On June 16, Israeli scholar and former cabinet minister Yael Tamir discussed the influence of identity politics on the state of democracy in both Israel and the United States.
Israeli scholar and former politician Yael "Yuli" Tamir spoke on the influence of identity politics on the state of democracy in both Israel and the United States. In addition, Professor Tamir weighed in on the new government Israel led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and offered insights on her time in the Knesset. She also offered an assessment of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his policies.
The lecture was the third and final installment of our 2021 "Democracy in Israel: Past, Present, and Future" Series. Recorded June 16, 2021.
UCLA Professor David N. Myers, who holds the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History, served as moderator and led Q&A. He also serves as the director of the Luskin Center for History and Policy. The webinar commenced with welcome remarks from Professor Dov Waxman, director of the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies.
Co-sponsored by the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History and the UCLA Department of History.
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, and “illiberal democracies” have emerged in many places.
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. This lecture series, featuring some prominent Israeli scholars and public intellectuals, is devoted to exploring “The State of Democracy in Israel: Past, Present, and Future.”
Yael "Yuli" Tamir is the President of Beit-Berl College and 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 (2006-2009) representing the Labor party.
Tamir received her BA and MA from the Hebrew University and her Ph.D. in political philosophy from Oxford University where she worked under the supervision of Sir Isaiah Berlin. She was a professor at Tel Aviv University and a visiting professor and a scholar-in-residence at Princeton, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, New York University, the Central European University in Budapest and the European University in Florence.
Tamir is the author of Why Nationalism (2019) and Liberal-Nationalism (1999), as well as numerous articles in the fields of moral and political philosophy, philosophy of education, feminism and human rights. She was a founding member of the Israeli peace movement “Peace Now” and has served as the chairperson of the Israeli Association of Civil Rights.
DISCLAIMER: The views or opinions of our guest speakers and the content of their presentations do not necessarily reflect the views of the UCLA Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. Hosting speakers does not constitute an endorsement of the speaker's views or opinions.
Israeli Democracy: Historical Origins and Future Perspectives
Democracy in Israel: Past, Present and Future