Israel Harel founded the Institute for Religious Zionism at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. He was also Director of the Institute's Lay Leadership Program for six years. In 1980 Mr. Harel founded the Council of
Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, which he headed until 1995, he also founded the journal Nekuda, which he edited from 1980-1996. Mr. Harel is the initiator and founder of The Forum for National Responsibility. This Forum, operating since 1999 under the auspices of the Rabin Center, created the Kinneret Covenant, a document of understandings and basic agreements between the major sectors in Israeli Jewish society. This document is the first of its kind since the establishment of the State.
Mr. Harel initiated and chaired the Gavison-Meidan project. The heart of the project that began at the Shalom Hartman Institute is the formulation of a comprehensive covenant, including the formulation of detailed legislative proposals, to regulate the joint existence of secular and religious populations in Israel in various areas of disagreement such as Shabbat, conversion, military draft, burial, and the law of return. Professor Ruth Gavison and Rabbi Yaakov Meidan worked for three years on the document, with the assistance of the Forum for Critical Feedback, It was comprised of approximately 25 people from the fields of academia, public life, religion and communication. The document has been signed and will be distributed to the Israeli public.
Israel Harel chairs the Association of the Paratroopers who Liberated Jerusalem. He is a member of the Israeli-American Forum. Mr. Harel writes a weekly column for Haaretz. The column is distributed with the Israeli edition of Haaretz / Herald Tribune. His Op-Ed articles have been published by The New York Times, GUARDIAN and other newspapers around the world. He has published several books, including The Lion's Gate and The Valor of the Heart, and has written essays on social, religious and political topics for various journals. His program for a "Regional Settlement", which in essence is the participation of Egypt and Jordan in transferring sufficient territories to the Palestinians so that they can establish a viable state, was recently published in London by the Royal Institute of International Affairs ("Chatham House"). The Harel family resides in Ofra, in the Binyamin region.
