Democracy, especially liberal democracy, is facing serious challenges in the world today as populism, xenophobic nationalism and illiberalism have gained strength around the world. Core principles and practices of liberal democracies such as a free press, an independent judiciary and the rights of minorities have come under sustained attack.
Like every country in the world, Israel is not immune from this global trend. And yet, democracy in Israel has its own distinctive history and trajectory as Israel aspires to be both Jewish and democratic — to be at once a Jewish state and a state that affords full rights to all its citizens.
On June 16, Yael Tamir, president of Beit-Berl College in Israel, will discuss the influence of identity politics on the state of democracy in both Israel and the United States.
Tamir is an adjunct professor at the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University. She was a deputy speaker of the Israeli Parliament (the Knesset) and served as Israel’s minister of immigration (1999–2001) and minister of education (2006–09) representing the Labor party.
The event, part of the Democracy in Israel series, is co-sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History and the UCLA Department of History.
