nationalism

The connection between October 7th and September 11th are not just in the magnitude of the tragedy and their ongoing global impact, but in the messaging and paradigms introduced into the educational system, as it attempts to tackle this fateful event. The education system has a critical role to play in allowing society to deal constructively with the consequences of the current war.

Religious Zionism (the sector, not the political party that appropriated the name) is one of the most influential population groups in Israel. In the following essay, I wish to draw attention to a worrying process afflicting religious Zionism, the roots of which can be traced back to its early days and has dramatically worsened in recent years.

The Exodus from Egypt is what brought Israelites their freedom and made them into a nation.

Nineteen years after the murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, IDI Vice President Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer explores the background, meaning, and ramifications of this event, taking a hard look at some of the dangers he sees in Israeli society today.

IDI Vice President Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer discusses the High Court of Justice's decision to uphold the Israel Broadcasting Authority's rejection of an infomercial in which the names of Gazan children who were killed in Operation Protective Edge would have been read aloud. 

In honor of Israel's 65th birthday, Attorney Amir Fuchs reflects on whether the reality of today's Israel adheres to the values and vision of early Zionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky.

A bill entitled "Basic Law: Israel – The Nation State of the Jewish People" is currently being considered by the Knesset. Although it was sponsored by a large number of Knesset members from a both the coalition and the opposition, the bill is controversial as it may disrupt the delicate balance between the "Jewish" and "democratic" identities of the State of Israel. In this op-ed, IDI Vice-President Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer and Researcher Adv. Shiri Krebs argue that the bill is unnecessary and counterproductive to the goal of a Jewish and democratic Israel. 

Israeli politicians deemed the attack of a group of Arab teens by a group of Jewish teens to be the act of "bad apples" who don't represent the norm. In the following op-ed, however, IDI researcher Attorney Amir Fuchs warns that the radicalization of Israeli youth is the fruit of a poisonous tree being cultivated in the Knesset itself.

The proposed "Basic Law: Israel – The Nation State of the Jewish People" has the support of one third of the members of Knesset. In this op-ed, which was originally published in Hebrew in Yedioth Ahronoth, IDI Vice President of Research Prof. Yedidia Z. Stern, who is deeply committed to the Jewish nature of the State of Israel, warns that the shift from defining Israel as a "Jewish and democratic state" to a "Jewish state with a democratic regime" is not a semantic shift, but a seismic change.  

In an op-ed in Yedioth Ahronoth, Prof. Yedidia Stern points to segments of Israel's population that denounce the national values of the State: supporters of “normalization,” ultra-Orthodox Jews, Arab Israelis, and a new group that has joined them: ultra-nationalists.

Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer and Roy Konfino argue that the proposed 'Nakba Law,' which forbids public mourning of Israel's Independence Day, is anti-democratic, unconstitutional, and detrimental to freedom of expression and of peaceful demonstration in Israel.

If Israel was founded as the state of the Jewish people, why is a nation-state law so problematic, having already toppled one government? 

Leaders of the Israel Democracy Institute call for alternative proposal that would place nation-state of the Jewish people on equal footing with democratic obligation to equality for all Israeli citizens.