The Internationalization of Israeli Law:The Use of Supreme Court Petitions as a Political Tool by Foreign Governments

In December 2009, the Institute for Zionist Strategies published a study exposing the activities of political organizations in Israel that receive funding from foreign governments, mostly in the guise of promoting education and human rights. This reality, enabling financing countries to interfere in Israel’s internal affairs outside the framework of accepted and legitimate diplomatic channels, often takes place without adequate disclosure and undermines the sovereignty of the State of Israel.

This present study, largely quantitative, is a follow-up study that describes how those organizations that present themselves as part of Israeli society, though operating with funding from foreign governments, influence the local public agenda by petitioning the Supreme Court. This comprehensive study, ranging over a full decade (2000-2009), argues that the petitioning process in and of itself is a significant tool for promoting political policies, even before and without regard to any ruling reached.

For the Paper's Abstract

Conference at the Shalom Hartman Institute

The second conference of the Hartman Institute for Jewish Democratic Israel will take place on Tu B’Shvat (8.2.2012). The conference will include round table discussions dealing with the question of the influence of social justice values on the culture and character of the State of Israel. The staff of the Zionist Bet Midrash of the IZS will lead a round table discussion on the subject of “And will Ze’ev live with Berl? Social justice from the perspective of Zionist thought in all its shades”. All invited.

To view the program of the conference (Hebrew)

Registration (Hebrew)

Judicial Reform

Since the constitutional revolution of the 90’s, Israel’s Supreme Court has appropriated a great amount of power at the expense of the Legislative and Executive branches. The current method for judicial appointments contributes significantly to this imbalance. In a new study for the IZS, Dr. Aviad Bakshi compares the Israeli system to those in other Western democracies. He shows that the Israel system of giving the Supreme Court judges dominant authority to appoint judges is an aberration, and that the judges in the other countries are appointed by the public’s elected representatives.

For an abstract of the study