Transcript Slide 1

Democracy Education in
Israel
Raphael Cohen-Almagor
Director, Center for Democratic
Studies, University of Haifa
21 July 2015
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Preliminaries
Israel was established as a Jewish
democracy
Based on Liberal-Democratic values
AND
Jewish values
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Preliminaries
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Authoritarian regimes surround it.
The key factor for its success is its
relationships with our neighbours.
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Preliminaries
 Israel
survived seven wars and
two Palestinian uprisings in 58
years of independence.
 It is hard to maintain normality
under such a hostile
environment.
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Preliminaries
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
Security expenses exhausts a third of
our budget, leaving insufficient
resources for the development of
other spheres.
The constant security threat destroys
the tourism industry and preempts
external investments essential for
economic growth.
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Preliminaries
Unemployment continues to be
significant.
 Salaries going down in real terms.
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Welfare benefits are cut.
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Society’s Profile
No shared raison d'être
• 20% wish to transform democracy into
theocracy
• 20% do not endorse the Zionist ethos
• 20% of the population are immigrants from the
former Soviet Union where no democracy
existed
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Background - Schisms
In addition, Israel suffers from internal
schisms:
 between Israeli-Palestinians and IsraeliJews inside the Green Line;
 between Palestinians under the
Palestinian Authority and Jews;
 between orthodox Jews and secular Jews;

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Background - Schisms
 between
the ideological right and
the ideological left,
 between Sephardim and
Ashkenazim;
 between socialism and capitalism,
and
 between cities and kibbutzim
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Major Problems
 No
shared raison d'être
 Many schisms
 Not-so-friendly neighbours
 Terror
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Major Problems
 Shaky
economy
 Problematic election system that
brings about unstable Knesset and
corruption
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Major Problems
 Racism
 Culture
in which generals are heavily
involved in politics during and after
service
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Education
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Our greatest asset is education
But it is not in the government’s
priorities
20% cut in universities’ budget since
2001
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Universities
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Almost no new hiring
Israelis study in the finest universities
in the world, and then cannot find a
job in their home country
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The Declaration of
Independence
The Declaration of Independence holds that
Israel will foster the development of the
country for the benefit of all its
inhabitants; that it will be based on the
foundations of liberty, justice and peace;
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The Declaration of
Independence
that it will uphold complete equality of
social and political rights to all of its
citizens irrespective of religion, race or
sex, and that it will guarantee freedom of
religion, conscience, language, education
and culture.
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Important Remedies
• Need to strengthen the democratic
foundations
• Promote Democratic Culture
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Democratic Education
• At present there is no standard democracy
education In Israel.
• There is a great need to equip our youth
with understanding of democratic values
and principles.
• For years, the State of Israel has
neglected this subject.
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Democratic Education
• All that exists is citizenship education,
taught for two or three years, one hour per
week, in which only the formal procedures
and mechanisms are explained.
• The substantive issues of what does it
mean to live in a democracy are
neglected.
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Current Situation
 The
result is most unfortunate.
 The majority of people in Israel
take democracy for granted, fail to
understand the values of
democracy, or contest
democracy.
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Current Situation

Bearing in mind that twenty per cent of the
population are immigrants from the former
Soviet Union where no democracy existed, and
that large segments within Israeli society wish to
transform democracy into theocracy, or preach
one state for all Jews and Palestinians on the
western side of the Jordan River, which would
effectively mean the end of Israel as we know it,
make us realize how vulnerable Israeli
democracy is.
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Polls

Indeed, repeated public polls have
shown that some thirty percent of
Israeli citizenry wish to transform
democracy into "a government
based on strong hand", limit free
expression and freedom of the
press so as to have "better
control".
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To cheer you up…
Ufff…
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Center for Democratic Studies

http://cds.haifa.ac.il/
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Center for Democratic Studies
 The
aim of The Haifa Center
for Democratic Studies is to
promote awareness and
understanding of civic culture in
democracy.
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Center for Democratic Studies
 Recognizing
the growing need to
secure the foundations of
democracy and to facilitate
conditions for pluralism, the
Center establishes a national and
international forum for
deliberation and discussion.
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Center for Democratic Studies
 The
Center aims to increase public
awareness of liberal democratic
values: liberty, tolerance, justice,
equality and peace
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Center for Democratic Studies
 Focus
is on the role of ethics and
justice in all spheres of public life:
politics; economy; culture;
academy; business; law; media and
medicine.
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Center for Democratic Studies
 Strengthening
of active
participation in public life,
professional ethics, accountability
for one’s actions, multiculturalism,
diversity, and civic equality
http://cds.haifa.ac.il/
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Center for Democratic Studies
 The
Center also focuses attention
upon abuse of power and violation
of basic human rights. It
encourages open debate on the
vital importance of freedom of
expression, in its broad sense, in
democratic life.
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Center for Democratic Studies
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On this front the Center sees an urgent need for
education on all levels: primary schools, high
schools and universities.
Develop a broad curriculum of recent history
and civics, empowering civic education.
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Democratic Education
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Liberal Ideology:
Putting the Individual at the Center
John Locke: society, tolerance,
property, pursuit of happiness
John Stuart Mill: Harm Principle,
Truth principle
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Democratic Education
Liberal Ideology:
Emanuel Kant: Dignity, Respect for
Others, Perceiving People as Ends
Rather than Means
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Democratic Education
Rights:
Human Rights
Civic Rights
Social Rights
Health Rights
Minority Rights
Women Rights
Rights of Physically and Mentally Challenged
People
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Democratic Education
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Foundations:
Liberty
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Democratic Education
Basic Liberties:
Free Expression, including freedom to
demonstrate and to picket, free media,
artistic freedom, and academic freedom.
Free Assembly
Free Association
Freedom of Religion
Freedom from Religion
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Democratic Education
Foundations:
Tolerance
Peace
Equality
Justice
-- multiculturalism,
-- mutual understanding and diversity
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Mutliculturalism
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Studies of all religions that exist in
Israel should be made available.
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Democratic Education
Mechanisms:
Representation
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Active participation in public life
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Democratic Education
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The participatory mechanisms need to
be strengthened, otherwise the
decision-making process will be left in
the hands of partisan politicians whose
interests do not necessarily coincide
with the interests of the people.
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Democratic Education
Through participation and
representation:
-- professional ethics
-- accountability for one’s actions
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Democratic Education
Comparative Studies:
Learning from Experience of other
democracies:
The United Kingdom
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The United States
Germany
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Democratic Education
Weaknesses of the Democratic
Regime:
The Paradox of Tolerance
The Democratic Catch
The Tyranny of the Majority
The Tyranny of the Minority
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Conclusion
 Democracy
should be nurtured
and sustained through active
education and through
constant efforts on the part of
the citizenry who care for the
society in which they live.
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Conclusion
 Through
education, we
should invest our energies
to promote liberty,
tolerance, equality, justice,
peace and multiculturalism
in our troubled society.
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Thank you
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