Stanford University

Environmental Lessons and Implications of the Gaza War

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From possible hydrological contamination caused by tunnel flooding to deforestation caused by indiscriminate shelling, the environmental implications of the War in Gaza have played only a secondary role in public awareness of the conflict. Nonetheless, there may be long-lasting ecological implications to the present military activities which need to be considered. As attention turns to “the day after,” this panel of leading experts consider the challenge of sustainable restoration and preserving environmental quality for the future of Gazans and residents of the region.

Alon Tal, a Visiting Fellow in Israel Studies at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, will act as moderator for this discussion.

Dorit Banet

Dorit Banet

Co-founded Eilat-Eilot Renewable Energy Initiative
Dorit Banet has been Israel’s leading government official in the area of renewable energy for two decades. As head of the Eilot-Eilat Renewable Energy Initiative, she led the effort which converted the region into the world’s first 100% day-time solar electricity area. Ms. Banet served as an environmental consultant for the Israel Lands Authority in its planning for rebuilding the Gaza- Envelope region after October 7th.
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Galit Cohen

Galit Cohen

Director of the Program on Climate Change at the Israel Institute for National Security
Galit is working to identify and analyze risks and opportunities for Israel’s national security in the field of climate change. In her former position as Director General of the Israel Ministry of Environmental Protection, Cohen served as Israel’s most senior environmental regulator. She has over 20 years of experience in initiating and managing national policy transformations while implementing her deep understanding of international trends and governmental reforms, environmental and climate technologies, and financial issues.
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Dr. Tariq Abu Hamed, Director of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies

Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed

Director of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies
Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed completed his doctorate in Chemical Engineering from Ankara University. His postdoctoral research at Weizmann and the University of Minnesota’s Mechanical Engineering Department Solar Energy Lab focused on renewable energy. He served as Deputy Chief Scientist, and later the Acting Chief Scientist at Israel’s appointed Israeli Ministry of Science’s Deputy, the highest ranking Palestinian in the Israeli government. He rejoined to the Arava Institute in 2016 as Director of its Center for Renewable Energy and Academic Director, and was appointed Executive Director in 2021.
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Victor Weiss

Victor Weiss

Director of Sustainability, Israel National Security Council
Victor Weiss was a senior military officer who founded the Israel Defense Force’s Environmental Unit. He has subsequently served as the Director of the Heschel Center for Sustainability and Co-executive Director of the Climate Restoration Center. Recently, he was hired to oversee issues involving climate and sustainabiiltiy at Israel’s National Security Council.
Larry Diamond
Larry Diamond
Alon Tal

Dorit Banet co-founder Eilat-Eilot Renewable Energy Initiative
Galit Cohen Director of the Program on Climate Change Israel Institute for National Security
Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed Director Arava Institute for Environmental Studies
Victor Weiss Director of Sustainability Israel National Security Council
Panel Discussions
Israel Studies

Film Screening | GOLDA, starring Helen Mirren

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Helen Mirren stars as Golda Meir in "GOLDA,", a film by Guy Nattiv for Bleecker Street and Vertical Bleeker Street

In cooperation with Bleecker Street and Mean Streets Management, the Israel Studies program at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) is offering a public screening of the Academy Award-nominated film, GOLDA.

Inspired by a true story of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir’s leadership during the 19 tragic days of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, the film brings us back to the hardships of political decisions for the sake of the nation, statehood and regional peace.

Opening remarks will be offered by Larry Diamond and Meron Medzini. Larry Diamond is the William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. Meron Medzini is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Asian Studies of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

This event is free and open to the public, registration required. 

Larry Diamond

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Stanford University
Encina Hall, C147
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Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution
Professor, by courtesy, of Political Science and Sociology
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MA, PhD

Larry Diamond is the William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, the Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. He is also professor by courtesy of Political Science and Sociology at Stanford, where he lectures and teaches courses on democracy (including an online course on EdX). At the Hoover Institution, he co-leads the Project on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region and participates in the Project on the U.S., China, and the World. At FSI, he is among the core faculty of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, which he directed for six and a half years. He leads FSI’s Israel Studies Program and is a member of the Program on Arab Reform and Development. He also co-leads the Global Digital Policy Incubator, based at FSI’s Cyber Policy Center. He served for 32 years as founding co-editor of the Journal of Democracy.

Diamond’s research focuses on global trends affecting freedom and democracy and on U.S. and international policies to defend and advance democracy. His book, Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency, analyzes the challenges confronting liberal democracy in the United States and around the world at this potential “hinge in history,” and offers an agenda for strengthening and defending democracy at home and abroad.  A paperback edition with a new preface was released by Penguin in April 2020. His other books include: In Search of Democracy (2016), The Spirit of Democracy (2008), Developing Democracy: Toward Consolidation (1999), Promoting Democracy in the 1990s (1995), and Class, Ethnicity, and Democracy in Nigeria (1989). He has edited or coedited more than fifty books, including China’s Influence and American Interests (2019, with Orville Schell), Silicon Triangle: The United States, China, Taiwan the Global Semiconductor Security (2023, with James O. Ellis Jr. and Orville Schell), and The Troubling State of India’s Democracy (2024, with Sumit Ganguly and Dinsha Mistree).

During 2002–03, Diamond served as a consultant to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and was a contributing author of its report, Foreign Aid in the National Interest. He has advised and lectured to universities and think tanks around the world, and to the World Bank, the United Nations, the State Department, and other organizations dealing with governance and development. During the first three months of 2004, Diamond served as a senior adviser on governance to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad. His 2005 book, Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq, was one of the first books to critically analyze America's postwar engagement in Iraq.

Among Diamond’s other edited books are Democracy in Decline?; Democratization and Authoritarianism in the Arab World; Will China Democratize?; and Liberation Technology: Social Media and the Struggle for Democracy, all edited with Marc F. Plattner; and Politics and Culture in Contemporary Iran, with Abbas Milani. With Juan J. Linz and Seymour Martin Lipset, he edited the series, Democracy in Developing Countries, which helped to shape a new generation of comparative study of democratic development.

Download full-resolution headshot; photo credit: Rod Searcey.

Former Director of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law
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Meron Medzini Professor Emeritus Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Film Screenings

New Continuing Studies Course on Modern Israel with Larry Diamond and Amichai Magen

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Born in the aftermath of World War II, the State of Israel has undergone remarkable development as a nation over the past 75 years, oscillating between periods of war and strained peace while building a vibrant multiethnic society, economy, and technology sector. Taught by Larry Diamond (Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and professor, by courtesy, of sociology and of political science) and Amichai Magen (visiting professor and fellow in Israel Studies at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies), this 10-week online course will offer an informed analysis of modern Israel. Each week, the professors will be joined by Stanford experts and other guest speakers who will analyze important dimensions of Israeli life.

This course will inevitably dedicate time to the ongoing Middle East conflict, which again exploded into violence last October, and to the continuing efforts to find a formula for Israeli-Palestinian peace. In this context, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will discuss the emerging dynamics of geopolitics in the Middle East, and former Palestinian negotiator Ghaith al-Omari and Ambassador Dennis Ross will explore options for Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. In addition, Israeli author Yossi Klein Halevi will revisit his New York Times bestselling book, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor, in light of the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack and the subsequent Gaza war. But the course will also look beyond the conflict, venturing into other lesser-known areas of Israeli life and history, including lectures on the politics of historical memory in divided societies with Stanford professor of history James T. Campbell, and Zionism and anti-Zionism with Stanford professor of the humanities Russell Berman. UC Berkeley School of Law professor Masua Sagiv will discuss the constitutional questions central to Israel’s effort to have a Jewish and democratic state. As we proceed, Sophia Khalifa Shramko will share the experience of growing up as an Arab woman in Israel. Finally, Stanford professor of economics Ran Abramitzky and Stanford visiting professor Alon Tal will explore Israel’s modern economy and efforts to use innovation to achieve sustainability in an environmentally challenging region. 

Please note: There are no formal prerequisites for this course, though prior interest and engagement with topics related to Israel and the Middle East are an advantage. This course is co-sponsored by Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and it is an adaptation of a class offered to Stanford undergraduates.

POL 67 — Modern Israel: Insights and Analysis from Stanford Scholars and Guests

Wednesdays, April 3 through June 5, 5:00 - 6:00 pm PT (online)
Learn more and enroll

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Family and friends of May Naim, 24, who was murdered by Palestinians militants at the "Supernova" festival, near the Israeli border with Gaza strip, react during her funeral on October 11, 2023 in Gan Haim, Israel. (Getty Images)
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Protestors wave flags as thousands of Israelis attend a rally against Israeli Government's judicial overhaul plan on March 27, 2023 in Jerusalem, Israel.
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Open for enrollment now through Stanford Continuing Studies, "Modern Israel: Insights and Analysis from Stanford Scholars and Guests" will run online for ten weeks on Wednesdays, from April 3 through June 5.

Alon Tal Joins the Visiting Fellows in Israel Studies Program at FSI

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The Visiting Fellows in Israel Studies program at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) is pleased to welcome Professor Alon Tal as a visiting fellow. He will be based at FSI’s Center on Food Security and the Environment (FSE). 

Professor Tal’s research looks at a broad range of issues involving public policy and sustainability, primarily considering the effect of rapidly growing populations on natural resources and the environment. Over the course of his career, Tal has balanced the demands of both academia and public interest advocacy. He has worked in government as a member of Israel’s parliament and as a professor with appointments at Tel Aviv University, Stanford, Ben Gurion, Hebrew, Michigan State, Otago, and Harvard Universities.

Prior to joining FSI, Tal was a visiting professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is also the founder of several environmental organizations in Israel, including Adam Teva V’Din, the Israel Union for Environmental Defense, and the Arava Institute.

To get a better understanding of how environmental issues are intersecting with other challenges unfolding in Israel and the region, we spoke to Dr. Tal about his research, his time in government, and his recommendations for what can be done to affect more action to address climate change.


Can you give us a general overview of how the Middle East as a region currently approaches climate-related and environmental policies?

Given the availability of inexpensive oil, it is not the surprising that many countries in the Middle East have a significant “carbon footprint.” Historically, there has been resistance to modify that energy profile. This is now starting to change. Just in December 2023, at the UN climate conference in Dubai, for the first time all Middle Eastern countries signed a pledge which ostensibly should lead to a decarbonized region. It’s fairly clear what needs to be done to achieve this, but there are enormous institutional and political obstacles to actually doing it. Each country in the Middle East functions as an “energy island” making renewable deployment much more difficult. Creating a regional electricity grid is a good place to start.

Israel has an extremely creative climate tech ecosystem that’s producing everything from green hydrogen and fuel cells to cultured meat and milk. I am encouraged that countries like the United Arab Emirates have already begun to invest in Israeli start-ups and more established companies to provide the muscle they need to become transformative. A year ago, Israel, Jordan, and the UAE signed an agreement which, for the first time, will provide clean solar energy from Jordan (which has ample open space in its deserts) to Israel. In exchange, Israel will deliver inexpensive desalinized water to Jordan, which is perhaps the world’s most water scarce country.

Beyond the sustainability dividends, given the prevailing tensions, I believe that such cooperative efforts in the environment will not only make the region healthier, but will serve as a basis to reduce the historic enmity. Indeed, I have been involved in a range of cooperative projects with Palestinian and Jordanian partners for almost thirty years.

Ready or not, the climate crisis is here, and making these issues part of the country’s political agenda and keeping them in the spotlight is important. The younger generations know this and are speaking out, and we have a responsibility to make sure they are heard.
Alon Tal
Visiting Fellow in Israel Studies


You have firsthand experience working on policy as a member of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. What success did you see there, and what challenges remain in addressing environmental issues? 

Israeli politics is quite polarized, not unlike the U.S., but issues relating to the environment generally enjoy support from all political parties. I did a lot of work with partners on the Israeli right and amongst religious politicians to engage them and receive support for a green agenda. The press made a big deal about this “bi-partisan” orientation, but it feels very natural to me. Regardless of people’s political orientation, everyone wants their children to breath clean air, drink potable war, and live in a planet with a stable climate.

That being said, I worry that public awareness of these issues remains deficient in Israel even though we are considered a “climate hotspot.” Other issues, particularly those involving security, don’t leave our citizens very much bandwidth to think about other matters, even urgent ones like climate change.

That’s why having a committee that convenes regular meetings and pushes the executive branch to be more conscientious in its mitigation and adaptation efforts from inside government is so critical. While I was serving, we held hearings on increasing shading in urban areas, removing bureaucratic obstacles to installation of “agrovoltaic” systems (solar panels on farmlands), expediting sales of electric vehicles through tax incentives, and many other topics. 

Our paramount objective was to pass a “climate law,” which would provide a statutory basis for the energy transition that needs to be accelerated. This is a step many state and national governments have taken in recent years. Unfortunately, the “Government of Change” that my party was part of in Israel fell apart before this critical legislation could be passed. That’s truly unfortunate. But the cabinet did make a commitment to reach net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050.  

Ready or not, the climate crisis is here, and making these issues part of the country’s political agenda and keeping them in the spotlight is important. The younger generations know this and are speaking out, and we have a responsibility to make sure they are heard.


What environmental implications does the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel have for the region?

For me, the war is not just about personal security, but also environmental security. Extremist, Islamist forces, and proxies for the Iranian government all threaten the kind of cooperation which is critical for the region.

I am encouraged that not one of my environmental colleagues from Arab countries — including many Palestinian colleagues — has broken off interactions with me since the war began. We continue to do research with a West Bank Palestinian group from Al Quds University about exposures to pharmaceutical products from wastewater reuse. We urgently need more of this kind of cooperation if we are going to address the pressing needs being created by this crisis.

Consider, for example, the groundwater situation in Gaza. When Egypt held the Gaza Strip in the 1960s, the aquifers were contaminated by salt water intrusion from the Mediterranean Sea caused by over pumping. It is absolutely critical that the people of Gaza have desalinated water (like Israel does) both to meet their immediate needs now and as climate-driven droughts continue to change local hydrological conditions in the future. For this to happen, whoever rules Gaza will have to stop investing limited local resources in military weaponry and focus on environmental infrastructure.

The human toll of this war is heartbreaking on all sides. But I believe that when the dust settles, there will be a victory for those who want to work together on critical environmental issues.

If we are going to meet the unprecedented challenges posed by the climate crisis, the world as we know it will have to change. And that won’t happen without effective public policies.
Alon Tal
Visiting Fellow in Israel Studies


How can institutions like Stanford help in addressing these issues?

There’s no question that higher education is evolving. Universities generally divide up their departments according to disciplinary distinctions that were germane at the advent of the twentieth century but often make less sense today. In the fields I work in, it’s common lip service to talk about “interdisciplinary solutions.” But what that actually means in practice is that students need to be given literacy in topics ranging from chemistry and biology to economics, social science, and even aesthetics. I am very impressed with Stanford’s new Doerr School of Sustainability, which is aspiring to serve as an example of how this can be done. 

The course I am currently teaching, “Public Policy and Sustainability Challenges: Israel and the Middle East,” is designed to give the students a sense of what policies appear to work and which ones do not.  For instance, carbon taxes used to be a theoretical idea. But with 61 countries having introduced policies that monetize carbon, we can now dispassionately evaluate these interventions.

The students I see in my class are a healthy mix of MBA and sustainability scholars. They break up into groups of four and serve as consultants for a variety of climate tech companies, applying what they have learned to the real-life regulatory challenges which these promising ventures face. Stanford is preparing leaders, many of whom are committed to working in the climate space. I hope that the class provides them with valuable insights and tools to do this.


Looking to the future, what policies would you like to see put in place to precipitate meaningful action on climate-related issues in both the short and long term?

It is increasingly clear that despite increased global awareness, humanity is not meeting its goals for reducing greenhouse emissions. The population is growing, and billions of people are justifiably seeking a higher standard of living. If we are going to meet the unprecedented challenges posed by the climate crisis, the world as we know it will have to change; we are going to have undergo a complete technological makeover. This means an end to the fossil fuel era, beef as it is raised today, steel, cement, plastics – you name it. And this won’t happen without effective public policies.

One of the things that we started doing in Israel is requiring every school child from kindergarten to grade 12 to take 40 hours of classes about climate related topics during the course of the school year. That’s only a start, but it’s an important one. At Tel Aviv University, ten different departments have collaborated to produce a massive online open class, or “MOOC,” to get that expertise out of the university and into the hands of people. Education, coupled with urgency and action, is crucial. These are the kinds of initiatives that I believe are needed if we are going to see any real progress. 

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Professor Tal’s expertise in sustainability and public policy will offer students valuable insight into the intersection of climate change issues and politics in the Middle East.

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Israel at War: Social Media, Society and Misinformation

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Join the Visiting Fellows in Israel Studies Program for a discussion about the roots and causes of misinformation, disinformation, and fake news in times of war. Learn more about the informational contents of foreign and domestic actors when addressing the informational threats. How it must be faced for the future of democracy, and is at stake when protecting media freedoms and civil liberties in Israel.

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Omer Benjakob is an investigative journalist for Haaretz, Israel's sole newspaper of record, focused on the intersection of politics and technology. He covers disinformation, cyber, and surveillance and has participated in several international investigations, including the Project Pegasus — the misuse of spyware made by the NSO Group — and “Team Jorge,” a groundbreaking undercover investigation into the private disinformation market and digital mercenaries offering election interference as a service. His investigation into the sale of spyware to a militia in Sudan was shortlisted for the EU's European Press Prize for investigative journalism (2023).

He is also a researcher and his writing on Wikipedia has been published in Wired UK, the Columbia Journalism Review and MIT Press, as well as academic journals. Born in New York and raised in Tel Aviv, he lives in Jaffa with his wife and teaches in a local college in Israel. He is also an associate research fellow at the Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity (LPI) in Paris, a research institute affiliated with the Université Paris Cité focused on open science.
 

Omer Benjakob

Omer Benjakob

Cyber and Disinformation Reporter for Haaretz
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Tomer Naor is a father, educator, lawyer, and a well-known social activist in Israel. Tomer holds an LLB in Law from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and an LLM graduate degree in Public Law from Northwestern University and Tel Aviv University. For the past ten years Tomer has been working for The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, one of Israel’s leading grass roots organizations, fighting corruption and promoting the values of democracy, transparency, good governance and civic participation and volunteerism in Israeli society.

Tomer has led multiple legal cases discussed in the Supreme Court that are pertinent to the core issues of preserving democracy in Israel, and has frequently appeared before the Supreme Court to argue constitutional and administrative petitions as well as before Knesset committees on various issues. In 2020, Marker magazine named Tomer as one of their "40 Under 40" influencers, and he continues to feature as a regular guest in the Israeli and international media. In addition to his legal work, Tomer is involved in a variety of social initiatives in Israel and won the Civil Society Award in 2015.
 

Tomer Naor

Tomer Naor

Chief Legal Office at The Movement for Quality Government in Israe
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Alon Tal

Online via Zoom

Tomer Naor
Omer Benjakob
Lectures

Tunnel Warfare: Grappling with the Legal and Military Challenges of Subterranean Combat

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Speaker: Daphne Richemond-Barak, assistant professor; Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy, and Strategy, Reichman University, Israel

From the first World War to Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Gaza, underground warfare has always represented one of the deadliest and most complicated combat environments. Israel went into the current war possessing the most advanced military capabilities in detection, mapping, and destruction of tunnels, yet this neither deterred Hamas from digging or lessened the challenge of subterranean fighting.

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Daphne Richemond-Barak is an assistant professor at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy, and serves as the Academic Head of the International Program in Government (RRIS) and as Senior Researcher at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT). She is also an adjunct scholar at the Modern War Institute at West Point and a senior fellow at the Lieber Institute for Law and Land Warfare, also at West Point. In 2019, her book 'Underground Warfare' was awarded the Prize Chaikin by the Chair in Geostrategy at the University of Haifa for its contribution to the geostrategy of Israel and the Middle East.

Dr. Richemond-Barak holds a Maitrise from Université Panthéon-Assas (Paris II), a Diploma in Legal Studies from Oxford University (Hertford College), an LL.M. from Yale Law School, and a Ph.D. from Tel Aviv University. She was awarded the Fulbright Scholarship, and was a recipient of the European Commission Scholarship, the Hertford College Prize, and the Oxford Prize for Distinction. Prior to joining the IDC, Dr. Richemond-Barak served as a clerk at the International Court of Justice, and worked as an attorney in the New York office of Cleary Gottlieb.
 

Daphne Richemond-Barak

Daphne Richemond-Barak

Assistant Professor at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy, and Strategy, Reichman University
Full Profile

During the 2024 winter quarter (January-March) FSI's Visiting Fellows in Israel Studies program is hosting a series of webinars exploring various aspects of contemporary Israeli politics, societal and security challenges. Webinars will take place on Wednesdays, 10:00-11:15am PST (20:00-21:15pm, Israel Time). Each webinar will feature a guest speaker from Israel or the U.S and will include a lecture or moderated conversation with the guest, followed by a Q&A with the audience.

Amichai Magen
Amichai Magen
Larry Diamond
Larry Diamond
Daphne Richemond-Barak
Seminars

What Are They Thinking? Analyzing Public Opinion in Israel

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Speaker: Tamar Hermann, academic director, The Viterbi Family Center, The Israel Democracy Institute, Israel

What do public opinion surveys reveal to us about political preferences in Israel? Has the Gaza War led to shifts in those preferences, and if so, how? And who is likely to win the next national elections in Israel? In this webinar, one of Israel’s most prominent public opinion experts, Tamar Hermann, presents and analyzes the latest data.

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Professor Tamar Hermann is a Senior Research Fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute and the Academic Director of the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research. The Center documents the attitudes of the Israeli public across a broad range of issues: politics, culture, ideology, religion, education and national security. Since 2010, Prof. Hermann has headed the team which develops and produces the annual Israeli Democracy Index, and since 2018 – the monthly Israeli Voice Index. Prof. Herman is a Professor of Political Science at the Open University in Israel.
 

Tamar Hermann

Tamar Hermann

Academic Director at the Viterbi Family Center, The Israel Democracy Institute
Full Profile

During the 2024 winter quarter (January-March) FSI's Visiting Fellows in Israel Studies program is hosting a series of webinars exploring various aspects of contemporary Israeli politics, societal and security challenges. Webinars will take place on Wednesdays, 10:00-11:15am PST (20:00-21:15pm, Israel Time). Each webinar will feature a guest speaker from Israel or the U.S. and will include a lecture or moderated conversation with the guest, followed by a Q&A with the audience.

Amichai Magen
Amichai Magen
Larry Diamond
Larry Diamond
Tamar Hermann
Seminars

Countering Abusive Constitutionalism?: The Case of the Israeli Supreme Court

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Speaker: Yaniv Roznai, associate professor and vice-dean, Harry Radzyner Law School; co-director, Rubinstein Center for Constitutional Challenges, Reichman University, Israel 

What can courts do when confronted with executives and legislators prepared to violate basic constitutional norms or seek to undermine democracy through constitutional amendments? Are there situations in which courts need to step in to prevent “abusive constitutionalism”? In this webinar Larry Diamond and Amichai Magen talk with Yaniv Roznai about Israel’s Supreme Court’s dramatic recent decisions.

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Yaniv Roznai is an Associate Professor and Vice-Dean at the Harry Radzyner Law School, and C0-director at the Rubinstein Center for Constitutional Challenges, Reichman University. He holds a PhD and LL.M (Distinction) from The London School of Economics (LSE), and LLB and BA degrees (magna cum laude) in Law and Government from the IDC, Herzliya (now Reichman University). Roznai's scholarship focuses on comparative constitutional law, constitutional theory, legisprudence, and public international law. He is the author of Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments – The Limit of Amendment Powers (Oxford University Press, 2017).
 

Yaniv Roznai

Yaniv Roznai

Associate Professor and Vice-Dean at the Harry Radzyner Law School and Co-director of the Rubinstein Center for Constitutional Challenges, Reichman University
Full Profile

During the 2024 winter quarter (January-March) FSI's Visiting Fellows in Israel Studies program is hosting a series of webinars exploring various aspects of contemporary Israeli politics, societal and security challenges. Webinars will take place on Wednesdays, 10:00-11:15am PST (20:00-21:15pm, Israel Time). Each webinar will feature a guest speaker from Israel or the U.S. and will include a lecture or moderated conversation with the guest, followed by a Q&A with the audience.

Amichai Magen
Amichai Magen
Larry Diamond
Larry Diamond
Yaniv Roznai
Seminars

The Gaza Hostage Crisis: Lessons for Hostage Diplomacy

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Speaker: Danielle Gilbert, assistant professor of political science, Northwestern University

Israel has a long and troubled history responding to hostage crises, but the nature and scale of Hamas’s hostage taking on October 7th is unprecedented. In this webinar, Danielle Gilbert will discuss the long history of hostage taking in war, the evolution of hostage diplomacy, and what lessons can be drawn from the current hostage crisis in Gaza.

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Danielle Gilbert’s research explores the causes and consequences of hostage taking, including projects on rebel kidnapping, hostage recovery policy, and hostage diplomacy. Following Hamas’s October 7th attack, she published the essay: “Why the Gaza Hostage Crisis Is Different.” In 2023, she was selected to serve on the Bipartisan Commission on Hostage Taking and Wrongful Detention at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) In Washington, DC. Before embarking on an academic career, she served four years on Capitol Hill including as a Senior Legislative Assistant and Appropriations Associate, and she worked as a policy advisor on presidential and congressional campaigns.
 

Danielle Gilbert

Danielle Gilbert

Assistant Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University
Full Profile

During the 2024 winter quarter (January-March) FSI's Visiting Fellows in Israel Studies program is hosting a series of webinars exploring various aspects of contemporary Israeli politics, societal and security challenges. Webinars will take place on Wednesdays, 10:00-11:15am PST (20:00-21:15pm, Israel Time). Each webinar will feature a guest speaker from Israel or the U.S. and will include a lecture or moderated conversation with the guest, followed by a Q&A with the audience.

Amichai Magen
Amichai Magen
Larry Diamond
Larry Diamond
Danielle Gilbert
Seminars
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