Sunday, March 26th from 12:15-2:15 EST time, 7:15pm-9:15pm ISR time, Zoom

Please join this timely virtual discussion, led by a panel of 6 prominent Israeli observers (5 academics and one journalist), and moderated by the Director of the Serling Institute for Jewish Studies and Modern Israel. Participants will discuss the threats to Israeli democracy, including threats to High Court judicial review; the inclusion of extremist politicians in the cabinet; the escalation of violence in the West Bank; trends in public opinion regarding Israel’s democracy; and the resistance movements rising to counter these developments, including mass protests. Israel’s situation will also be discussed in the global context of the weakening of democratic regimes and values in many parts of the world.

Yael Aronoff is the Director of the Serling Institute for Jewish Studies and Modern Israel and is the Serling Chair in Israel Studies at Michigan State University. She is also Professor of International Relations at James Madison College. Dr. Aronoff is the past President of the Association of Israel Studies. Dr. Aronoff’s book, The Political Psychology of Israeli Prime Ministers: When Hard Liners Opt for Peace, was published by Cambridge University Press (2014) and she co-edited a book with Dr. Ilan Peleg and Dr. Saliba Sarsar entitled, Continuity and Change in Political Culture: Israel and Beyond Lexington Books (2021). Other recent publications include “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” ed. P.R. Kumaraswamy, 2022; “The Zionist Center-Left Opposition to the Netanyahu Governments,” ed. Robert Freedman, 2019 and “Israeli Prime Ministers: Transforming the Victimhood Discourse,” ed. Ilan Peleg, 2019.

Galia Golan is Darwin Professor emerita of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she was chair of the Political Science Department. More recently, she was Head of the Program in Diplomacy and Conflict Studies at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya. She has published 10 single-authored books, most recently Israeli Peacemaking Since 1967: Factors for the Breakthroughs and Failures, and, with Walid Salem, Non-state Actors in the Middle East: Factors for Peace and Democracy. She also co-edited with Gilead Sher, Spoilers and Coping with Spoilers in the Israeli-Arab Conflict. She was awarded the 2019 Scholar/Activist Award at the International Studies Association Conference, and she is the recipient of the Israel Political Science Association 2007 Award for “Lifetime Contribution,” the International Studies Association “Distinguished Scholar” Award 2016, and the 1995 New Israel Fund “Alice Shalvi Women in Leadership” Award. She is a leading activist of Peace Now, Bat Shalom, and the International Women´s Commission for Palestinian-Israeli Peace.

Amos Harel (born 1968) is one of Israel’s leading media experts on military and defense issues. Harel is the senior defense correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Harel has covered Israeli security affairs for the last 23 years. He published three books: The Seventh War (2004) about the second Intifada and 34 Days about Israel’s second Lebanon War (2009) were both written with Avi Issacharoff and both received the prestigious Chechic award (handed by INSS, the institute for strategic studies in Tel-Aviv University). 34 Days has been translated to English. Harel’s latest book The New Face of the IDF was published in Hebrew in 2013.

Tamar Hermann is an Israeli political scientist who specializes in tracking and gauging public opinion, in particular regarding national issues and civil society. She is also an expert on grassroots politics, NGOs, and political civil activism and participation. Prof. Hermann is the Academic Director of the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute, Jerusalem, the Editor in Chief of the Open University Scholar Publishing House and the Co-editor and co-Founder of the new academic journal Kriot Israeliot” [Hebrew].Prof. Hermann received her BA, MA, and PhD in Political Science from Tel Aviv University. She was a MacArthur Postdoctoral Fellow for Peace and Security at Princeton University, where she subsequently returned to several times as a visiting professor. She was also a Research Fellow and a Visiting Research Fellow at George Mason University, USA; the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at Queen’s University in Belfast; the WZB Berlin; the Social Science Center, Pavia University; Italy and in the Science PO, Paris.

Joel S. Migdal is Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington, Visiting Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a Library Fellow at the Van Leer Institute. He was the founding chair of the University of Washington’s International Studies Program. Migdal was formerly associate professor of Government at Harvard University and senior lecturer at Tel-Aviv University. Among his books are Strong Societies and Weak States; State in Society; Through the Lens of Israel; The Palestinian People: A History (with Baruch Kimmerling); and Shifting Sands: The United States in the Middle East. He was awarded the University of Washington’s Distinguished Teaching Award and Graduate Mentor Award, as well as the Washington State Governor’s Writers Award. He is past president of the Association for Israel Studies.

Alon Tal’s career has been a balance between academia and public interest advocacy. Between 2021-2022 he was a member of Knesset on behalf of the Blue and White party and served as chair of the Knesset subcommittee for environmental and climate impact on health. Presently he is professor in the Department of Public Policy at Tel Aviv University. Tal has held faculty appointments at  Stanford, Ben Gurion, Hebrew, Michigan State, Stanford, Otago and Harvard Universities.  He has founded several environmental organizations including Adam Teva v’din, the Israel Union for Environmental Defense and the Arava Institute.  Tal has served as deputy chair of the international Jewish National Fund and co-chair of Zafuf, the Israel Forum for Population, Environment and Society.  Between 2010 and 2013 Tal served as chair of Israel’s green party – “the Green Movement”.

Mohammed Wattad is an Associate Professor, Dean of the Law School, and in 2022-2023 Vice President for Academic Affairs at Zefat Academic College. Besides, he is a Senior Researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel-Aviv University, a Research Fellow at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at Reichman University, and a Research Fellow at the Minerva Center for the Rule of Law under Extreme Conditions at Haifa University. From 2014-2016, he served as a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of California at Irvine, both at the Department of Political Science and the School of Law. Between 2003 and 2004, he served as a legal clerk at the Supreme Court of Israel under the supervision of Justice Dalia Dorner. He is the 2020 winner of the prestigious Zeltner Young Scholar Award.