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Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

Israeli Security, Regional Diplomacy, and International Law

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Author: Alek Epstein

Alek D. Epstein is a Russian-Israeli sociologist, political scientist and publicist. He has authored seventeen books and more than 150 research articles, which have been published in seven languages
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY AND CIVIL RIGHTS: JERUSALEM’S ACADEMIC COMMUNITY IN THE ERA OF STATE-BUILDING

DEFENDING DEMOCRACY AND CIVIL RIGHTS: JERUSALEM’S ACADEMIC COMMUNITY IN THE ERA OF STATE-BUILDING

April 30, 2001 | Alek Epstein
This essay focuses on a comparative analysis of the contribution of Jerusalem's academic community to the emergence of a civil society during the formative years of Israeli state-building. Although many of the prominent scholars were not only active participants in the Zionist movement, but after their emigration to Palestine became personally dependent on the political success of the Zionist project, their loyalty to the political leadership of the Yishuv and the state was limited by their sense of truth and justice. In what was, at the time, a very etatist society, Israeli scholars maintained the principles of political freedom, and contributed a great deal to the advancement of the ideals of civil rights (especially with respect to recognition of the personal and collective rights of the Arab minority), and to the development of a critically-oriented public)