    Research Assistant

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    Graduated with a BA in Political Science and Communications from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

    Currently a Master's student in Political Science, majoring in Law, Government and Society, in the research track at the Hebrew University.

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    Haim Hagai Gunder

    Research Assistant

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    Orna Weinstein

    Research Assistant

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    Adv. Ruth Ashur

    Research Assistant

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    Holds a BA and MA in Law from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Previously worked in the Advisory and Legislative Department and the State Attorney's Office at the Ministry of Justice.

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