The Precarious State of Israeli Democracy and Pathways Forward with Issachar Rosen-Zvi

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"The Precarious State of Israeli Democracy and Pathways Forward"

In the aftermath of a series of political crises in Israel, marked by five consecutive elections within four years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu successfully established a government in November 2022. This government, considered the most far-right in Israel's history, promptly launched a campaign for regime change, masquerading under the banner of a "legal reform." The main goal of this reform was to both capture and diminish the authority of the Supreme Court and undermine the already fragile system of checks and balances, thus posing a significant threat to Israel's democracy. These governmental efforts were met with widespread protests that managed to thwart them, at least temporarily, yet simultaneously exacerbated the social divisions that fracture Israeli society. The lecture will delve into the various components of the government's initiatives and the opposition they encountered, while also outlining a path forward for Israeli democratic governance.

Issachar (Issi) Rosen-Zvi is a Professor of Law and the Director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Tel Aviv University. Between 2018-2022 he served as the and the Vice Dean fot he Faculty of Law. Professor Rosen-Zvi obtained his J.S.D. from Stanford Law School. He clerked for the Honorable Chief Justice Aharon Barak of the Israeli Supreme Court and practiced law at Kirkland & Ellis, LLP in New York. Prof. Rosen-Zvi’s areas of research include procedural law, public law, local government law and the law of democracy.