Israel's Constitutional Moment?

By Lazar Berman

“The fight over judicial reform in Israel could, potentially, bring about progress in a positive direction — if the battle over the role and powers of Israel’s branches of government were to finally bring about a long-delayed pillar of democracy: a written constitution…

“If Israel’s decision-makers do decide that the current plight is actually a historic opportunity, then there is much to learn from the oldest written and codified national framework document still in force today — the 1789 United States Constitution.

"Even before Israel was born, a constitution was meant to be one of the first tasks undertaken by the fledgling state. The 1947 UN Partition Plan explicitly called for the Jewish and Arab states in Palestine to draft democratic constitutions...

“There have been abortive attempts to create a written constitution — most notably a 2007 Israel Democracy Institute draft spearheaded by former chief justice Meir Shamgar — but none gained purchase…

“When the United States found itself in its own political crisis in its first years — as the new states pushed wildly differing views on the proper structure and authority of the national government — it took a constitution to set the country on firm footing and bring the sides to difficult compromises…

“Protest leader Shikma Bressler tweeted in April, “A constitution. There is nothing more pressing these days.”

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Empowering the next generation of American, Israeli, and Palestinian change-makers to embrace better, together.

אנחנו מכנסים הוגים מובילים, פעילים חברתיים, ומחוללי שינוי לעתיד, אמריקאים, ישראלים ופלסטינאים, המחויבים לשיפור החברות שלהם.

نحن أمريكيون وإسرائيليون وفلسطينيون نبني ونكوّن روابط من أجل التعلم والتفكير والمشاركة معًا حتى نشجع الحلول التقدمية بشأن القضايا التي تهمنا جميعًا.