Courts, Politics, and Culture in Israel


Book Description

Moreover, Israel lacks the organizing structure and directing force provided by a written constitution.




Law and the Culture of Israel


Book Description

For half a century a fierce struggle to shape Israeli culture has been waged in its legal system. Should Israel be a secular, liberal state, or governed by traditional Jewish law and culture? In this book Menachem Mautner tells the fascinating story of the political struggles to control Israeli law, and through it the culture of Israel itself.




The Oxford Handbook of Israeli Politics and Society


Book Description

"Few countries receive as much attention as Israel and are at the same time as misunderstood. The Oxford Handbook of Israeli Politics and Society brings together leading Israeli and international figures to offer the most wide-ranging treatment available of an intriguing country. It serves as a comprehensive reference for the growing field of Israel studies and is also a significant resource for students and scholars of comparative politics, recognizing that in many ways Israel is not unique, but rather a test case of democracy in deeply divided societies and states engaged in intense conflict. The handbook presents an overview of the historical development of Israeli democracy through chapters examining the country's history, contemporary society, political institutions, international relations, and most pressing political issues. It outlines the most relevant developments over time while not shying away from the strife both in and around Israel. It presents opposed narratives in full force, enabling readers to make their own judgments"--




Palestine, Israel, and the Politics of Popular Culture


Book Description

This important volume rethinks the conventional parameters of Middle East studies through attention to popular cultural forms, producers, and communities of consumers. The volume has a broad historical scope, ranging from the late Ottoman period to the second Palestinian uprising, with a focus on cultural forms and processes in Israel, Palestine, and the refugee camps of the Arab Middle East. The contributors consider how Palestinian and Israeli popular culture influences and is influenced by political, economic, social, and historical processes in the region. At the same time, they follow the circulation of Palestinian and Israeli cultural commodities and imaginations across borders and checkpoints and within the global marketplace. The volume is interdisciplinary, including the work of anthropologists, historians, sociologists, political scientists, ethnomusicologists, and Americanist and literary studies scholars. Contributors examine popular music of the Palestinian resistance, ethno-racial “passing” in Israeli cinema, Arab-Jewish rock, Euro-Israeli tourism to the Arab Middle East, Internet communities in the Palestinian diaspora, café culture in early-twentieth-century Jerusalem, and more. Together, they suggest new ways of conceptualizing Palestinian and Israeli political culture. Contributors. Livia Alexander, Carol Bardenstein, Elliott Colla, Amy Horowitz, Laleh Khalili, Mary Layoun, Mark LeVine, Joseph Massad, Melani McAlister, Ilan Pappé, Rebecca L. Stein, Ted Swedenburg, Salim Tamari




Land Law and Policy in Israel


Book Description

As one of the smallest and most densely populated countries in the world, the State of Israel faces serious land policy challenges and has a national identity laced with enormous internal contradictions. In Land Law and Policy in Israel, Haim Sandberg contends that if you really want to know the identity of a state, learn its land law and land policies. Sandberg argues that Israel's identity can best be understood by deciphering the code that lies in the Hebrew secret of Israeli dry land law. According to Sandberg, by examining the complex facets of property law and land policy, one finds a unique prism for comprehending Israel's most pronounced identity problems. Land Law and Policy in Israel explores how Israel's modern land system tries to bridge the gaps between past heritage and present needs, nationalization and privatization, bureaucracy and innovation, Jewish majority and non-Jewish minority, legislative creativity and judicial activism. The regulation of property and the determination of land usage have been the consequences of explicit choices made in the context of competing and evolving concepts of national identity. Land Law and Policy in Israel will prove to be a must-read not only for anyone interested in Israel but also for anyone who wants to understand the importance of land law in a nation's life.




The Israeli Supreme Court and the Human Rights Revolution


Book Description

This book explains the reciprocal relations between the Supreme Court and the Israeli political system. It is based on a unique approach that contends that the non-governability of the political system and an alternative political culture are two key formal and informal variables affecting the behavior of several political players within the Israeli arena. The analysis illustrates the usefulness of such a model for analyzing long-term socio-political processes and explaining the actions of the players. Until this model changes significantly, the decisions of the High Court of Justice express the values of the state and enable Israel to remain a nation that upholds human rights. The Court's decisions determine the normative educational direction and reflect Israel's democratic character with regard to the values of human rights.




Marriage and Divorce in the Jewish State


Book Description

A comprehensive look at how rabbinical courts control Israeli marriage and divorce




The Handbook of Israel's Political System


Book Description

There is growing interest in Israel's political system from all parts of the world. This Handbook provides a unique comprehensive presentation of political life in Israel from the formative pre-state period to the present. The themes covered include: political heritage and the unresolved issues that have been left to fester; the institutional framework (the Knesset, government, judiciary, presidency, the state comptroller and commissions of inquiry); citizens' political participation (elections, political parties, civil society and the media); the four issues that have bedevilled Israeli democracy since its establishment (security, state and religion, the status of Israel's Arab citizens and economic inequities with concomitant social gaps); and the contours of the political culture and its impact on Israel's democracy. The authors skilfully integrate detailed basic data with an analysis of structures and processes, making the Handbook accessible to both experts and those with a general interest in Israel.




Outlawed Pigs


Book Description

The prohibition against pigs is one of the most powerful symbols of Jewish culture and collective memory. Outlawed Pigs explores how the historical sensitivity of Jews to the pig prohibition was incorporated into Israeli law and culture. Daphne Barak-Erez specifically traces the course of two laws, one that authorized municipalities to ban the possession and trading in pork within their jurisdiction and another law that forbids pig breeding throughout Israel, except for areas populated mainly by Christians. Her analysis offers a comprehensive, decade-by-decade discussion of the overall relationship between law and culture since the inception of the Israeli nation-state. By examining ever-fluctuating Israeli popular opinion on Israel's two laws outlawing the trade and possession of pigs, Barak-Erez finds an interesting and accessible way to explore the complex interplay of law, religion, and culture in modern Israel, and more specifically a microcosm for the larger question of which lies more at the foundation of Israeli state law: religion or cultural tradition.




The Jewish Political Tradition


Book Description

"This book launches a landmark four-volume collaborative work exploring the political thought of the Jewish people from biblical times to the present. The texts and commentaries in Volume I address the basic question of who ought to rule the community."--Descripción del editor.




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