Haim Cohn Chair in Human Rights - Report of May 2003

During the 2001-2003 report period I continued to teach, do research, and actively participate in related activities. Since January of 2001 I have been the Chair of the Academic Committee of the Human Rights Center at the Hebrew University. In 2003 we undertook a strategic thinking of the center, re-affirming its uniqueness as a center for integrated research on various aspects of human rights. In October 2003 I will be replaced in that role by Professor David Kretzmer, but will remain a member of the academic committee.

 

In September 2001 I was granted, with R. Medan, the Avichai prize for our work on a new covenant between religious and secular Jews in Israel. In May 2002 we won the prize of the Movement for Toleration for the same work. In September 2002 I won the Jerusalem Prize for Toleration for various activities, and in June 2003 I won the E.M.E.T prize in Law and Political Science.

 

In the framework of the Yahad group - A Public Committee, under the auspices of the President of Israel, to deal with Relations between religious and non-Religious in Israel – I worked on an attempt to enact an agreed-upon proposal dealing with the treatment of terminal patients. We are also seeking a negotiated appeal by religious leaders to promote transplants in Israel.

 

Starting in January 1999, I am chairing, together with Professor Harry Frankfurt from Princeton University, a joint project of Mishkenot sha-ananim and the Princeton Center for Human Values, on the relationships between Equality and Integration. The project is planned as a three-meeting, resulting in a volume of essays. The first meeting took place in Princeton in January 2001. A second meeting was planned for 2003 in Jerusalem, but we decided to postpone it to January 2004 in the hope that political conditions will permit it to be held here after all. The meeting will discuss the question when and how helping a disadvantaged group may help its integration and harmonious life within the larger society. The group includes top experts in their fields from Israel and the US.

 

 In June 2003 I stopped being a senior fellow of the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), The proceedings of the discussions among Jews and Arabs held there will soon be published in the IDI site. A book about the process is written by journalist Uzi Ben Ziman. The discussions were candid and original, and all participants were impressed by their seriousness. Unfortunately, the group could not have come to an agreement. Arab participants could not affirm the legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish state, and most Jewish participants felt they could not reach a constitutional-like agreement without such an affirmation.

I continue to participate in the IDI’s public Council,. Devoted to a promotion of constitutional discourse in Israel. The Council, chaired by retired Supreme Court Justice Meir Shamgar has met twelve times, and discussed the whole range of constitutional issues. I contributed a paper on the Bill of Rights, another on whether social and economic rights should be constitutionalized. And a third on the structure of the judicial authority.

 

During the academic year 2001-2002 I led a project on Modern Jewish Identities in Bar-Ilan University’s program on Jewish identities. An interdisciplinary group of scholars discussed ways to teach and impart dimensions of Judaism as a civilization, combining religious and non religious approaches of various types.

 

In February 2003, the proposed joint covenant between Jews in Israel was published jointly by Avichai and the IDI, and at this stage a program to help initiate the proposals and generate a public discussion and support is underway.

 

 

Conferences and Panels

 

During this period I have participated in a number of conferences and panels devoted to related subjects:

 

September 10-14, meeting, International Commission of Jurists, Geneva.

October 3, 2001: Panel discussion of the Gavison-Medan proposals, Ef-al Seminar

November 1-2, IDI Public Council, Beer Shebba, Judicial review

November 19, 2001: Panel, Prospects for the Jewish People, TLV

December 4^th, 2001: Nafka Mina, Jerusalem, Gavison-Medan proposals

December 19^th, 2001: Forum for national responsibility, Judicial Activism

December 20-21, IDI Public Council, Haifa, A Preamble to the constitution?

December 23, 2001: Panel, The federalist papers, Jerusalem

December 27^th, 2001: Yahad Council, transplants

 

January 2^nd, 2002: Lexcture, Democracy and human rights, teachers, minerva

January 3^rd, 2002: Honorary award, Yale Israel alumni, TLV

January 15^th, 2002: Panel, Kimmerling’s book The End of Hegemony, Van Leer

January 21^st, 2002: Lecture, Relevance of Israel to Modern Jewish Identities, international conference, TLV

January 29^th, 2002: Haifa Council, Gavison-Medan proposals

 

February 3^rd, 2002: Panel, Roundtable, center of Rationality: Rationality in the SS.

February 5^th, 2002: Lecture, human rights and education, Hilton, Jerusalem

February 28, 2002: Lecture, human rights in emergency, IDF legal officers

 

March 13, 2002: Zionism, Democracy and the nation-state

March 26^th: 2002: Presenting the Guttman report to the President

 

April 10^th, 2002: Funeral, Haim H. Cohn

April 14^th, 2002, Wexner Foundation: Jewish and Democratic state

April 22^nd, 2002: Kiryat Gat, Teachers’ pilot: State and religion

April 26^th, 2002: Conference: Freedom of expression and religious feelings

 

May 13^th, 2002: Bar Ilan, Panel: Secular Jewish Identities

May 21^st, 2002: Conference on the Legal Status of Arabs in Israel: A Jewish state vs. a state of all its citizens

May 23rd, 2002: ACRI, Human Rights and Politics

May 30^th, 2002: Talk: Grass roots Activity in Israel

 

June 11^th, 2002: President’s house, Toleration Award with R. Medan

June 13-15, 2002: Conference, Spain: comparative constitutionalism

 

July 7^th, 2002: Jewishness and Democracy in Foreign Affairs, Conference for the foreign ministry

July 15, 2002: Meeting of Yahad group to discuss transplants.

July 24, 2002: Talk with MADA, Haifa, a Research Arab group, about visions of Jewish-Arab relations in Israel.

July 25, 2002: Talk to the Northern Public Council of the IDI on Issues of State and religion.

 

September 2, 2002: Jerusalem Toleration Prize

September 27, 2002:IDF broadcasting, Interview with Yitzhak Livni on Gavison-Medan

 

October 3-4, 2002: IDI public Council, Social Justice

October 9^th, 2002: JF board meeting, NY: New challenges for israel

October 13^th, 2002: Inauguration of HUC President, Cincinnati: Israel and Modern Jewish Identities

October 22^nd, 2002: Minerva center for Human Rights, Panel: Rights to Language for Arabs in Israel? Mishkenot sha-ananim, Jerusalem

October 27^th, 2002: Talk in Memory of Yoram Ben Porat: Tensions between Jewishness and Democracy and the Role of Academics

 

November 18-19, 2002: International Conference, The federalist Papers. Panel: Israel’s constitutional process

 

December 10, 2002: Abraham Foundation: Jewish-Arab relations today.

December 20^th, 2002: Jewish and democratic state, maale hahamisha

December 29^th, 2002: Talk, Award for excellence in Education, The Knesset

December 30^th, 2002: Mandel Jerusalem fellows, The Jewishness of Israel

December 30^th, 2002: Panel, International conference on human rights and terror, TLV

 

January 28^th, 2003: NIF international board: Jewish-Arab relations, Mishkenot

January 29^th, 2003: Lecture, MMRI, The Justification of a Jewish state

 

February 4^th, 2003: Panel, Arab students in Gilo Center, Status of Arabs in Israel.

February 5^th, 2003: Eilat, a Bill of Rights for Israel

February 12^th, 2003: Jewish Agency Forum, The Gavison-Medan covenant

February 21^st, 2003: Seminar, Zionism and the Palestinian refugees

 

March 3^rd, 2003: Lecture, GSS meeting, The Jewishness of the state

March 25^th, 2003: Lecture, Israel Academy of Science: The New Human Rights Discourse

 

April 2^nd, 2003: The Truman Forum: Status of Arabs in Israel: Collective and Individual Rights

April 3^rd, 2003: Lecture, lawyers and Judges, Gavison-Medan covenant

April 3^rd, 2003: Friends of the HU: Panel: Jewish identities

April 9-11, 2003: A Conference in memory of Haim H. Cohn. Lecture: Secular Jewish Identity

 

May 9^th, 2003: Van Leer, Panel: Israeli Society and the book by Peled and Shafir

May 14^th, 2003: Mute Court, Interdisciplinary center at Herzliya, Legitimacy of Profiling in Airports.

May 21^st: 2003: Talk, Naming of the Mandel Center for Jewish Studies, HU

May 22^nd, 2003: Conference on Prisoners’ rights in memory of Haim H. Cohn. Comment.

May 22^nd, 2003: Keshet School, the Gavison-Medan proposals

 

June 11^th, 2003: Panel, Minerva, HU: Banning of Parties in a democracy

June 17^th, 2003: IDI, The Gavison-Medan Covenant

June 19^th, 2003, IDI Public Council: The Judicial Power

June 21^st, 2003: Meeting of Mayors and heads of local councils – Gavison-Medan proposals, Jerusalem

 

July 1^st, 2003: Board of directors, Melton Center for Jewish Education, Jewish Solidarity Today

 

 

Media

 

Throughout this period, I expressed views on related subjects in the Israeli media. I publish regularly on these issues in the national press (mainly in Yediot Aharonot), and I am a frequent speaker on radio and national TV.

 

 

Teaching

 

In 2000-2001 I started teaching a mandatory course for the LLM called ‘Law and…’, which I continue to teach until now.

 

When I returned to teaching in 2002-2003 I added a master’s course within the Gilo center Devoted to Human Rights in Israel. I will continue to teach both courses in 2003-2004.

In addition I will give a seminar on The Law of Return and the Palestinian Right of Return.

 

 

Recent Publications

Books:

1.      The Constitutional Revolution: A Reality or a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy? 1998 (Hebrew).

2.      Israel: A Jewish and Democratic State, Van Leer and Hakibbutz Hameuhad, 1999 (Hebrew).

3.      (With M. Kremnitzer and Y. Dotan), The Role of The Supreme Court in Israeli Society, Magnes Press, 2000 (Hebrew).

4.      (With D. hacker, eds.) The Jewish-Arab Rift: A Reader (IDI 2000) (Heb)

 

Articles:

5.       Holmes’ Heritage: Living Greatly in the Law ," B.U.L.Rev. 78, pp. 843-883, 1998.

6.      “A Constitutional Revolution?” in Gambaro A., Rabello A.M. (eds.) Toward a New European Ius Commune, Jerusalem, 1998.

7.      (With Issam Abu-Riya), “The Jewish-Arab Cleavage in Israel: Characteristics and Challenges,” IDI, 1999 (Hebrew).

8.       “The Role of Courts in Rifted Democracies”, 33 Isr. L.Rev. 216-258 1999  

9.      “Jewish and Democratic: A rejoinder to the Ethnic Democracy Debate”, Israel Studies 4(1) 1999 44-72 

10.  “Can Separate Be Equal: A test Case”, Democratic Culture, 3 (2000), 37. 

11.  “Zionism in Israel? A Comment on Kaadan”, forthcoming, (2001) Mishpat u-Mimshal (Heb). 

12.  Residential Segregation as an Element in Discrimination: The US Experience, (2001) Iyunei Mishpat (Hebrew). 

13.  What belongs in a Constitution? (2001) 

14.  (with Allan Shapiro), Introduction to the Hebrew Translation of The Federalist (2001) (Heb).

Notes:

HAIM COHN CHAIR IN HUMAN RIGHTS established in 1984 by a Group of Friends, Israel